Jewish Gestapo
The Jewish Gestapo[1] (Juden-Gestapo; Żydowskie Gestapo, Urząd do Walki z Lichwą; ייִדישע געסטאַפּאָ) was a Jewish collaborationist organization in the Warsaw Ghetto during the German occupation of Poland in World War II.The rise and fall of the Jewish Gestapo was likely a proxy for power struggles between various factions in the German military and bureaucracy, for their own financial benefit.[2]
Background
The organization was founded in 1940 and led by Abraham Gancwajch,[3][4] the former head of Hashomer Hatzair in Łódź.[5] Jewish Gestapo[1] sanctioned by Sicherheitsdienst (SD),[2] and the organization reported directly to the local Gestapo office.[6] It was also called Group 13 by Germans, after its main office at 13 Leszno Street in Warsaw[2]
Organizational structure
Jewish Gestapo had about 400 uniformed Jewish officers, distinguished by caps with green bands.[7] Membership in the unit required payment of several thousand zlotys, issued by the German Nazi-controlled bank.[8]
Although it was intended to curtail black market activity, the group actually extorted large sums of money through racketeering and blackmail.[2][1] Its most important branch was the Office to Combat Usury and Profiteering (Urząd do Walki z Lichwą).[7]
It also ran its own prison. Organization vied for control of the Ghetto with the Judenrat,[1] and infiltrated Jewish opposition within the Ghetto.[6]
Dissolution
In 1941, Jewish Gestapo lost its political status to the Judenrat, and the Office to Combat Usury and Profiteering was taken over by the Jewish Ghetto Police.[1] Subsequently, the remaining members of organization centered on Gancwajch, and concentrated their efforts on setting up their own infirmary and ambulance service (the so-called Emergency Service, or the First Aid Station), which was created in May 1941. The organization's purpose was quickly subverted, and its resources were used predominantly for smuggling and contraband.[2][1] They ran other illegitimate operations, such as a brothel at the Britannica Hotel,[1] and had near-total control over horse-drawn carriages and all other transportation within the Ghetto.[2]
In April 1942, many former Jewish Gestapo members were executed in Operation Reinhard.[1] In mid-1941, shortly before the organization was closed, there was a split in leadership, when Morris Kohn and Zelig Heller broke with Gancwajch and established their own organizations.[1] Kohn and Heller ultimately outlasted the Office. Their demise only came during the mass deportations of Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto to the Nazi Treblinka extermination camp in July 1942.[2]
Gancwajch and surviving members of the group later re-emerged posing as Jewish underground fighters, though in reality they were hunting for Poles in hiding or supporting other Nazi collaborationists. After closing the Jewish Gestapo, Gancwajch remained in Warsaw, outside the Ghetto, where he continued working for the Nazis.[1] He was rumored to have died in 1943;[3] [1] a hypothesis about his post-war collaboration with the NKVD was never confirmed.
See also
- Jewish Ghetto Police, Jewish auxiliary police within the Nazi ghettos formed by local Judenrat
- Żagiew, Polish Jewish organization that was collaborated with the Nazi government
- Stella Kübler, German Jewish Nazi collaborationist
- Chaim Rumkowski, Jewish head of the Judenrat of the Łódź Ghetto
- Jacob Gens, Jewish head of the Vilna Ghetto
- Ans van Dijk, Dutch Jewish Nazi collaborationist
- Moshe Merin, Jewish head of the Judenrat of the Sosnowiec Ghetto
- Collaboration with the Axis Powers
References
- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 Itamar Levin, Walls Around: The Plunder of Warsaw Jewry During World War II and Its Aftermath Greenwood Publishing Group, 2004, ISBN 0-275-97649-1 Search this book on
., pp. 94–98.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 Israel Gutman, The Jews of Warsaw, 1939-1943: Ghetto, Underground, Revolt Indiana University Press, 1982, ISBN 0-253-20511-5 Search this book on ., pp. 90–94.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 "The record at Warsaw Ghetto database". Archived from the original on 2019-04-02. Retrieved 2008-01-29. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ "Holocaust Historical Society". www.holocausthistoricalsociety.org.uk. Retrieved 2023-07-05.
- ↑ W. D. Rubinstein, The Left, the Right, and the Jews Universe Books, 1982, ISBN 0-87663-400-5 Search this book on ., p. 136.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Tadeusz Piotrowski (1998). Poland's Holocaust: Ethnic Strife, Collaboration with Occupying Forces. McFarland. pp. 66–67. ISBN 0786403713. Search this book on
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Anna Heilman, Never Far Away: The Auschwitz Chronicles of Anna Heilman University of Calgary Press, 2001, ISBN 1-55238-040-8 Search this book on ., p. 52.
- ↑ "The "13"". www.holocaustresearchproject.org. Retrieved 2018-02-15.
