I. An excerpt from Chapter 1: "The Jewish Neighborhood"
The Physical Characteristics of the Jewish Neighborhood
As mentioned, the Jewish neighborhood was part of the center of Warsaw, and thus would be expected to have the character of an urban center, with large buildings containing many apartments, and a relatively high number of smaller dwellings, all contributing to high residential density.
The following table details the physical characteristics of the buildings in the Jewish neighborhood:
Table 4. The physical characteristics of the Jewish Quarter, 1931.  
Police Precinct	Jews in Precinct (%)	Stone Buildings (%)	Apartments Connected to Sewage System              (%)	Apartments with Running Water                (%)	Apartments Connected to Electricity (%)	Apartments in One-Story Buildings (%)	Apartments in Buildings with Four Stories or More         (%)	
II	37.4	93	79	88	82	15	24	
III	57.5	83	65	78	80	25	29	
IV	90.5	94	84	90	90	10	36	
V	76.2	80	60	79	80	21	32	
VI	27	81	64	79	79	25	28	
VII	38.8	88	68	83	86	21	30	
VIII	53	98	92	95	96	6	38	
Average for Above Police Precincts	52	87	72	84	84	18	31	
All of Warsaw	30	69	46	62	68	37	17	
Source: Table 3 in the Appendix.

We find that the character of the Jewish neighborhood was indeed clearly urban. The majority of the buildings were constructed with bricks, most were high-rise buildings and only a minority were one-story buildings. On average, the level of infrastructure (water, sewage, electricity) in the neighborhood was relatively high compared to the average in the greater Warsaw area, mainly due to the lack of urban development in the city’s new peripheral neighborhoods, which still retained a rural character. Although the Jewish neighborhoods were more developed than much of the rest of the city, many areas in the Jewish neighborhood were nevertheless in very poor condition.

Socio-economic characteristics
The Jewish neighborhood’s urban character and relatively high level of urban infrastructure did not mean that its residents enjoyed a high or even medium economic level. In fact, most of the residents of the Jewish neighborhood were in the mid-to-low and low socio-economic strata, as can be deduced from the data in the following table:

Table 3. Economic and social characteristics of the inhabitants of the Jewish Quarter, 1931.       
Police Precinct	Percentage of Jews in Pop. of Police Precinct	Infant Mortality	Deaths from Tuberculosis	Illiteracy (%)	White-Collar Workers (%) 	Percentage of Those Working in their Homes (%)	No. of Persons per Room	
II	37.4	7.4	15.9	10.9	12	4.5	3.5	
III	57.5	9.9	14	10.8	12	4.1	3.3	
IV	90.5	8.8	8.8	9.8	8	6.3	3.3	
V	76.2	13.7	17	18.7	5	6	4.3	
VI	27	6.9	16.1	10.5	13	1.7	3.5	
VII	38.8	10	15.5	11.2	13	2.2	3.3	
VIII	53	6.5	12	7.7	17	2.5	2.7	
Avg. for Above Police Precincts	52	9.3	14.4	11.6	11.3	3.8	3.4	
All of Warsaw	30	9.4	16	10	16	2.3	3.1	
Source: Table 2 in the Appendix.

The housing shortage in the Jewish neighborhood meant that the phenomenon of several households residing in a single apartment was fairly common in one-third of the apartments in the neighborhood, a fairly high proportion. About 10% of the apartments had three or more households living in them, and 20% held two households. In addition, the smaller apartments contained the highest number of people. On average, four people lived together in one-room apartments, while an average of six people lived in apartments of four or more rooms, with a resulting density of only 1.5 people or less per room. (Table N8 in the Appendix).
Even with these crowded conditions, the Jewish neighborhood was an important commercial and craft center of the city. This is not surprising, considering that Jews owned over 70% of the city's commercial businesses and nearly all the enterprises in industries such as watchmaking, wood, and textile. Nearly 60% of those employed in commerce in Warsaw lived in the Jewish neighborhood, and close to 70% of all places of business, such as those of tailors, repairmen, shoemakers, and the like, conducted in residential apartments were located in this neighborhood. In addition, there were no fewer than fifteen markets in the squares and courtyards of the Jewish neighborhood. The entire length of Nalewki Street was commercial, as were the streets adjacent to it. Economic and commercial activity was concentrated in several areas according to specific trade industries. The iron business was centered in Grzybow, the trade on Nalewki was clothing and haberdashery, businesses related to leather industry were located on Franciskanska Street, while the bookstores and antique shops of Warsaw could be found on Swietokrzyska Street. A good example of the multiplicity and variety of workshops and commerce in the Jewish neighborhood can be seen from a list of businesses gathered in a single building at 33 Nalewki Street: Aronowicz's packing house, Joel Bajch's bone products, Apelblat's wholesale glassware, Borensztejn's cotton store, four delivery offices belonging to the Borsowch, Gelblum, and Glazin families and the Jastrząb Brothers, three stationery stores owned by Glaszmit, Szyia Cukier Kornblum, the Rabinowicz Confectionery Supply Store, Rotanberg Copper Sales, Silman’s Leather and Metal Products Store, Pantelek’s Leather Warehouse, the Chaskiel Lipa Ostroga shoe factory, the Zenit socks factory, Wandel and Wutcela’s crates and boxes, Moszek Kornblum’s butcher shop and the Wainberg café. These are just those whose names have been preserved in telephone books from that period. In addition, other, unidentified small shoemakers' workshops and a variety of tiny workshops crammed into residential apartments were found in this building.
Crowded Housing in the Jewish Neighborhood
The average population density in the Jewish neighborhood in 1931 was 2.4 persons per room, higher than the municipal average of 2.2 persons per room.
One-room apartments consituted 41% of the dwellings in the Jewish neighborhood, and 13% had four or more rooms. This is not much different than the entire city of Warsaw, in which 43% of the dwellings were of one-room apartments and 16% had four or more rooms.
A more detailed examination of the data by subdistrict indicates a variation in housing density between Poles and Jews in the Jewish neighborhood. In areas where Jews made up the majority, the proportion of small apartments was much lower than in areas where Jews constituted a minority. The opposite was true as well. The proportion of large apartments was much higher in areas where Jews constituted a majority and their proportion in areas populated mainly by Poles was much lower. 
Clearly, the housing situation of the Jews in the Jewish neighborhood was better than that of the Poles who lived in this neighborhood. As noted above, the proportion of Jews was lower in the western areas of the Jewish neighborhood, which was one of the poorest areas of Warsaw.