Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1940-10-13

ldnd"-ds distinguished from the
parts OF the country actually an
nered by Germany and RuSsia.)
BY ALVIN ]. STEINKOPF.
WARSAW, Oct. IL R.-A year
after the German conquest, Warsaw
still looks like an untidy brickyard.
Building stones lie heller skelter
in the great city which was once the
capital of independent Poland.
Great open spaces yawn where
once stood apartment houses, shops
and stately government buildings.
There is ruin everywhere; houses
without roofs, houses without WIN
dows, houses that now are but few
blackened walls.
Warsaw had $4,000 buildings. Two
thousand were destroyed, 5000 ex-
tensively damaged.
The old Central Railway Station
is gone. German Stukas hammered
it to pieces. The debris has been
hauled away, and where the station
stood there Is vast vacant space,
without even a pebble on its smooth
surface and big enough for a foot
ball field.
Jews Must Wear Tags.
To the rear is what Is left OF the
new Central Station, which burned
shortly before the war. Improvlsed
boarding makes sort of barn
where Polish trains, under German
management, come in exactly on
time.
The Ministry of Agriculture is
gone-Stukas.
The Ministry of Post and Com
munications is gone-again, Stukas.
Beside it, the Post Office stands,
barely scratched, and a block-long
line of people waits before it, try
ing to mail letters abroad. Foreign
mail must be handed in personally.
The Opera House is as good as
gone; a bomb smashed the roof and
fire Quilted the interior.
The Jews walk down the streets
in white and blue arm bands.
These are their tags of identiflca-
ton. and every one of them must
wear them on their right sleeves.
There are many Jews.
New Wall Around Ghetto.
| There is new concrete wall
around the Ghetto, which lies in
the central district.
The Germans say the wall, which
is unique in modern times, is not
anti-Semitic, but simply a desperate
health measure necessary to protect
Pole and Jew alike from the pesti-
lences which are likely to follow IN
the wake of total war.
! Jews can and do use any other
street in Warsaw. I met two In
the waiting room of Warsaw's chief
sanitary officer. a German. This
used to be the foreign Office OF Col
Joseph Beck, Polands Foreign Min
lister.
The wall is feet high and so
tight cat couldn't get through It..
1t surrounds the central district
Ghetto comprising a hundred or
more city blocks into which the pop
ulation is crowded with astonishing
density, and closes off 200 streets
and even streetcar lines-it is built
right over their rails.
Is Streets Cut Through.
The wall was built by German
occupation authorities, but condi-
lions in the Ghetto which the Ger
man officials are trying to cut on
from the rest of the population are
declared to have existed long before
| the German army marched in a
year ago.
Eighteen streets, the most impor-
| tant traffic lanes, remain unob-
structed Hence one may enter and
leave the Ghetto at Is points and
it is possible on through streets to
traverse the whole region without
being aware of confinement on
either side.
The restraining walls are of COM
parative little hindrance in normal
times. But at a moments notice
the authorities, by posting 10 po-
licemen at the points of entry, can
close off the entire district. 1t is
also possible to cut off access to
two or three streets, or to larger
part of the Ghetto, by stationing
guards at house doors and street
corners inside the district.
Inside this walled area live half
million Jews and Poles. Many
have lived their whole lives in this
sharply delimited region. Within
are their homes, businesses, schools
and synagogues:
Wall Against Typhus."
'It is not wall against the Jews"
I was told by DR.. Jost Wallbaum,
eminent Berlin physician who is
health leader minister of Health
in any other country of the gen.
eral government of Poland. Its
wall against typhus."
Several months ago, 10000 of the
districts population were quaran-
tined by part of the wall and by
guards for IA days.
Authorities said the 10000 became
infested with typhus-spreading lice
and they were kept isolated until
gas, brought from Germany, could
be used to fumigate their homes.
There are SO cases of typhus in
Warsaw today, a number which
would cause alarm in any American
city but which is not regarded as
extraordinary in Warsaw under
present conditions. Typhus is a
disease which abounds in the win
ter months and the German au-
thorities are concerned lest there
be an upward trend through the
autumn. If there is they won't
hesitate a moment to wall the
Ghetto and pen up half million
people while they fight the dis
ease.
And it won't be prosecution of
the Jews" DR.. Wallbaum said. ut
could be a. national, even a Euro
pean, catastrophe to let a situation
like this get out of hand, and when
it comes to communicable disease
III lock up any possible spreader of
contagion be he Jew, gentle, prince
| or pauQerN