Czestochowa Judenrat

The ultimate indignity of the ghettos was arguably the requirement that Jews police themselves, which was overseen by the Judenrat. The Jewish Council was made up of a handful of Czestochowa’s elders, though many more Jews worked within the Council’s various departments. As of December 1940, there were 21 departments with 676 employees (Trunk, 51). The Jewish police worked alongside the Judenrat to enforce their decrees. As described by the USHMM, the Jewish Police “guarded the Judenrat offices and warehouses, maintained order in the streets, and enforced the evening curfew” (USHMM, 215). In the latter years of the ghetto, however, a more expansive and violent police force was created. These policemen were armed with rubber truncheons, enforcing German orders of coercion, house searches, arrests, and beatings. The USHMM reports that “they were said to include only the most unscrupulous people” (USHMM, 215). The Jewish police played a similar role to the Sonderkommandos and Jewish Kapos that operated in the Nazi killing centers. These Jews were willing to do nearly anything to survive, even if that meant enforcing ruthless Nazi policies while contributing toward their goals. Each member of the Judenrat was subordinate to Germans and native Poles, thereby reinforcing the hierarchy the Nazis attempted to create.

      Jakob Zylberberg had an especially negative perception of the Jewish police. Not only did they oversee everyday life within the ghetto, but in the final days of selections, he recalls that they searched the neighborhood for hidden Jews, and often tricked Jews into giving one another up. Jakob’s two brothers, who were hiding in a bunker they had dug within one of the apartment buildings in the large ghetto, were discovered by the Judenrat on January 21st, 1943. A girl who was hiding with them gave herself up, thinking that the Jewish police would protect them. Zylberberg’s two brothers, the girl, and a handful of others within the bunker were sent to Radomsk, and from there were ultimately sent on the last transport to Treblinka (Zylberberg, VHA Interview). This story is particularly jarring, as it highlights the betrayal that existed within the ghetto; the Jewish police were so desperate to survive themselves that they went out of their way to sacrifice the lives of countless others. As Primo Levi described in Survival in Auschwitz, he was constantly fighting to preserve a small part of his humanity, as doing so would prevent him from taking on an attitude of saving himself at any cost. These Jewish police seemed to have succumbed to the process that Levi struggled to resist.

On another instance–this time in the small ghetto–Zylberberg recalls the Jewish police rounding up hidden or debilitated Jews and putting them on a truck to be sent to one of the cemeteries for execution (Zylberberg, VHA Interview). The extreme measures taken by Jews to ensure their own survival highlights the truly grim circumstances that Jews faced under Nazi occupation. Additionally, the mental degradation required to betray one’s own community is quite strong. As Bender put it, “to save their skin, these Jews lost their souls” (Bender, VHA Interview). While there are countless examples of Jewish unity and resistance to Nazi rule, the Jewish police represent the opposite end of this spectrum.

While the Jewish Police were the most disturbing aspect of the Judenrat, the council also served many other roles. The Judenrat in Czestochowa was ordered to deliver all necessities, including comfortable furniture, linen, bedding, and kitchen and tableware to the homes of Aryan Germans stationed in town. This included those who had already arrived from the Reich as well as those who were to come. To meet this order, the Judenrat imposed a heavy tax on the Jews and took away from their homes not only what was necessary for the moment but much more, in anticipation of the next emergency (Trunk, 67). As described by Adam Cerniakow, the leader of the Warsaw Jewish Council, the Judenrats across each of the ghettos faced a dilemma. They could follow the orders of Nazis and plunder the homes of their Jewish counterparts, or disobey the Nazis, which would result in further fines and likely executions. These sanctions were incredibly damaging to the Jewish population, who already lacked the supplies necessary to survive, but they also fueled hostility toward the Judenrat who, in the eyes of many, were saving themselves by exploiting others. Despite their bad reputation, the Czestochowa Council also carried out relief work, maintaining “six soup kitchens distributing meals free of charge to working people, the poor, and the intelligentsia. The department also maintained an old-age home and an orphanage” (Trunk, 122). That said, Gerson recalled that these relief programs were only meant to create an aura of peace, thus luring Jews out of hiding during the final days of selections; a rather sadistic tactic used by the Nazis.