GESTAPO IN CHARGE

Evening Post, Volume CXXIX, Issue 19, 23 January 1940, Page 14

GESTAPO IN CHARGE

TERRORISM IN POiiAND*

According to reports - reaching .sitaly j from Warsaw the Gestapo has gradu- j ally replaced the. military ..authorities in Poland, and order is mainiained only by taking hostages. In..the capital alone 2000 prominent peoplevai-eiJh'eld in custody,., reports the Rome* correspondent of the : London "ibaily graph."- '■' ■ ■ ■ '■•■' : " ]'■?' German is imposed as theI«official language and Germans are in,.charge of all municipal offices arid services. The subordinate Polish ' staffs " ; have been reduced, by 80 per cent: ..^ v _.Any employee who does'not.: swear allegiance to Hitler is dismissed. s.alaries of those retained.as able, such,as^.bank , managers <,and.lflccbuhtants, cannot exceed *ab6ut L?.?£ 25 a months"' ■?''':.>'■"■■'-"■ ' '■' -■-■:_;/*;•.<;.; ■_•?.'> Meanwhile .all -raw,-•materials^;and useful machinery' are "being systematically sent' to Germanyi indusirlat'Sictivity is to be replaced by agricultural production. . The ■few;...vittddjsirial concerns still working. have s<>been transformed, their names changed "and their direction entrusted to Germans. The Starachowice. works are nowsthe Hermann Goering Werke, Ywhile.yy; the large electrification plants in Central Poland known as Zeork, and pother industrial plants, have been ( similarly transformed.,' .'.O ...i '.'.'.".' '.."-;-■: ;MANY.:'ARRESTED..y H;_ > ' . All. •unemployed. able-bodied; i^men are deported to Germany, while;.their families are left in Poland and; given food rations. The poor afe-i fed: by public relief. ■.■,•'* Priests, journalists, prominent land owners, and members of the aristocracy have been arrested. ■ ■. ; ■/;•.-.. All professional activity is forbidden, with the exception of medicine; doctors are allowed to practise, but only.!under German control. All officers have been arrested, no distinction being made between those recently on active service and those in the reserve,',■'•v;' Conditions in most of-the provincial towns are the same, notably at Lodz, Kalisz, Posnan, Torun, and Gdynia, where, moreover, house owners . are | not allowed to collect rents but are j given about 12 per cent, of their-.total amount. The remainder is detained as a contribution to the German Government. ...'». ~'".'