330 GOLGOTA
the population. District by district, town by town, village by village, all citizens
were obliged to register with the Nazi authorities. They were allocated to one of
four categories: Reichsdeutscb, for Germans born within the old frontiers of the
Reich; Volks-deutsck (German Nationals) who could claim German ancestry in
their family within three generations; Nichtdeutsch (non-Germans) who could
prove themselves free of all Jewish connections; and Juden (Jews). These racial
categories were further subdivided according to people's work capacity, and
political loyalties, and each was issued with identity passes and ration cards. A
first-class Reicbsdeutscher in Poland received coupons for 4,000 calories per
day; a Polish worker had to survive off 900; a non-productive Jew very often had
nothing. Once classification was complete, segregation could begin. Enclosed
ghettos or Judenreservaten were established in the towns. Those in Warsaw,
Cracow, and Lodz (renamed Litmannstadt) were enlarged to accommodate
Jewish deportees from the countryside and from abroad. At the same time huge
numbers of non-Germans were subject to forcible deportation. Poles occupying
desirable residences in the middle-class suburbs were expropriated without
redress to make way for the influx of German officials and their families.
Many Poles from the Warthegau were expelled en masse to the General-
Gouvernement. In the Polish Corridor, during the so-called Aktion
Tannenberg, several hundred thousand Polish peasants were driven from the
land to facilitate the transfer of Baltic Germans from Soviet Latvia and Estonia.
The first conscriptions of men and women for slave-labour in the Reich were
organized. The first blond-haired children, whom Himmler noticed were closer
to the 'Teutonic ideal' than his own, were kidnapped from Polish orphanages by
agents of the Nazi bloodstock organization, the SS Lebensborn (Fountain of
Life). In all public places, strict racial apartheid was enforced. Tram-cars, park
benches, and the better shops and hotels were marked with the ominous sign
'NUR FUR DEUTSCHE' (Germans only). All non-Germans were confined to
their own quarters. Detailed regulations governed every move. Poles were for-
bidden to possess wireless sets or to congregate in groups of more than three
persons, except in church. Jews were forbidden to leave the Ghetto on pain of
death.^12
The impossibility of executing Himmler's schemes in any reasonable manner
gave rise to widespread confusion, corruption, and brutality. Families with one
parent qualifying for Reichsdeutscb status and another of Polish or Jewish
extraction might try to bribe the registration officers for a lenient decision.
Families who qualified for Volksdeutscb status might ask one relative to volun-
teer for the German list and another relative to refuse. In that way, they sought
to get the best of both uncertain worlds. False papers, stolen ration cards, and
spurious genealogies sprouted on all sides. Before long, the Nazi officials began
to compete among themselves. Gauleiter Forster registered all the Poles in
Danzig as Germans, just to spite the SS. The distribution of appointments
brought the SS into conflict with the Political Organization of the NSDAP, then
with the Fuhrer's Personal Office and with the Governor-General. The Gestapo