Polish-Jewish Relations 1939-1945: Beyond the limits of solidarity by EWA KUREK

Author:EWA KUREK
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781475938326
Publisher: iUniverse
Published: 2012-08-06T00:00:00+00:00

19. Jewish police lining up for instructions in Lodz ghetto, 1942.

This picture depicted above is filled in further by Wladysław Szpilman:

It was May [1942], and even in the gardens scattered few and far between throughout the ghetto, lilacs were in bloom. […] The Germans have once again been reminded that we exist, however with one small difference this time: they alone were not going to be managing us. The responsibility of executing the round-ups has been transferred to the hands of the Jewish police and the Jewish Board of Employment. Henryk was right in refusing to join the ranks of the police calling them a band of criminals. It was composed of mostly well-to-do young people. We used to move in the same social circles with many of them and, therefore, we are filled with even greater revulsion when we realize that these decent people of not so long ago whose hands we used to shake and whom we treated as friends have turned into rascals.

They have become infected with the winds of the Gestapo. It seems the only way to describe it. The moment they donned their uniforms and took the clubs in their hands, they turned into animals. Their most important goal was to get into cahoots with the Gestapo, wait on them hand-and-foot, parade up and down the streets alongside them, impress them with their knowledge of the German language, and show off the brutality they are capable of towards the Jewish population in front of their higher-ups. […] When it came time to execute the round-up in May, they surrounded the street with the sharp precision of seasoned, pure SS-men. They were running around in their stylish little uniforms, barking loudly and fiercely as expertly as the Germans, and they beat people with their rubber clubs.218

The above recorded sources, which have been verified by countless archives, journals and memoirs, have allowed us to put forth a thesis that the role of executioner of the Jewish population in Poland was played almost exclusively by representatives of the Jewish intelligentsia. It will, therefore, most likely not be erroneous to state that since, during WWII, the Jewish intelligentsia composed no more that 15% of the Jewish population from among Polish Jews, whereas 6-10% of the entire Jewish population fulfilled the role of executioner – at least 1/3 or, what is more likely, 2/3 of Jewish intelligentsia (lawyers, doctors, clerks, etc.) fulfilled the role of executioner of its own people. The question still remains of how significant an impact, in terms of technical support, did the Jews make in facilitating the Germans during each phase of realizing their plan to murder Polish Jews.

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