Jewish Leadership During The Holocaust

Jewish Leadership during the Holocaust was evident in many different forms. There was the Judenrat which was organized over Nazi occupied territories and Ghettos, Kapos (prisoner supervisors), the Lagerpolitzei (camp police), the Blockaelteste or Blockovas (block leader) and the Stubova (room chief) who held power in the Nazi concentration and extermination camps. Throughout historical texts and survivor testimonies, there seems to be a mix of different opinions about the role and behavior of  those that were in leadership. In this article, I hope to bring some more understanding about who exactly those in power were and what role they might have played in using their status and power.

"Looking back, what can one say? Did everyone behave heroically? Of course not. Did some people behave as now we hope that we would not have behaved? Of course, this is true as well. It was part of a vast European enterprise, in which the Jews were, for the most part, utterly helpless. As a historian spanning this whole process, seeing the Jewish police and the Kapos in the camps, the Jews behaved no differently from other communities where you find this massive victimization. I don't think that there is anything unusual about this process. This is what happens when civilian communities are victimized in this particular way: You find a range of reactions and experiences." - Professor Michael Marrus on the Judenrat 

The Judenrat were Jewish councils, composed of individuals with influence and rabbis, within Nazi occupied territories and Ghettos. The Judenrat carried out Nazi policies pertaining to the Jews. The mix of feelings about the Judenrat came from the belief of some Judenrat members that if they gave in to the Nazi's demands, than the greater whole of Jewish community would be saved or seen as productive, therefore used for purposes other than mass murder. For example, The Płońsk Judenrat was influential in obtaining food, detaining the establishment of the Płońsk ghetto, releasing Jews from imprisonment, creating a food kitchen and putting together a children's home. Although the Judenrat could select individuals for deportation in answering Nazi demands, overall, the Judenrat could not control the outcome of their community. 

"They were more or less in command, to the extent where the Nazis would say, "We want five thousand people." And so they had to pick the five thousand people, that's right. And so they would pick the old or the sick or this kind of thing and I remember once a meeting actually where...Monidmarin was his name. And a lot of people, of course, were just so angry with him, you know, he's a traitor and so on.  And I remember what he said. It stuck in my mind, you know. And he said, "Yes, I am doing all these things. I am doing them so that perhaps some of us will survive and if some of us survive, those who survive - and I am still alive - you can judge me then." But he didn't survive. You know, he was sent like everybody else to, I believe, in Auschwitz." - Survivor Leon Saper's Testimony on the Judenrat

Picking prisoners to complete everyday tasks of overlooking other prisoners and running the camp was practiced so the SS could have assistance. 

Kapos were known as prisoner-supervisors who looked over their fellow prisoners (somewhat like a foreman). There is such a mixed range of feelings about the role of Kapos within the concentration and extermination camps because there were a majority who used their power for malicious purposes while on the other end, there were Kapos who aided those around them. 

Dachau Kapo Emil Erwin Mahl after the war, was put on trial for violating the laws and usages of war because he willingly subjected his fellow prisoners to torture. Between January 1st 1942 and April 29th 1945, Mahl participated in killings, beatings and the practice of torture through starvation throughout Dachau. 

     "I know people are always objecting to the ones who worked in the Schreistube and the ones who were kapos. Look, many Jewish kapos did nothing wrong and did no harm to anybody and I defy people who criticize, what would they have done? If a German turns around to you and says, "Du bist ein Kapo," you tell him no? Get lost? What? He'll shoot you. What are you going to do? So the only thing is you could still behave like a human being or you could be a monster, but to criticize people simply for being kapos?" - Dora Love, from her testimony on Life at Stutthoff. 

The Blockaelteste or Blockovas (the term for female block leaders) were prisoners in charge of a concentration or extermination camp block while enforcing discipline. 

Between February 1941 and March 1943, Karl Zander worked in the Sachsenhausen crematorium which participated in mass shootings, hangings and the slaughter of 7,000 individuals, some being Russian POW's. On March 1943, he became the Blockaelteste of Block 17 where he tortured and beat prisoners to death. 

Olga Benario Prestes was a Jewish born Communist inmate of Ravensbrück (search previous articles. There is one with details about Olga Benario) who was appointed Blockova of Block 11 (the Jewish block) in October 1939. Although Benario faced having to carry out tasks assigned by the Nazis and disdain from fellow inmates, over time, Olga used her position as Blockova to help others.

"The days pass. Olga comes to know the women better as she moves around the bunks, and they get to know her and look forward to her rounds; even the 'bourgeois' Viennese stop calling Olga a Red and a Bolshevik cow, because she helps them, telling them t eat slowly to ease the hunger, and to pick off lice from each other's heads. 'Don't give up,' she says. 'Cling close for warmth.' - Page 60 of  Ravensbrück by Sarah Helm. 

The Jewish police were a part of the Judenrat and was responsible for carrying out orders delivered by the Nazis. The Jewish police guarded the ghetto, collected taxes, personal possessions and ransom payments. The police force gathered and accompanied individuals for forced labor pogroms while also looking over sanitary conditions and assisting the poor. Later on, those still in their positions, would round up Jewish individuals for deportation and extermination. 

"What happened to the Jewish police that prompted it to undertake this task? Were they driven out of their minds? Were their hearts excised and replaced with stones? These are hard questions. Certainly, the Jewish police are anything but enviable…! There are various kinds of executioners. There is the kind who slays his brother for a shekel from Judah Iscariot’s hand. Another kind, besides the wages of his treachery, must be fed liquor to the point of intoxication; otherwise, his lowly hands will tremble. Then there are executioners who practice their blood-soaked vocation for the sake of an idea. They are told, “John Doe is not only socially useless but harmful and must be liquidated.” They act on behalf of society; they are liquidators . . . They bought the Jewish police – got them drunk, and drugged them by exempting their children from the decree . . . and by giving them a kilogram and a half of bread per day – plenty of bread, plus sausage and sugar – in return for the bloodstained job. And they did it for an idea, having been told: “If we uproot the teeth, tear off the limbs and bisect the bodies with our own Jewish hands, it may be less painful than if done by coarse non-Jewish hands.” All three speakers had said so explicitly. A resounding hint had been issued: “If you don’t do it yourselves, we’ll do it ourselves.” To avoid that, they preferred to do it themselves. Who should do it but the Jewish police, who in one stroke have been bought off, intoxicated, and ideationally persuaded? No, there is no reason to envy them, the Jewish police." - Josef Zelkowicz in his diary on the Lodz Ghetto Jewish Police

Although Jewish Leadership was evident during the Holocaust, I think it's difficult to despute whether or not individuals who chose to step into those roles were sadists or not. Definitely, there were those, Emil Erwin Mahl, who used their heightened status for negative purposes, however, there are also those who believed they could bring abut positive change or who actually actively aided and assisted those in need around them. I hope that this article could help you see things from a different perspective while providing some knowledge. 

Thank you to Yad Vashem- The World Holocaust Remembrance Center and The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum for helping provide content for this article.

Links for Further Research: 

1. https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/dachautrial/d3.pdf
(Trial document about Emil Erwin Mahl. On pages 1 and 2, you will find the purpose of his prosecution and the evidence) 

2. http://www.yadvashem.org/odot_pdf/Microsoft%20Word%20-%203862.pdf
(Interview with Holocaust Historian and Dean of Graduate Studies at the University of Toronto, Michael Marrus)

3. http://www.yadvashem.org/odot_pdf/Microsoft%20Word%20-%206389.pdf
(Description of what the Judenrat was and their role during the Holocaust)

4. http://www.yadvashem.org/odot_pdf/Microsoft%20Word%20-%205174.pdf
(Testimony of Leon Saper about the Role of the Judenrat)

5. https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/pa1099188 
(Picture and small information piece about Karl Zander) 

6. http://www.yadvashem.org/odot_pdf/Microsoft%20Word%20-%206386.pdf
(About the Jewish Police and their purpose)

7. http://www.yadvashem.org/odot_pdf/Microsoft%20Word%20-%203224.pdf 
(Article explaining the relationship between the Judenrat and Jewish Police)

8. https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005265
(More information about the Judenrat)

9. http://www.yadvashem.org/odot_pdf/Microsoft%20Word%20-%205577.pdf
(Diary entry about the Lodz Ghetto Jewish Police by Josef Zelkowics)

10. http://www.yadvashem.org/odot_pdf/Microsoft%20Word%20-%202020.pdf
(Explanation of Kovn Ghetto Jewish Police by Israeli Supreme Court Justice Dov Levin)