JUDENRAT Big Help to Germans Ringelblum

Notes from the Warsaw Ghetto, by Emmanuel Ringelblum. 2006

Candor on Jewish-Nazi Collaboration and Its Big Help to the Germans in the Holocaust. The Canned Serve-or-Die Exculpation Fails

This volume, written by a Jewish historian in hiding during the Shoah, is full of interesting information.

IN THE FIRST TWO YEARS OF THE NAZI GERMAN OCCUPATION IN POLAND, ETHNIC POLES GENERALLY HAD IT WORSE THAN THE JEWS!

It is a little-known fact that, during the first two or more years of the German occupation of Poland, Jews were treated better by the Germans than the Poles. Emmanuel Ringelblum alludes to this (March 25, 1940; pp. 24-25), when Poles felt safer masquerading as Jews! Also (August 6, 1940, p. 45): “True, they [Jews] were beaten; but Poles were shot. True, Jews are impressed into work; but Poles are sent out of the country to work…Jews were deported from Cracow in the course of several weeks, Poles in a few hours.” (p. 45). Also (January 22, 1942): “The question of who is worse off now, the Jews or the Poles, is often discussed.” (p. 248).

NO BLACK AND WHITE IN POLISH-JEWISH RELATIONS

Many Holocaust films exhibit a simplistic hagiography of Jews and demonization of Poles. In contrast, Ringelblum appreciates the diversity in the conduct of members of both groups, which can be summarized as follows (April 26, 1941): “[I] heard the opinion expressed that war reveals the best and the worst in people. It’s like a high fever, in which everything is clarified. On the one hand, some Christians offer to help the Jews; on the other hand, bestial anti-Semitism; on the one hand stony hearts [among the Jews]; on the other, devoted self-sacrifice to aid those suffering from hunger.” (p. 157). As Jews were being ghettoized, Poles showed sympathy in some locations and not in others (p. 45). The same holds for exploiting vs. helping Jews with regards to post-Jewish properties (pp. 51-52).

Good and bad could be found in any nationality. A recurrent theme in Ringelblum’s diary is the avariciousness of both the Polish Blue Police (Policja Granatowa) as well as the Jewish ghetto police (e. g., p. 145, pp. 154-155). Also (May 25, 1942): “As a result, a smuggler has to buy off four parties: Polish, Jewish, and German policemen, and now civilian agents as well.” (p. 278).

EARLY-WWII POLISH VIOLENCE AGAINST JEWS SHOULD NOT BE EXAGGERATED

Polish hoodlums’ attacks were not limited to Jewish victims: (February 27, 1941): “On the other side of the Jewish graveyard, young Poles have formed bands that attack Christians as well as Jews.” (p. 127). Sometimes Poles came to the defense of Jews under attack by Polish hoodlums (October 5, 1940; p. 68).

POLES WERE GENERALLY BENEVOLENT TO THE JEWS

Ringelblum mentions positive Polish attitudes and helpful Polish actions towards Jews many times (p. 21, pp. 51-52, p. 64, 66, 91, 137, 152, 199, 216-217, 322-323). In terms of generalizations, at least some Jews believed that most local Poles were good to the Jews (May 15, 1941): “The Catholics displayed a far-reaching tolerance…Mr. Isaac estimates the percentage of saintly gentiles in Starograd at 95 per cent.” (p. 170). Polish organizations are credited with doing away with Polish blackmailers (October 15, 1942; p. 322).

DOES NOT FORGET THAT POLES WERE ALSO VICTIMS

Ringelblum alludes to the Germans’ torching of a synagogue in Lodz and then blaming the Poles for it in an attempt to divide Poles and Jews (p. 39). He also never loses sight of the fact that Poles were also victims of the Germans. He discusses the privations and mass murders of Poles, notably of the Polish intelligentsia, numerous times (p. 21, 26, p. 30, pp. 38-39, 137, 145, 154, 169, 259, 288). The Poles realized that they were “next” when they saw the Jews ghettoized (p. 91).

JEWISH GESTAPO AGENTS

All illegal acts had to be conducted away from the prying eyes of the Germans and their informers of various nationalities. Ringelblum spoke of Jewish informers (p. 251, 339-340), Jewish Gestapo agents (p. 182, pp. 280-281), and the search for Jews hiding within the ghetto (December 14, 1942): “In 90 percent of the cases it was the Jewish police who uncovered the hideouts. First they found out where the hideouts were; then they passed the information along to the Ukrainians and Germans.” (pp. 340-341). Ringelblum doesn’t mention the fact that Jewish agents, specially trained for the unmasking of hideouts, were also sent to Polish urban areas, and into fields and forests, in order to uncover Jews hidden by Poles.

JEWISH-NAZI COLLABORATION HAD LONG PRECEDED ANY LARGE-SCALE AND SUSTAINED GERMAN MURDERS OF JEWS

In common with other chroniclers, Ringelblum’s harshest criticisms are directed against fellow Jews, including the JUDENRAT and the Jewish ghetto police. Nowadays, however, Jewish-Nazi collaboration is reflexively dismissed with the exculpatory cliche that such Jews were desperately trying to save their own lives, or that they had to deal with choiceless choices. Both are clearly incorrect, as Jewish-Nazi collaboration had flourished long before the start of the Shoah. For instance, Ringelblum comments (September 22, 1942): “THE JEWISH POLICE HAD A VERY BAD NAME EVEN BEFORE THE RESETTLEMENT. The Polish police didn’t take part in the forced-work press gangs, but the Jewish police engaged in that ugly business. Jewish policemen also distinguished themselves with their fearful corruption and immorality. But they reached the height of viciousness during the resettlement…And now people are wracking their brains to understand how Jews, most of them men of culture, former lawyers (most of the police officers were lawyers before the war) could have done away with their brothers with their own hands…Very often, the cruelty of the Jewish police exceeded that of the Germans, Ukrainians, and Letts…For the most part, the Jewish police showed an incomprehensible brutality.” (pp. 329-331; Emphasis added).

THE EFFICACY OF JEWISH-NAZI COLLABORATION: A BIG HELP TO THE GERMANS

Nowadays, it is claimed that Jewish-Nazi collaboration had no significant effect upon the course of the German-made Holocaust. This, too, is incorrect. Owing to the actions of the Jewish ghetto police, a relatively small number of Germans and their Ukrainian and Baltic collaborators sufficed to send over 300,000 Warsaw Jews to their deaths at Treblinka. Ringelblum asks (October 15, 1942): “Why could 50 S. S. [SS] men (some people say even fewer), with the help of a division of some 200 Ukrainian guards and an equal number of Letts, carry out the operation out so smoothly?” (p. 310).

IS THE BLOOD OF JEWISH VICTIMS ANY REDDER THAN THE BLOOD OF NON-JEWISH VICTIMS?

During the actual extermination process, there was the Jewish outcry over the fact that the world was not doing anything to stop it. But even what later became known as the Holocaust was at first contextualized by Ringelblum (June 25, 1942): “Why should the world be shaken by our suffering when rivers of blood are spilled daily on every battlefield? In what respect is our Jewish blood more precious than that of the Russian, Chinese, English soldiers?” (p. 296). Ringelblum concluded with several proposals for stopping the extermination of the Jews (pp. 297-298).