The Germans in Lodz - Bulletin No. 5

This bulletin was intended to publish the work of the Committee for collecting material about the destruction of the Jews in Poland, describing the German occupation of Lodz. The bulletin surveys such topics as forced conscript labor, to which the Jews were forced by the German occupying forces, and which resulted in wounds and casualties, disruption of the management and leadership of the Jewish community, and the installment of yellow star. The bulletin details the looting of Jewish businesses and seizure of property, as well as the financial restrictions on buying and selling to non-Jews imposed on the Jews of the city. The Germans instituted a curfew for the Jews of Lodz, and forced them out of their apartments and houses into a designated area where they were permitted to reside. Rich apartments were confiscated outright and given to Germans. The bulletin mentions arrests of important residents, closure of synagogues and prohibitions on religious Jewish practice including arrest and execution of rabbis, shaving of sidelocks and prohibition of public worship. They detail also several cases of summary executions and mass-deportations. Bulletin No. 5 is an extract from a volume of protocols /statements provided by a group of Polish-Jewish refugee writers and journalists who fled to Vilnius, Lithuania. In 1939 they formed a committee to collect evidence on the condition of the Jews in Poland under Nazi occupation.