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.
