“To block coupons”: to withhold distribution of products for coupons. Shops (vide Sklepy) were informed in special notices which coupon numbers were blocked. Blocking was done for various reasons, such as deportation, death or punishment. Those who had left the ghetto or died were removed from the register of customers. Coupons of persons who were temporarily on hospital, prison or other provisioning lists were blocked with a special stamp “H” (from the German word „Hospital”), „G” („Gefängnis”1), „St” („Strafanstalt”2). Also blocked were coupons of persons who received supplies at youth dormitory, the so-called “bursa” (vide Bursa). Cards were blocked primarily during resettlement. Lists of persons selected for deportation were delivered to the Coupon Department, and from there distributed to the shops. It was only after the departure of each transport that coupons of those exempted (the sick etc.) were unblocked. During the recent resettlement (1944), the Coupon Department started blocking coupons of whole families. Such decision was made because not all selected for transport wanted to leave the ghetto, which made it difficult to collect the required number of persons. Persons from the list who tried to avoid being deported counted on the support of their relatives. Blocking coupons of the whole family rendered any mutual assistance impossible.