Baranovich Online
Lot 62:
Judgment rendered by the Judenrat of the Lodz (Litzmanstadt) Ghetto to five individuals accused of stealing flour or assisting those who did. 18 July 1941. [1] page printed in stencil.
The detailed verdict is written in Yiddish. At the top of the page: ”Der Aelteste fun di Juden in Litzmanstadt.” It was rendered for five people accused of stealing flour from the ghetto storehouses. Each of the accused is listed with his name, age, address in the ghetto, and even the names of his parents. The first accused was sentenced to four months of harsh imprisonment (with forced labor). Three others who helped and hid the flour were sentenced to two months of harsh imprisonment (with forced labor). The last victim was sentenced to one month of harsh imprisonment. At the bottom of the of the page appears the name of Mordechai Chaim Rumkowski, Judenrat head, and the original seal (in blue) of the Judenrat. A sad and tragic story from a sad and tragic period!
Der Aelteste Der Juden – Mordechai Chaim Rumkowski was born in 1877 in a Russian village. With the German conquest of Lodz, Rumkowski was appointed head of the Judenrat in the Lodz ghetto. The German authorities gave Rumkowski much authority over the Jewish prisoners of the ghetto in all areas related to its day-to-day operation, including organizing the work factories, food distribution, sanitation, housing, appointing others to positions of authority and more. At his disposal stood the Jewish police responsible for order in the ghetto. The Germans saw the ghetto as a resource of extremely cheap labor. Rumkowski was given the responsibility of organizing factories (which were profitable for the ghetto administration). Rumkowski saw the establishment of the factories as a way to overcome the unemployment and hunger so rampant in the ghetto, and as a means to save the workers from deportation to the death camps. In September 1942, the Germans demanded from Rumkowski to hand over thousands of Jews. In the speech that he delivered before the Jews of the ghetto, Rumkowski pleaded with them to hand over the sick and the children so as to save the rest of the ghetto. In the aktzia known as ”Shifra, ” over 20,000 children, sick and the elderly were deported to the Chelmno extermination camp without the help of the Judenrat and killed there. With the liquidation of the ghetto in spring 1944, the remaining Jews were deported to Chelmno and later to Auschwitz-Birkenau and murdered there. On 30 August 1944, Rumkowski and his family were deported to Auschwitz and murdered. The figure of Mordechai Chaim Rumkowski remains a controversial one.
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