the authorities desire. He has become their organ of implementation. He has
created his own Sonderpolizei⁵¹⁴, a special police force intended as a kind of
Jewish S.D. It consists of 60 men, of whom 20 are in reserve. Their task is
to search for hidden property, which is then confiscated by the Old Man.
If the policemen in the Sonderpolizei are asked: “How can you do such a job?”
[3] they reply: “After all, it’s better that we come, rather than the Kripo (the
notorious Kriminalpolizei). We don’t beat people, just do our job as ordered.
We don’t do anything on our own initiative.” While the Sonderpolizei consists
of 60 men, of whom 40 are on active service, they have a list of informers
with as many as 120 names. The existence of informers is a terror for the
ghetto. Even the Kripo has its Jewish informers. The Old Man buys himself
informers for a little food. And it is a little food which plays the most
important role in the ghetto. There have been cases in respectable families
where mothers and children have literally fought over a piece of bread. People
have been reduced to the condition of animals. And yet, there are no dead
bodies in the streets.
The ghetto Jews are dying out (more than 200 a day), but they are dying
in their homes. Epidemics of dysentery, tuberculosis and typhus have claimed
very many victims. Children are dying out altogether; there is nothing to
put in their mouths. The fall in the standard of living has led to equality
with regard to food supplies. There were times when the food situation was
not bad. People gradually got used to not eating. Those who were previously
heavy eaters died straight away; others are holding on. People have become
shadows. Nevertheless, people are alive and want to keep on living, even on
the verge of extinction.
News of the political and military situation is spreading, as in Warsaw,
which means that people are receiving information directly. The schools of
which the Old Man boasted are closed.⁵¹⁵ There exist two preventoria and
some other institutions. The Old Man controls everything and everyone. No
one can be employed without his agreement. There have been cases in which
he went to workshops and asked the workers who had hired them. If anyone
514 See doc. 35, footnote 434.
515 The schools were closed in the autumn of 1941, before Jews from Western Europe were deported to the ghetto. The school buildings were used for lodgings and teachers were sent to work at the reception of new arrivals.
