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As soon as
an administrative regime was installed in the occupied provinces,
the Jews were buffeted with decrees and ordinances meant, among
other things, to oust them from economic life and dispossess them of
their property. The process of expropriating and liquidating Jewish
and Polish factories and businesses in the annexed areas began in
September 1939, when this region was still under military rule. In
January 1940, the Generalgouvernement regime issued an order
placing under German custodianship any business whose owners were
absentees or that were being inefficiently run. The rationale of
inefficiency was a pretext for the liquidation of all the largest
Jewish-owned factories and businesses. That month, the Jews were
also required to register their property with local authorities.
Uniformed and non-uniformed Germans, with and without formal powers,
partook of the booty.
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