"Statistical evidence shows that it is precisely the Jewish race ... is the carrier and distributor of epidemic ...

"Statistical evidence shows that it is precisely the Jewish race ... is the carrier and distributor of epidemic diseases" - A rare propaganda pamphlet distributed in the German-occupied territories in an attempt to show 'normal life' under the new regime

A propaganda pamphlet designed to hide the Nazis' intentions regarding mass extermination, and to convey to the public the false message, that the territories occupied by the Germans were intended Improve the conditions of the local population, and in particular with the Jews, and to present occupied Poland as "the new Poland.". distributed by the Nazi regime in the Generalgouvernement (territories of occupied Poland not annexed to the German Reich during World War II), in which the horrific extermination took place. Poland, c 1940. German.

After the conquest of Poland by the Nazis, the Nazis tried to hide their true intention regarding the extermination of the Jews by various tricks and means. The rare leaflet before us is an instructive example of how the Nazis hid their intentions. On the first page appears a seemingly 'innocent' report in which the Germans describe that the occupation of Poland came to Improve the conditions of the local population. The so-called efforts to improve the occupied area in terms of supplying new power lines, developing agriculture, and replacing old transport routes with new ones are described. Below is a large photograph of the municipal market day with a Nazi flag with a swastika in the front and the caption trying to convey 'life as usual': "Farmers come from the villages to the cities and sell their produce in the market". Next to this photo is a report about the restoration of industrial plants damaged as a result of the German bombings, about the increase of land cultivation areas, and about the restoration of Polish industry in general. Alongside photographs from a normal daily life, the description tells about harmony to the occupied Polish population: 'The Polish cartoonist is still working on the street as before ... A stable and strong social security system has been established for Polish citizens ... Every day nine newspapers are distributed in Polish ... Cinemas Polish films are shown featuring the great artists from Warsaw and Krakow ... The vast majority of Polish citizens have known for a long time that the German government will not harm them, and will not disturb the peace of their lives ... ". This is about the occupied Polish population.

The last page, entitled "Juden", refers to Jews in the ghettos, in which the booklet presents the imprisonment of Jews in the Polish ghettos in a positive light. The closure of Jews in the ghettos came to prevent the spread of disease among the Polish population: "In former Poland, the Jews brutally exploited the Poles. Therefore, the German government had to take appropriate measures to prevent any danger to the local population in the General Government ... One of the most urgent tasks was to establish closed Jewish residential districts mainly to prevent future health risks for the rest of the population. Statistical evidence shows that the Jewish race, to a large extent, is the carrier and distributor of the epidemic diseases in the General Government ... The Jewish residential districts have their own administrative bodies, security authorities, Post offices, financial institutions and transportation companies. Strict sanitary measures in all". Here, he goes on to describe the so-called idyll of Jewish employment and daily life among the Jewish population:  "One of the important tasks is the substitute of the Jewish population to professions that have not been represented in them at all .... Another government order was passed on the establishment of the Jewish school system ... All Jewish residents in the working age can find work within the Jewish self-government and in the Jewish handicrafts ... where they get a fair salary ... ". This page contains a number of photographs intended to show a regular and normal life : "A workshop for Jewish shoemakers in central Berlin", as well as photographs with captions in disguised antisemitic tone. In one of them, two Jews are seen near the cemetery, one is wealthy in respectable clothes and next to him is poor in tattered clothes and the antisemitic caption: "The contrast is especially noticeable in the Jewish district. The rich pass by the poor. This approach is very typical of the way of the Jews thinking". Another photograph intended to convey a message of 'self-government' shows a Jewish policeman in the Krakow ghetto with the caption: "A Jewish policeman in the security service in the Jewish neighborhood of Krakow." Alongside another photograph of a streetcar in the ghetto reads: "A streetcar with the Jewish emblem, a Star of David, passing through the Jewish residential districts, " and another photograph depicting ordinary life in the Warsaw ghetto: "A Picture of Street Life in Warsaw".

Thus the Nazis tried to disguise their true intentions regarding the extermination of the Jews in these territories. After the conquest of Poland in September 1939, Hitler declared the administrative division of the occupied territory in Poland. Extensive areas were annexed to the "Reich", while a considerable part, four districts - Warsaw, Lublin, Radom, and Krakow - were declared "Generalgouvernement" - "general government". From 1941 famine and beating diseases began in the population of General Governman. During the Wannsee Conference on January 20, 1942, Reinhard Heydrich decided to implement the "Final Solution" - the extermination of the Jews in the areas of general government. He justified this decision by the fact that the Jewish "black market" interferes with the proper functioning of the administration. A solution to this must be found through the extermination of the Jews. The Jews who were staying their at this time were expelled from many areas of Germany and areas annexed to Germany, and were crammed into dense ghettos, to which food supplies were very limited, with the intention of starving the population to death. Certainly under these conditions a "black market" was created. In 1942, "Operation Reinhard" began, which included the systematic extermination of the Jewish population in the general government (and in various areas outside it). In the Generalgouvernement, four extermination camps were established in which close to one and a half million people, most of them Jews, were exterminated between 1942 and 1944.

[4] p. 39 cm. Folding marks. Very good condition.