Robberies, beatings, cutting off beards and earlocks in public became commonplace. German soldiers frequently assaulted citizens of Jewish origin. Jews were banned from travelling by rail, entering parks or restaurants.
The occupant forbade collective prayers, synagogues were closed. Restrictions of liberties increased month by month. From Decemall people of Jewish origin were obliged to wear armbands with the Star of David on their right arm. It was part of a broader spectrum of the Nazi propaganda, which rested on a widespread anti-Semitic campaign, in order to give legitimacy to the new administration’s attitude towards Jews Īlready in the first weeks of the Nazi occupation decrees were issued on blocking Jewish bank accounts and savings (October 1939) and banning ritual slaughter compulsory labour for people aged between 14 and 60 years was introduced.
According to the official line of argument Jews were being isolated in order to protect Poles, among other things from those who spread contagious diseases, especially typhoid fever, which was allegedly rife amongst the Jewish population. Already towards the end of the first month of the war Heydrich issued a command to concentrate all members of Jewish communities in larger towns connected by railway lines, and subsequently to separate them from the “Aryan” population. The fence was introduced under the instruction of the SS Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich. The occupier began to concentrate Jews in the assigned city quarters.Īlready in November 1939 the north-western quarter, inhabited predominantly by the Jews, was being surrounded by a barbed wire fence with signboards warning: “Plague zone, no entry for soldiers”. On Octothe Jewish kehilla was transformed into the Judenrat (the Jewish Council), which consisted of 24 members and was headed by Adam Czerniakow, the kehilla’s chairman. The Governor’s official decree was preceded by a series of repressions against the Jewish population, under way since the German Army occupied the city in September 1939. The decree was announced through street megaphones. On October 12, 1940, during the holy day of Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement), Ludwig Fischer, Governor of the Warsaw District, signed a decree on the establishment of a ghetto in Warsaw.
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