[Testimonies given in Vilnius by Jewish refugees from German occupied Poland: Statement No 107]

Testimony of L. B-ca., 38 year old social worker from Lodz. She describes the entry of the Germans into Lodz, and the evacuation of men, Jewish and Christian, of military age, preceding it. The local German ethnic population greeted the German army with joy, and the Jews avoided them, and generally avoided the streets for fear of persecutions. The commandant of the city called to him the two rabbis and after they were beaten they were brought into the synagogue and ordered to burn the Torah scrolls. They refused and were beaten again, their beards torn. The Germans issued orders forbidding prayer on the Jewish New Year and Yom Kippur, and said they would shoot anyone who was caught praying in the synagogues or in private. Kidnapping men and women for forced labor became a common occurrence almost every time a Jew ventured into the streets. The Germans instituted a rule that forbade Jewish bakeries to bake bread, forcing the Jews to line in front of Polish bakeries and exposing them to anti-Semitic attacks. They likewise ordered Jews to wear a yellow patch. Jews were evicted from their apartments. Jews were deported from the border-towns in the Lodz area, as well as from the town of Kalisz, where over 13,000 Jews lived, and Jews and Poles both were deported from Konin. Eventually the Jews of Lodz were also facing eviction in order to clear the city of Jews. The author left Lodz by train on December 20. Protocol No. 107 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.