Judenrat — Association of Jews of Vilna and vicinity in Israel

From: Gideon Rafael Ben Michael - How the Jewish Leadership was conducted during the Holocaust

On 15^th July 1941 the Germans issued an order for 14 members to be elected to the Judenrat. The order stipulated that the chairman of Judenrat and the committee were obligated to receive orders from the regime, and were personally responsible to ensure these orders were carried out, and would be accountable for every hostile act carried out by the Jews against the German regime. From this one can learn that the members of the Judenrat were “reluctant leaders”.

Following this order, the military commander of Vilna, commanded the Judenrat to increase its members to 14. The Judenrat was composed of 55 members of the Vilna community. At this meeting, Shaul Trotzky was chosen as Chairman of the Judenrat and Anatol Fried as Vice-Chairman.

This Judenrat was formed 14 hours after the order was given. It should be noted that most of the Judenrat members did not want to belong to this forum. Only after public and moral pressure had been exerted on them did they agree to represent the Judenrat.

Representatives of the Judenrat made efforts to add members of the public from the different political parties. They succeeded in their attempts and were joined by members of the public representing a wide range of people.

The Jews of Vilna considered the Judenrat as a continuation of the traditional leadership and therefore they had faith in it.

On 9^th September 1941 Murer appointed five Judenrat members. The new chairman was Anatol Fried - an assimilated Jew and a bank manager who was involved in the public life of the Jewish community. He added the following members to the Judenrat:

Yashnovsky, a lawyer who had arrived in Vilna as a refugee from Warsaw in 1936 and was one of the leaders of the Bund; Y. Fischman, a shoemaker, also one of the leaders of the Bund in Vilna who was also a board member of the Jewish community; S. Milkonovitzky, a lawyer, who spent many years as vice-chairman and head of the Vilna Jewish community, and was also a Zionist; G. Gochman, a construction engineer, who was apolitical but had Bundist leanings.

Many of the Judenrat members had also belonged to the previous Judenrat. This helped to convince the public that there was continuity in the Jewish leadership in Vilna. Anatol Fried invited all the active members of the previous Judenrat to come and help him run the ghetto. This invitation helped to increase the public’s trust in the Judenrat leadership that served to connect them to the German regime and find solutions for their dire straits.

To run the ghetto the Judenrat set up different departments, as follows: a general department - that synchronized between the different departments and through which the Judenrat’s orders were sent out - a food department, a housing department and a labor exchange.

A Jewish police force was also set up in the ghetto commanded by Yaakov Gens. Its task was to maintain public order. In addition it was required to help the Germans with the different Aktions. When the Jewish police force was established there were differing opinions regarding its nature and the makeup of its members, between the Bund people and those belonging to Beitar.

In daily life the Judenrat was prone to be influenced by the Bund party, and the police by the Beitar people.

Establishing the Judenrat in the ghetto: on that date the Judenrat was set up in Ghetto 1, and this time it was appointed by Schweinenberg, a member of the security police unit in Vilna. He chose the people randomly. When he entered the ghetto he encountered Isaac Leibovitch, a former tradesman, and informed him on the spot that he was herewith appointed as Chairman of the Judenrat.

Leibovitch also happened to meet four Jews on the street and appointed them as members of the Judenrat. One was a tailor, the second – a shopkeeper, the third – the owner of a restaurant and the fourth – a Polish refugee.

This Judenrat felt incapable of running ghetto life so it gathered members of the public and the intelligentsia and asked them to do the job, and they – the Judenrat appointed by the Germans – would represent the ghetto vis-à-vis the authorities. Thus an internal leadership was set up in the ghetto in addition to the official Judenrat.

A Jewish police force was also set up in Ghetto 1, and Adv. Payorski was appointed as Chief of Police. The Judenrat was apolitical and had total control in the police force.

A long time passed before the Jews of Vilna became aware of the massacre in the Ponar execution pit. The Germans named the execution pit “Camp Ponar” to mislead the Jews into thinking there was a third ghetto. With the arrival of the first eye-witnesses who had managed to escape from Ponar, the Jews refused to believe that Jews were being murdered in Ponar.

In September 1941 additional survivors who had escaped from Ponar related their experiences to members of the Judenrat. After doing so, they were taken to Yaakov Gens who was still the head of the police force. He warned them not to breathe a word about it. The wounded women survivors were hospitalized and hidden in hospitals to ensure that their families and friends could not visit them, and this way Gens could be certain that the Jewish public remained unaware of what was happening in Ponar.e warned  Both the Judenrat and Gens were afraid that if the Germans found out that the Jews knew about the execution pit in Ponar they would speed up the transports of non-workers, the sick and the elderly to Ponar.

A period of stability reigned from 1942 until the spring of 1943. A few people were murdered but there were no mass Aktions. During this period the ghetto set up institutions for education, culture, health and welfare. Despite the relative calm, the Jews were concerned that the Germans were planning to destroy the ghetto within a short time. Gens rejected the rumors that were spreading as he was afraid that people would start to panic.

Formally, the person who was supposed to run life in the ghetto and be in contact with the Germans was the Chairman of the Judenrat, A. Fried, and his committee. The job of the Jewish police was to maintain public order and receive instructions from the Chairman of the Judenrat. In reality, though, the situation was different. Until mid-1942 Gens slowly took over Fried’s responsibilities and removed from him some areas of activity that were the responsibility of the Judenrat. He took control of powerful positions in the ghetto institutions thus ensuring he would be accepted by the public as the highest authority. He had strong connections with the German regime.

Gens had the qualities of a leader. Fried, on the other hand, was a weak leader. Their personalities were different, as were their positions in the community. Anatol Fried was an assimilated Jew and uninvolved in Jewish life. Herman Kruk said that Fried was “a Jew who lived his entire life in Vilna, yet no-one in Jewish Vilna knew him”. For this reason, nobody wanted him to be appointed Chairman of the Judenrat either. His appointment had come about completely by chance, he never won the trust of the ghetto residents, and was called a number of unpleasant names. The general feeling in the ghetto was that Fried was only looking out for himself and that the fate of the ghetto did not interest him. In contrast, Gens was a more authoritative figure, very charismatic and with a talent for leadership, with a principled personality all of which enabled him to take charge of governing positions in the ghetto. Gens was involved in society in general, and did not evade his fate or the fate of the Jews of the ghetto. Therefore, unlike Fried, he lived within the ghetto walls, although he could have taken advantage of his contacts to live with his wife and daughter outside the ghetto. As a police chief, the areas in which he had the authority to act were not enough for him, and Gens’ need to be in control led him to expand the limits of his authority, which, when it came down to the crunch, impinged on that of Fried, the Chairman of the Judenrat. As a result of this situation, the Germans gave preferential treatment to Gens and the Jewish police.

In April 1942, Murer, the Vilna Gebietskommissar (Regional Commissioner), issued orders regarding how the Jewish police should operate, the consequence of which was that Gens and the police were in control of the ghetto and in direct contact with Murer and not via the Judenrat. The significance of this was that all contacts between the Jews and the German regime would be made by Gens and in practice all the authority was passed to him.

Why did the Germans prefer Gens? He stood out where his leadership skills were concerned and they considered him a leader who could carry out all the orders they would issue regarding the Jews. In order to establish his authority and influence, Gens worked with all the political groups and the intelligentsia in Vilna, from the Revisionists to the Bund and the Communists. In his apartment he would hold cultural gatherings with them, during which lectures were given on topics such as “People and Nation”, “Jews and Judaism”, after which a discussion would take place among the participants. These activities added an extra level of trust to his image and boosted his status in the ghetto. In the eyes of the public he was not only someone with authority as Chief of Police with a great deal of power, but the fact that he was intellectual and cultured, intelligent and involved in Jewish life also added to his image.

In order to manage the ghetto while maintaining a normal social life, an internal ghetto justice system needed to be in place. With the approval of the German regime the justice system was established in February 1942. It handled different offenses committed in the ghetto, such as criminal violations that included theft, robbery and murder, conflicts between neighbors and defying the orders of the Judenrat. The prosecution was subject to the Jewish police.

In July 1942 the German regime disbanded the first Judenrat. Murer arrived at Judenrat headquarters and made it clear to the officials in attendance that the matter of labor was of the greatest importance in time of war. The present Judenrat was inefficient and would therefore be disbanded, and from then on Yaakov Gens would be declared “Ghetto Representative”. His deputies would be A. Fried, Deputy for Administrative Affairs, S. Dessler, Deputy for Police Affairs. Gens was in charge of the ghetto anyway, even before this appointment. His status was solid, he even enjoyed popularity among the Jewish community. This fact was what motivated the Germans to appoint him “Governor of the Ghetto”, which would make it easier for them to recruit manpower for work, and carry out Aktionen in Vilna and the surrounding area. Gens’ appointment was reassuring for the ghetto inhabitants. He left most of the Judenrat department heads intact, but informed the public that changes would take place in the running of the ghetto, as follows: All orders issued by the Germans must be carried out. In order to withstand their pressure only one man must lead the ghetto. Gens also declared that all Jewish inmates in the prison ghetto would be pardoned. The pardon would only be relevant for prisoners who had committed administrative offenses. No pardon would be granted for the more serious crimes, such as murder, robbery, attacking a policeman etc. He did this to gain the approval of the ghetto residents. It was very important to Gens to maintain constant contact with the people who lived in the ghetto. He formed channels of communication by means of leaflets in which he stressed the importance of labor, order and discipline, carrying out the orders of the Judenrat, and administering punishment to lawbreakers. The leaflets made his policies clear; they were printed and pinned up all over the ghetto. In addition, in September 1941, Gens published a newspaper in Yiddish, called “Gette Yediot” – “Ghetto News”. The paper was printed in a limited number of copies as it was distributed to the ghetto institutions and its pages were affixed on the ghetto notice boards. The paper contained important information for the inhabitants of the ghetto in matters concerning labor, education, medicine, culture, social assistance, accommodation, etc. By means of the paper Gens delivered notices regarding preserving the peace in the ghetto, refraining from spreading rumors, the importance of working, etc. Gens made good use of this means of communication which was very important to the inhabitants. The newspaper enabled the Jews to see things more clearly and “keep their ears to the ground”.

Yaakov Gens was trusted by the Jews in the ghetto. At this stage, people felt safer. It was a new phase where nobody was out of work. The financial worth of the ghetto increased daily because the Germans assured the ghetto people that they were needed by them for promoting their industries. In addition, excellent relations were assumed to exist between the Germans and Gens and Dessler, the new Chief of the Jewish Police in the ghetto. These relations would help the ghetto inhabitants survive.

The Judenrat is now responsible for organizing life inside the ghetto. Now the only individuals in charge of the ghetto are Gens as Ghetto Governor (“Ghettovorsteher”) and Dessler as Chief of Police.

Gens was strict in enacting his policies, increasing control over the ghetto police and using politics to ensure a sound economy.

Gens’ leadership and organizational skills were also evident in the maintenance of the specific departments that existed in the ghetto during the period of the previous Judenrat. He improved, upgraded and formed the basis for departments dealing with matters such as: goods, labor, technical procedures, accommodation, sanitation, social assistance, health and education. Through these departments the Jews of the ghetto were provided with important services. It should be mentioned that Gens was involved in promoting a number of matters in the departments even during the time he was Chief of Police of the ghetto, before his appointment as governor.

As far as the Germans were concerned the ghetto, with Gens as its leader, was a shining example of ghetto management.

As a result of the Aktionen, children were left orphaned and abandoned. They were hungry, homeless, all tattered and torn. They were deprived of an education and subsequently remained underdeveloped. These youngsters formed gangs made up of children and youth, who began stealing to stay alive. The Judenrat helped them find a place to live, youth leaders were appointed to keep them occupied in worthwhile pursuits in the ghetto. Orphanages were established and training courses were provided for them in metalwork, carpentry and painting.

However, unlike Gens, about whose personality and actions there were differing opinions, Chief of the Jewish Police Dessler collaborated with the Germans and served their interests.

As a result of the defeat of the Germans on the Russian front and fear of prolonged warfare, the German munitions industry found itself with lack of manpower which led to a need to utilize manpower in the occupied areas. This fact motivated Gens to make the ghetto productive to prevent it from being closed down, thus saving as many Jews as possible. Gens’ aim was to turn the ghetto into an economic entity. He believed that labor would save the ghetto’s inhabitants from extermination. There was also the belief that survival by means of labor was linked with the hope that having suffered defeat on the Eastern front, Germany might end up losing the war, and that during this period the Germans would be too occupied with their own survival and would have neither the time nor the inclination to destroy the ghetto. Gens began setting up workshops and small industry inside the ghetto, such as manufacturing ceramic utensils, furniture, leather, and others. Many women were employed in these workshops. All the machines needed for industrial production were constructed by Jewish engineers who lived in the ghetto. The ghetto became a place embodying life and creativity. Gens, by virtue of his authority and organizational capabilities, succeeding in operating a complex system and this was not a simple matter.

As mentioned above, labor and carrying out the orders of the Judenrat were of prime importance to Gens. He needed an organizational structure to assist him in carrying out this policy. For this purpose he took advantage of the brigadiers who operated in the ghetto, these being the leaders of groups who were fluent in German or Lithuanian and were in contact with the employers. In effect they mediated between the employer and his workers.

A brigadier was not appointed by the Judenrat. He was a person who rose in the ranks of the group itself from the bottom up, someone who stood out, showed leadership skills and, as noted, had the ability to communicate with the employers. In order to enhance the connection between brigadiers and their employers, the brigadiers would shower them with gifts, take on private work for them, even artwork was done for them by the Jewish laborers, and they would also bribe them with money. As a result of this, the brigadiers attained a special status exercising influence and gaining positions of power in the ghetto, thus currying favors for themselves and their family members. It should be mentioned, however, that most of the brigadiers fulfilled their tasks honestly and faithfully and with moral fiber, with genuine concern for the people in their charge. Their special status allowed them to help their Jewish brethren by providing work passes (Scheinen), obtaining extra food, helping to improve work conditions, etc. But on the other hand there were those brigadiers who took advantage of their position to receive bribes and benefits. The brigadiers decided to set up their own informal forum. They would meet once a week and discuss the topics they had in common such as work relations with laborers and employers, contact with the Judenrat, and others.

Gens was wary of their increasing power, especially in regard to their contact with the Germans which resulted in their being more independent and posing a threat to Gens’ power and the Judenrat. Gens took the brigadiers under his wing and in the winter of 1942 he formed “The Brigadier’s Council”, which would meet once a month and discuss work-related issues over which they had charge. They were the component that formed the link between the Judenrat and the Jewish community. Sometimes, when Gens wanted to convey news to the Jews in the ghetto without revealing it to the Germans, he would deliver it to the brigadiers via whom the news was forwarded to the Jews of the ghetto. His main aim was to dispel rumors about plans to destroy the ghetto, to explain tragic events such as Aktionen, and mainly to attempt to pour oil on the troubled waters and warn the people against purchasing weapons to join the partisans in the forest. The brigadiers were an organized body who held weight within the Judenrat. They took on themselves the role of representing the workers to Gens and promoted issues such as culture, sustenance, use of the bath house and other important matters. This group was very helpful to Gens in carrying out his policies.