This notice clearly states how Jews were to greet uniformed officials: “When greeting Security, Police and Fire Brigade Personnel you are to stand to attention and take off your hats. Particular attention is to be paid that hands are taken out of pockets and cigarettes taken out of the mouth. Women will greet by bowing their heads. The non-observance of this order will be severely punished”.

Having to bow or take off their hats to German officials would have been humiliating for the Jews, undoubtedly increasing their resentment towards the Nazis. However, inhabitants had to abide, as Rumkowski was infamous for imposing harsh punishments for breaking ghetto laws.

This document is a good example of Rumkowski’s authoritarian rule of the Lodz ghetto. Rumkowski regularly published proclamations relating to new rules and regulations within the ghetto, which would have originated from the German administration. He signed this notice on 16 February 1944, by which time only the working element of the ghetto remained. Rumkowski approved the majority of notices in the ghetto, others were issued directly by Hans Biebow, Head of the German Ghetto Administration, or the Gestapo.