JWST 240 Lecture Notes - Lecture 18: Judenrat
Document Summary
Chairman in lodz and took a position believing that through work and keeping the ghetto productive, he would be able to spare many lives. In many ways this may have worked because it was the ghetto that lasted the longest, until august 1944. He comes from a different background than rumkowski. He was a very highly educated and assimilated individual before the role; he held various degrees in engineering from universities in poland and germany. He was highly regarded before the war within the warsaw jewish community. After he was appointed as the head of judenrat he suffered repeated humiliations from the nazis. The german bureaucracy was responsible for the warsaw ghetto and didn"t take his decisions or input seriously. Rarely he was able to negotiate or achieve any tangible concessions for the ghetto inmates. He saw his work within the judenrat as a necessary duty; something he needs to do.
