Activity of the Joint In Occupied Poland*

When the war broke out the Joint did not have large sums of money available, scarcely sufficient for a few months. It was very difficult to maintain contact with the headquarters [of the Joint], which moved from place to place, and, as a result, the transfer of funds from abroad was inadequate for so difficult a period. Later, when war broke out between America and Germany, in 1941, there were no more direct transfers of funds....

As the social-welfare organization required huge sums of money, the Management of the Joint, consisting of Messrs. Guzik, Giterman and Neustadt, set about obtaining very large loans for the Joint from private persons. These transactions, which continued right through the period of the war, were forbidden from the beginning. This illegal transfer could have cost the heads of the Management of the Joint, particularly as the matter became an open secret about which all Warsaw talked. Guzik was imprisoned for nine months in connection with illegal transfer....

Ringelblum, II, pp. 133-134.

* The various parts of Ringelblums writings, which carry no date, were written between the end of 1942 and the spring of 1944.