Evening star., 1940-08-08

a day, if man paid no rent, needed
no clothes and did not get sick. In
the spring, a new law limited with
drawals to 25 zlotys a week, and
that was what it was when I left
home.
All winter long, people-some so
shocked with terror that they never
for an instant could stop looking
over their shoulders-came into
Warsaw from German-occupied
Poland with stories that wrung the
heart. They are such stories as
cattle might tell, If they could talk,
on their escape from or rejection by
a slaughter house. There were re-
fugees from Russian-occupied Po-
land, too. Their stories were not of
systematic and orderly horror, but
of exactly the opposite. The Boil
sheviks were good and correct where
they ruled, but their rule was not
efficient enough to protect any one
from his neighbor.
I shall not repeat these stories,
although I believe them. I want
to tell only what I saw myself so
that no one can contradict me. I
have an uncle in Gdynia who spent
100000 building home for himself.
He arrived in Warsaw with one
handbag for his entire family and
few pennies left over from the
so zlotys he had been permitted to
take. He said the Nazi Civil Admin
istration had sold his house to
German and had given him two
hours to leave.
Hostages Taken.
Another uncle in Lodz also had
the misfortune to be prominent.
When the army left, the Civil Ad-
ministration took hostages among
the prominent citizens and said
they would kill 10 for each of their
men killed in disorders. His turn
to be killed did not arrive before
midwinter and by then he was dead
of pneumonia. The Nazis said 1t
was pneumonia and no doubt this
was true because, while he was a
rugged man, they had taken him
out of his house in the light, sum-
mer clothing he was wearing and
had not permitted any communica-
ton with him since. My aunt, his
wife. went to view his body and
found 1t covered with a sheet, so
she cannot say whether the Ger
mans provided him with heavier
clothing or not. From what I saw
I would say not.
The whole Szucha avenue in War
saw a street about 10 blocks long
filled with fine dwellings where Po-
lish dignitaries lived, was emptied
in five hours to make room for Nazi
dignitaries and their families. The
residents were permitted to take
nothing with them except the
clothes they wore. The army had no
hand in this kind of thing in War
saw. A few officers were quartered
with Polish families, but the major
ity of officers and soldiers remained
in public buildings or abandoned
factories.
A large part Of the German Army
marched out of Warsaw at the end
of November when the Black Shirts
and Brown Shirts arrived in
quantity. I don't know how many
soldiers there were, but the march,
ing lasted all day long for seven con-
secutive days, and at the end Ger
man soldiers could be seen every
where.
Skull and Bones Gestapo.
In April came the third and worst
agency of Hitler's will-the Gestapo,
wearing the skull and crossbones on
their hatbands and sleeves, carrying
a submachine gun of the type fami-
liar to patrons of gangster movies.
Their work was to Gull the popula-
ton of Poland for slaves to be used
by German masters.
We in Warsaw had already had
some preliminary taste of the slav-
cry that awaited us, but, of course,
we could not believe it. The Jews
had been the first to suffer. They
had been pressed into gangs for
menial and manual labor. Well, we
thought, the Jews-the Hitler gov
ernment has been waging war Of
determination against them since
1888.
All Polish soldiers had been cap
tured and taken to Germany to
work. Well, we felt-after all, pris-
oners of war, it is hard, but it is
understandable. Then the Germans,
to clear the streets of the debris of
the bombings, had ganged up on
all passers-by in that section and
had put them to work. This, too,
was hard on a population where
nobody moved except to find food
for himself and family or to get
doctor or go on some emergency
errand. But hard as it was, it was
understandable. After all, the work