[[Hannah Arendt]] stated in her 1963 book ''[[Eichmann in Jerusalem]]'' that without the assistance of the ''Judenräte'', the registration of the Jews, their concentration in ghettos and, later, their active assistance in the Jews' deportation to extermination camps, fewer Jews would have perished because the Germans would have encountered considerable difficulties in drawing up lists of Jews. In occupied Europe, the Nazis entrusted Jewish officials with the task of making such lists of Jews along with information about the property they owned. The ''Judenräte'' also directed the [[Jewish Ghetto Police]] to assist the Germans in seizing Jews and loading them onto transport trains leaving for [[Nazi concentration camps|concentration camps]]. |
[[Hannah Arendt]] stated in her 1963 book ''[[Eichmann in Jerusalem]]'' that without the assistance of the ''Judenräte'', the registration of the Jews, their concentration in ghettos and, later, their active assistance in the Jews' deportation to extermination camps, fewer Jews would have perished because the Germans would have encountered considerable difficulties in drawing up lists of Jews. In occupied Europe, the Nazis entrusted Jewish officials with the task of making such lists of Jews along with information about the property they owned. The ''Judenräte'' also directed the [[Jewish Ghetto Police]] to assist the Germans in seizing Jews and loading them onto transport trains leaving for [[Nazi concentration camps|concentration camps]]. |
||
In her book, Arendt wrote that: "To a Jew, this role of the Jewish leaders in the destruction of their own people is undoubtedly the darkest chapter of the whole dark story. [...] In the matter of cooperation, there was no distinction between the highly assimilated Jewish communities of Central and Western Europe and the [[Yiddish]]-speaking masses of the East. In Amsterdam as in Warsaw, in Berlin as in Budapest, Jewish officials could be trusted to compile the lists of persons and of their property..."<ref name="Arendt117">{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yGoxZEdw36oC&lpg=PP1&pg=PA118#v=onepage&q=%22To%20a%20Jew,%20this%20role%20of%20the%20Jewish%20leaders%20in%20the%20destruction%20of%20their%20own%20people%20is%20undoubtedly%20the%20darkest%20chapter%20of%20the%20whole%20dark%20story%22&f=false | title=Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil |work=The Wannsee Conference, or Pontius Pilate | publisher=Penguin | ISBN=1101007168 | date=2006 | accessdate=16 June 2015 | author=[[Hannah Arendt]] | pages=117–118}}</ref> |
In her book, Arendt wrote that: "To a Jew, this role of the Jewish leaders in the destruction of their own people is undoubtedly the darkest chapter of the whole dark story. [...] In the matter of cooperation, there was no distinction between the highly assimilated Jewish communities of Central and Western Europe and the [[Yiddish]]-speaking masses of the East. In Amsterdam as in Warsaw, in Berlin as in Budapest, Jewish officials could be trusted to compile the lists of persons and of their property, to secure money from the deportees to defray the expenses of their deportation and extermination, to keep track of vacated apartments, to supply police forces to help seize Jews and get them on trains, until, as a last gesture, they handed over the assets of the Jewish community in good order for final confiscation..."<ref name="Arendt117">{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yGoxZEdw36oC&lpg=PP1&pg=PA118#v=onepage&q=%22To%20a%20Jew,%20this%20role%20of%20the%20Jewish%20leaders%20in%20the%20destruction%20of%20their%20own%20people%20is%20undoubtedly%20the%20darkest%20chapter%20of%20the%20whole%20dark%20story%22&f=false | title=Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil |work=The Wannsee Conference, or Pontius Pilate | publisher=Penguin | ISBN=1101007168 | date=2006 | accessdate=16 June 2015 | author=[[Hannah Arendt]] | pages=117–118}}</ref> |
||
Arendt's view has been challenged by other historians of the Holocaust, including [[Isaiah Trunk]] in his book ''Judenrat: The Jewish Councils in Eastern Europe Under Nazi Occupation'' (1972). Summarising Trunk's research, Holocaust scholar [[Michael Berenbaum]] has written: "In the final analysis, the Judenräte had no influence on the frightful outcome of the [[The Holocaust|Holocaust]]; the Nazi extermination machine was alone responsible for the tragedy, and the Jews in the occupied territories, most especially [[Occupation of Poland (1939–1945)|Poland]], were far too powerless to prevent it."<ref>{{cite web| url = https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0011_0_10457.html| title = Judenrat| author = Berenbaum, Michael | accessdate = September 28, 2013| publisher = jewishvirtuallibrary.org}}</ref> |
Arendt's view has been challenged by other historians of the Holocaust, including [[Isaiah Trunk]] in his book ''Judenrat: The Jewish Councils in Eastern Europe Under Nazi Occupation'' (1972). Summarising Trunk's research, Holocaust scholar [[Michael Berenbaum]] has written: "In the final analysis, the Judenräte had no influence on the frightful outcome of the [[The Holocaust|Holocaust]]; the Nazi extermination machine was alone responsible for the tragedy, and the Jews in the occupied territories, most especially [[Occupation of Poland (1939–1945)|Poland]], were far too powerless to prevent it."<ref>{{cite web| url = https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0011_0_10457.html| title = Judenrat| author = Berenbaum, Michael | accessdate = September 28, 2013| publisher = jewishvirtuallibrary.org}}</ref> |
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'{{Italic title|reason=[[:Category:German words and phrases]]}}
{{Infobox organization
| name = Judenrat
| image = Juednradt.jpg
| image_size =
| caption = Judenrat in the town of [[Szydłowiec]] in [[occupied Poland]], where the Jewish population was in the majority before [[the Holocaust]]
| formation = 1939
| extinction = 1945
| purpose = Administrative agency
| main_organ = [[Schutzstaffel]] (SS)
| mission = Self-government
}}
{{Jewish Polish history}}
'''''Judenrat'''''{{efn|Plural: ''Judenräte''.}} ({{IPA-de|ˈjuːdn̩ˌʁaːt|lang}}, “Jewish council”) was a widely used administrative agency imposed by [[Nazi Germany]] during [[World War II]], predominantly within the [[Nazi ghettos|ghettos]] in [[German-occupied Europe|occupied Europe]], and the [[Jewish ghettos in German-occupied Poland]]. The Nazi German administration required [[Jew]]s to form a ''Judenrat'' in every community across the occupied territories.<ref name="Trunk1972"/>
The ''Judenrat'' constituted a form of self-enforcing intermediary, used by the Nazi administration to control larger Jewish communities in occupied areas. The Germans also implemented the name Jewish Council of Elders (''Jüdischen Ältestenrat'' or ''Ältestenrat der Juden'') in some ghettos, as in the [[Łódź Ghetto]], and in [[Theresienstadt concentration camp|Theresienstadt]] or in the [[Bergen-Belsen concentration camp]].<ref name="yv-terezin">{{cite web |url= http://www1.yadvashem.org/yv/en/holocaust/about/03/terezin.asp|title=The Ghettos Theresienstadt |author= |date= |work= |publisher=Yad Vashem The Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority |accessdate=12 December 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.zukunft-braucht-erinnerung.de/holocaust/konzentrationslager/598-jupp-weiss-aus-flamersheim-der-judenaelteste-von-bergen-belsen.html |title= Jupp Weiss aus Flamersheim, der Judenälteste von Bergen-Belsen|author=Hans-Dieter Arntz |date= |work= Arbeitskreis Shoa.de e.V., Berlin, Deutschland|publisher= |accessdate=12 December 2011|language=de}}</ref> While the history of the term ''Judenrat'' itself is unclear, Jewish communities themselves had established councils for self-government as far back as the Medieval Era. While the Hebrew term of ''Kahal'' (קהל) or ''Kehillah'' (קהילה) was used by the Jewish community, German authorities generally tended to use the term ''Judenräte''.
==Nazi considerations of Jewish legal status==
The structure and missions of the ''Judenräte'' under the Nazi regime varied widely, often depending upon whether meant for [[Ghettos in Nazi-occupied Europe|a single ghetto]], a city or a whole region. Jurisdiction over a whole country, as in [[Nazi Germany]], was maintained by ''[[Reichsvereinigung der Juden in Deutschland]]'' (Reich's Association of the Jews in Germany) established on 4 July 1939.<ref>{{cite journal |url= http://www1.yadvashem.org/odot_pdf/Microsoft%20Word%20-%204679.pdf |title=Yad Vashem Archives |author=Josef Israel Loewenherz |date=1 June 1942 |work=Head of the Jewish Community in Vienna informs about the intended evacuation of Jews to [[Theresienstadt concentration camp]] |publisher=Yad Vashem, The Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority |accessdate=1 April 2015}}</ref>
In the beginning of April 1933, shortly after the National Socialist government took power, a report by a German governmental commission was presented on fighting the Jews. This report recommended the creation of a recognized 'Association of Jews in Germany' (''Verband der Juden in Deutschland''), to which all Jews in Germany would be forced to associate. Appointed by the [[Chancellor of Germany#Chancellor of the Third Reich (1933–1945)|Reichskanzler]], a German People's Ward was then to assume responsibility of this group. As the leading Jewish organization, it was envisioned that this association would have a 25-member council called the ''Judenrat''. However, the report was not officially acted upon.
The Israeli historian Dan Michman found it likely that the commission, which considered the legal status and interactions of Jews and non-Jews before their [[Jewish emancipation|emancipation]], reached back to the Medieval Era for the term ''Judenräte''. This illuminates the apparent intent to make the Jewish emancipation and assimilation invalid, and so return Jews to the status they held during the Medieval Era.
==Occupied territories==
[[File:Stroop Report - Warsaw Ghetto Uprising 02.jpg|thumb|300px|The building of the Jewish Council in [[Warsaw]], burned during the [[Warsaw Ghetto Uprising]] ]]
The first actual ''Judenräte'' were established in [[occupied Poland]] by [[Reinhard Heydrich]]'s orders on 21 September 1939, soon after the end of the [[German assault on Poland]] and later the occupied territories of the [[Soviet Union]].<ref name="Trunk1972">[[Isaiah Trunk|Trunk, Isaiah]] ''[https://books.google.ca/books?id=D7bobfzrcCoC Judenrat: the Jewish Councils in Eastern Europe under Nazi Occupation]'' with an introduction by Jacob Robinson. New York: Macmillan, 1972. {{ISBN|080329428X}}.</ref>
The ''Judenräte'' were to serve as a means to enforce the occupation force's anti-Jewish regulations and laws in the western and central areas of Poland, and had no authority of their own. Ideally, a local ''Judenrat'' was to include [[Rabbi|Rabbis]] and other influential people of their local Jewish community. Thus, enforcement of laws could be better facilitated by the German authorities by using established Jewish authority figures and personages, while undermining external influences.
Further ''Judenräte'' were established on 18 November 1939, upon the orders of [[Hans Frank]], head of the [[General Government|Generalgouvernment]]. These councils were to have 12 members for Jewish communities of 10,000 or fewer, and up to 24 members for larger Jewish communities. Jewish communities were to elect their own councils, and by the end of 1939 were to have selected an executive and assistant executive as well. Results were to be presented to the German city or county controlling officer for recognition. While theoretically democratic, in reality the councils were often determined by the occupiers. While the German occupiers only minimally involved themselves in the voting, those whom the Germans first chose often refused participation to avoid becoming exploited by the occupiers. As a rule, therefore, the traditional speaker of the community was named and elected, preserving the community continuity.
==Missions and duties==
The Nazis systematically sought to weaken the resistance potential and opportunities of the Jews of [[Central Europe|Central]] and [[Eastern Europe]]. The early ''Judenräte'' were foremost to report numbers of their Jewish populations, clear residences and turn them over, present workers for forced labour, confiscate valuables, and collect tribute and turn these over. Failure to comply would incur the risk of collective punishments or other measures. Later tasks of the ''Judenräte'' included turning over community members for deportation.
Through these occupation measures, and the simultaneous prevention of government services, the Jewish communities suffered serious shortages. For this reason, early ''Judenräte'' attempted to establish replacement service institutions of their own. They tried to organize food distribution, aid stations, old age homes, orphanages and schools. At the same time, given their restricted circumstances and remaining options, they attempted to work against the occupier's forced measures and to win time. One way was to delay transfer and implementation of orders and to try playing conflicting demands of competing German interests against each other. They presented their efforts as indispensable for the Germans in managing the Jewish community, in order to improve the resources of the Jews and to move the Germans to repeal collective punishments.
This had, however, very limited positive results. The generally difficult situations presented often led to perceived unfair actions, such as personality preferences, [[sycophancy]], and protectionism of a few over the rest of the community. Thus, the members of the community quickly became highly critical of, or even outright opposed their ''Judenrat''.
==Ghettos==
''Judenräte'' were responsible for the internal administration of ghettos, standing between the Nazi occupiers and their Jewish communities. In general, the ''Judenräte'' represented the elite from their Jewish communities. Often, a ''Judenrat'' had a group for internal security and control, a
[[Jewish Ghetto Police]] (German: Jüdische Ghetto-Polizei or Jüdischer Ordnungsdienst). They also attempted to manage the government services normally found in a city such as those named above. However, the requirements of the Nazis to deliver community members to forced labor, deportation or [[Nazi concentration camps|concentration camps]], placed them in the position of co-operating the German occupiers. To resist such actions or orders was to risk summary execution or inclusion in the next concentration camp shipment, with a quick replacement.
In a number of cases, such as the [[Minsk ghetto]] and the [[Lakhva Ghetto|Łachwa ghetto]], ''Judenräte'' cooperated with the [[resistance movement]]. In other cases, ''Judenräte'' cooperated with the Nazis.
== The role of the ''Judenräte'' in the Holocaust ==
[[Hannah Arendt]] stated in her 1963 book ''[[Eichmann in Jerusalem]]'' that without the assistance of the ''Judenräte'', the registration of the Jews, their concentration in ghettos and, later, their active assistance in the Jews' deportation to extermination camps, fewer Jews would have perished because the Germans would have encountered considerable difficulties in drawing up lists of Jews. In occupied Europe, the Nazis entrusted Jewish officials with the task of making such lists of Jews along with information about the property they owned. The ''Judenräte'' also directed the [[Jewish Ghetto Police]] to assist the Germans in seizing Jews and loading them onto transport trains leaving for [[Nazi concentration camps|concentration camps]].
In her book, Arendt wrote that: "To a Jew, this role of the Jewish leaders in the destruction of their own people is undoubtedly the darkest chapter of the whole dark story. [...] In the matter of cooperation, there was no distinction between the highly assimilated Jewish communities of Central and Western Europe and the [[Yiddish]]-speaking masses of the East. In Amsterdam as in Warsaw, in Berlin as in Budapest, Jewish officials could be trusted to compile the lists of persons and of their property..."<ref name="Arendt117">{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yGoxZEdw36oC&lpg=PP1&pg=PA118#v=onepage&q=%22To%20a%20Jew,%20this%20role%20of%20the%20Jewish%20leaders%20in%20the%20destruction%20of%20their%20own%20people%20is%20undoubtedly%20the%20darkest%20chapter%20of%20the%20whole%20dark%20story%22&f=false | title=Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil |work=The Wannsee Conference, or Pontius Pilate | publisher=Penguin | ISBN=1101007168 | date=2006 | accessdate=16 June 2015 | author=[[Hannah Arendt]] | pages=117–118}}</ref>
Arendt's view has been challenged by other historians of the Holocaust, including [[Isaiah Trunk]] in his book ''Judenrat: The Jewish Councils in Eastern Europe Under Nazi Occupation'' (1972). Summarising Trunk's research, Holocaust scholar [[Michael Berenbaum]] has written: "In the final analysis, the Judenräte had no influence on the frightful outcome of the [[The Holocaust|Holocaust]]; the Nazi extermination machine was alone responsible for the tragedy, and the Jews in the occupied territories, most especially [[Occupation of Poland (1939–1945)|Poland]], were far too powerless to prevent it."<ref>{{cite web| url = https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0011_0_10457.html| title = Judenrat| author = Berenbaum, Michael | accessdate = September 28, 2013| publisher = jewishvirtuallibrary.org}}</ref>
== See also ==
* [[Ghetto uprising]]s
* [[Adam Czerniaków]], head of the [[Warsaw Ghetto]] ''Judenrat''
* [[Dov Lopatyn]], head of the Judenrat in [[Lakhva|Łachwa]], [[German-occupied Poland]]
* [[Mordechai Chaim Rumkowski]], head of the Council of Elders in the [[Łódź Ghetto]]
* [[Theresienstadt concentration camp]], a fortress in Bohemia where a Nazi-appointed "cultural council" organized the life of the Jewish prisoners.
== References ==
{{notelist}}
{{reflist}}
==External links==
* [http://collections.jewishmuseum.cz/index.php/Search/Index?search=judenrat Documents about the Judenrat in the Ghetto Terezín (Theresienstadt)] in the collection of the [http://www.jewishmuseum.cz Jewish Museum Prague].
*{{de icon}} [http://www.hagalil.com/archiv/2004/10/murmelstein.htm An article in German]
* Correspondence between JDC and representatives of Jewish community organizations located inside the [http://search.archives.jdc.org/notebook.asp?lang=ENG&dlang=ENG&module=search&page=list&rsvr=4¶m=%3Cuppernav%3Eglobal%3C/%3E%3Cnob%3E1%3C/%3E%3Cdlang%3EENG%3C/%3E%3Crsvr_ser%3E@@4@@NAMES@@2%3C/%3E%3Csearch_type%3Eglobal%3C/%3E%3Cnrsvr%3EY%3C/%3E%3Csort%3ERN@A%3C/%3E%3Cdispq%3EWORDz3z2626087%3C/%3E%3Cquery_name%3Eideanet-app_3788_938388%3C/%3E%3Cquantity%3E10%3C/%3E%3Cstart_entry%3E1%3C/%3E%3Cnum_of_items%3E3%3C/%3E%3Cquery_index%3E@global%3C/%3E%3Cthumb%3E0%3C/%3E%3Csmode%3Edts%3C/%3E%3Cfirst_item%3E1%3C/%3E%3Cbook_id%3E2626087%3C/%3E%3Cview%3Erecords%3C/%3E%3Cwords%3E2626087@@0002626087@@2626087@@0002626087@@n%3C/%3E¶m2=%3Cnvr%3E3%3C/%3E%3Csearch_type%3Eglobal%3C/%3E%3Cnob%3E0%3C/%3E&site=ideaalm Collection: Records of the American Joint Distribution Committee: Warsaw office, 1939–1941]
==Literature==
*Isaiah Trunk:''Judenrat. The Jewish Councils in Eastern Europe under Nazi Occupation,'' Stein & Day, 1977, {{ISBN|0-8128-2170-X}}
*V. Wahlen:''Select Bibliography on Judenraete under Nazi Rule'', in: ''Yad Vashem Studies'' 10/1974, s. 277-294
*Aharon Weiss:''Jewish Leadership in Occupied Poland. Postures and Attitudes'', in ''Yad Vashem Studies'' 12/1977, s. 335-365
*Marian Fuks: ''Das Problemm der Judenraete und Adam Czerniaks Anstaendigkeit.'' inSt. Jersch-Wenzel: ''Deutsche - Polen - Juden'' Colloquium, Berlin, 1987 {{ISBN|3-7678-0694-0}}, s. 229-239
*Dan Diner: ''Jenseits der Vorstellbaren- Der "Judenrat" als Situation''. In: Hanno Loewy, Gerhard Schoenberner: ''"Unser Einziger Weg ist Arbeit." Das Ghetto in Lodz 1940–1944.''. Vienna 1990, {{ISBN|3-85409-169-9}}
*Dan Diner: ''Gedaechtniszeiten. Ueber Juedische und Andere Geschichten.'' Beck 2003, {{ISBN|3-406-50560-0}}
*Doron Rabinovici: ''Instanzen der Ohnmacht. Wien 1938–1945. Der Weg zum Judenrat.'' Juedischer Verlag bei Suhrkamp, 2000, {{ISBN|3-633-54162-4}}
*Dan Michman: 'Jewish "Headships" under Nazi Rule: The Evolution and Implementation of an Administrative Concept', in: Dan Michman: ''Holocaust Historiography, a Jewish Perspective. Conceptualizations, Terminology, Approaches and Fundamental Issues'', London/Portland, Or.: Vallentine Mitchell, 2003, pp. 159–175. {{ISBN|0-85303-436-2}}
* Dan Michmann: 'On the Historical Interpretation of the Judenräte Issue: Between Intentionalism, Functionalism and the Integrationist Approach of the 1990s', in: Moshe Zimmermann (ed.), ''On Germans and Jews under the Nazi Regime. Essays by Three Generations of Historians. A Festschrift in Honor of Otto Dov Kulka'' (Jerusalem: The Hebrew University Magnes Press, 2006), pp. 385–397.
{{Holocaust Poland}}
{{Authority control}}
[[Category:Jewish Nazi collaboration]]
[[Category:Nazi terminology]]
[[Category:Holocaust terminology]]'
|
New page wikitext, after the edit (new_wikitext) |
'{{Italic title|reason=[[:Category:German words and phrases]]}}
{{Infobox organization
| name = Judenrat
| image = Juednradt.jpg
| image_size =
| caption = Judenrat in the town of [[Szydłowiec]] in [[occupied Poland]], where the Jewish population was in the majority before [[the Holocaust]]
| formation = 1939
| extinction = 1945
| purpose = Administrative agency
| main_organ = [[Schutzstaffel]] (SS)
| mission = Self-government
}}
{{Jewish Polish history}}
'''''Judenrat'''''{{efn|Plural: ''Judenräte''.}} ({{IPA-de|ˈjuːdn̩ˌʁaːt|lang}}, “Jewish council”) was a widely used administrative agency imposed by [[Nazi Germany]] during [[World War II]], predominantly within the [[Nazi ghettos|ghettos]] in [[German-occupied Europe|occupied Europe]], and the [[Jewish ghettos in German-occupied Poland]]. The Nazi German administration required [[Jew]]s to form a ''Judenrat'' in every community across the occupied territories.<ref name="Trunk1972"/>
The ''Judenrat'' constituted a form of self-enforcing intermediary, used by the Nazi administration to control larger Jewish communities in occupied areas. The Germans also implemented the name Jewish Council of Elders (''Jüdischen Ältestenrat'' or ''Ältestenrat der Juden'') in some ghettos, as in the [[Łódź Ghetto]], and in [[Theresienstadt concentration camp|Theresienstadt]] or in the [[Bergen-Belsen concentration camp]].<ref name="yv-terezin">{{cite web |url= http://www1.yadvashem.org/yv/en/holocaust/about/03/terezin.asp|title=The Ghettos Theresienstadt |author= |date= |work= |publisher=Yad Vashem The Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority |accessdate=12 December 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.zukunft-braucht-erinnerung.de/holocaust/konzentrationslager/598-jupp-weiss-aus-flamersheim-der-judenaelteste-von-bergen-belsen.html |title= Jupp Weiss aus Flamersheim, der Judenälteste von Bergen-Belsen|author=Hans-Dieter Arntz |date= |work= Arbeitskreis Shoa.de e.V., Berlin, Deutschland|publisher= |accessdate=12 December 2011|language=de}}</ref> While the history of the term ''Judenrat'' itself is unclear, Jewish communities themselves had established councils for self-government as far back as the Medieval Era. While the Hebrew term of ''Kahal'' (קהל) or ''Kehillah'' (קהילה) was used by the Jewish community, German authorities generally tended to use the term ''Judenräte''.
==Nazi considerations of Jewish legal status==
The structure and missions of the ''Judenräte'' under the Nazi regime varied widely, often depending upon whether meant for [[Ghettos in Nazi-occupied Europe|a single ghetto]], a city or a whole region. Jurisdiction over a whole country, as in [[Nazi Germany]], was maintained by ''[[Reichsvereinigung der Juden in Deutschland]]'' (Reich's Association of the Jews in Germany) established on 4 July 1939.<ref>{{cite journal |url= http://www1.yadvashem.org/odot_pdf/Microsoft%20Word%20-%204679.pdf |title=Yad Vashem Archives |author=Josef Israel Loewenherz |date=1 June 1942 |work=Head of the Jewish Community in Vienna informs about the intended evacuation of Jews to [[Theresienstadt concentration camp]] |publisher=Yad Vashem, The Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority |accessdate=1 April 2015}}</ref>
In the beginning of April 1933, shortly after the National Socialist government took power, a report by a German governmental commission was presented on fighting the Jews. This report recommended the creation of a recognized 'Association of Jews in Germany' (''Verband der Juden in Deutschland''), to which all Jews in Germany would be forced to associate. Appointed by the [[Chancellor of Germany#Chancellor of the Third Reich (1933–1945)|Reichskanzler]], a German People's Ward was then to assume responsibility of this group. As the leading Jewish organization, it was envisioned that this association would have a 25-member council called the ''Judenrat''. However, the report was not officially acted upon.
The Israeli historian Dan Michman found it likely that the commission, which considered the legal status and interactions of Jews and non-Jews before their [[Jewish emancipation|emancipation]], reached back to the Medieval Era for the term ''Judenräte''. This illuminates the apparent intent to make the Jewish emancipation and assimilation invalid, and so return Jews to the status they held during the Medieval Era.
==Occupied territories==
[[File:Stroop Report - Warsaw Ghetto Uprising 02.jpg|thumb|300px|The building of the Jewish Council in [[Warsaw]], burned during the [[Warsaw Ghetto Uprising]] ]]
The first actual ''Judenräte'' were established in [[occupied Poland]] by [[Reinhard Heydrich]]'s orders on 21 September 1939, soon after the end of the [[German assault on Poland]] and later the occupied territories of the [[Soviet Union]].<ref name="Trunk1972">[[Isaiah Trunk|Trunk, Isaiah]] ''[https://books.google.ca/books?id=D7bobfzrcCoC Judenrat: the Jewish Councils in Eastern Europe under Nazi Occupation]'' with an introduction by Jacob Robinson. New York: Macmillan, 1972. {{ISBN|080329428X}}.</ref>
The ''Judenräte'' were to serve as a means to enforce the occupation force's anti-Jewish regulations and laws in the western and central areas of Poland, and had no authority of their own. Ideally, a local ''Judenrat'' was to include [[Rabbi|Rabbis]] and other influential people of their local Jewish community. Thus, enforcement of laws could be better facilitated by the German authorities by using established Jewish authority figures and personages, while undermining external influences.
Further ''Judenräte'' were established on 18 November 1939, upon the orders of [[Hans Frank]], head of the [[General Government|Generalgouvernment]]. These councils were to have 12 members for Jewish communities of 10,000 or fewer, and up to 24 members for larger Jewish communities. Jewish communities were to elect their own councils, and by the end of 1939 were to have selected an executive and assistant executive as well. Results were to be presented to the German city or county controlling officer for recognition. While theoretically democratic, in reality the councils were often determined by the occupiers. While the German occupiers only minimally involved themselves in the voting, those whom the Germans first chose often refused participation to avoid becoming exploited by the occupiers. As a rule, therefore, the traditional speaker of the community was named and elected, preserving the community continuity.
==Missions and duties==
The Nazis systematically sought to weaken the resistance potential and opportunities of the Jews of [[Central Europe|Central]] and [[Eastern Europe]]. The early ''Judenräte'' were foremost to report numbers of their Jewish populations, clear residences and turn them over, present workers for forced labour, confiscate valuables, and collect tribute and turn these over. Failure to comply would incur the risk of collective punishments or other measures. Later tasks of the ''Judenräte'' included turning over community members for deportation.
Through these occupation measures, and the simultaneous prevention of government services, the Jewish communities suffered serious shortages. For this reason, early ''Judenräte'' attempted to establish replacement service institutions of their own. They tried to organize food distribution, aid stations, old age homes, orphanages and schools. At the same time, given their restricted circumstances and remaining options, they attempted to work against the occupier's forced measures and to win time. One way was to delay transfer and implementation of orders and to try playing conflicting demands of competing German interests against each other. They presented their efforts as indispensable for the Germans in managing the Jewish community, in order to improve the resources of the Jews and to move the Germans to repeal collective punishments.
This had, however, very limited positive results. The generally difficult situations presented often led to perceived unfair actions, such as personality preferences, [[sycophancy]], and protectionism of a few over the rest of the community. Thus, the members of the community quickly became highly critical of, or even outright opposed their ''Judenrat''.
==Ghettos==
''Judenräte'' were responsible for the internal administration of ghettos, standing between the Nazi occupiers and their Jewish communities. In general, the ''Judenräte'' represented the elite from their Jewish communities. Often, a ''Judenrat'' had a group for internal security and control, a
[[Jewish Ghetto Police]] (German: Jüdische Ghetto-Polizei or Jüdischer Ordnungsdienst). They also attempted to manage the government services normally found in a city such as those named above. However, the requirements of the Nazis to deliver community members to forced labor, deportation or [[Nazi concentration camps|concentration camps]], placed them in the position of co-operating the German occupiers. To resist such actions or orders was to risk summary execution or inclusion in the next concentration camp shipment, with a quick replacement.
In a number of cases, such as the [[Minsk ghetto]] and the [[Lakhva Ghetto|Łachwa ghetto]], ''Judenräte'' cooperated with the [[resistance movement]]. In other cases, ''Judenräte'' cooperated with the Nazis.
== The role of the ''Judenräte'' in the Holocaust ==
[[Hannah Arendt]] stated in her 1963 book ''[[Eichmann in Jerusalem]]'' that without the assistance of the ''Judenräte'', the registration of the Jews, their concentration in ghettos and, later, their active assistance in the Jews' deportation to extermination camps, fewer Jews would have perished because the Germans would have encountered considerable difficulties in drawing up lists of Jews. In occupied Europe, the Nazis entrusted Jewish officials with the task of making such lists of Jews along with information about the property they owned. The ''Judenräte'' also directed the [[Jewish Ghetto Police]] to assist the Germans in seizing Jews and loading them onto transport trains leaving for [[Nazi concentration camps|concentration camps]].
In her book, Arendt wrote that: "To a Jew, this role of the Jewish leaders in the destruction of their own people is undoubtedly the darkest chapter of the whole dark story. [...] In the matter of cooperation, there was no distinction between the highly assimilated Jewish communities of Central and Western Europe and the [[Yiddish]]-speaking masses of the East. In Amsterdam as in Warsaw, in Berlin as in Budapest, Jewish officials could be trusted to compile the lists of persons and of their property, to secure money from the deportees to defray the expenses of their deportation and extermination, to keep track of vacated apartments, to supply police forces to help seize Jews and get them on trains, until, as a last gesture, they handed over the assets of the Jewish community in good order for final confiscation..."<ref name="Arendt117">{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yGoxZEdw36oC&lpg=PP1&pg=PA118#v=onepage&q=%22To%20a%20Jew,%20this%20role%20of%20the%20Jewish%20leaders%20in%20the%20destruction%20of%20their%20own%20people%20is%20undoubtedly%20the%20darkest%20chapter%20of%20the%20whole%20dark%20story%22&f=false | title=Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil |work=The Wannsee Conference, or Pontius Pilate | publisher=Penguin | ISBN=1101007168 | date=2006 | accessdate=16 June 2015 | author=[[Hannah Arendt]] | pages=117–118}}</ref>
Arendt's view has been challenged by other historians of the Holocaust, including [[Isaiah Trunk]] in his book ''Judenrat: The Jewish Councils in Eastern Europe Under Nazi Occupation'' (1972). Summarising Trunk's research, Holocaust scholar [[Michael Berenbaum]] has written: "In the final analysis, the Judenräte had no influence on the frightful outcome of the [[The Holocaust|Holocaust]]; the Nazi extermination machine was alone responsible for the tragedy, and the Jews in the occupied territories, most especially [[Occupation of Poland (1939–1945)|Poland]], were far too powerless to prevent it."<ref>{{cite web| url = https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0011_0_10457.html| title = Judenrat| author = Berenbaum, Michael | accessdate = September 28, 2013| publisher = jewishvirtuallibrary.org}}</ref>
== See also ==
* [[Ghetto uprising]]s
* [[Adam Czerniaków]], head of the [[Warsaw Ghetto]] ''Judenrat''
* [[Dov Lopatyn]], head of the Judenrat in [[Lakhva|Łachwa]], [[German-occupied Poland]]
* [[Mordechai Chaim Rumkowski]], head of the Council of Elders in the [[Łódź Ghetto]]
* [[Theresienstadt concentration camp]], a fortress in Bohemia where a Nazi-appointed "cultural council" organized the life of the Jewish prisoners.
== References ==
{{notelist}}
{{reflist}}
==External links==
* [http://collections.jewishmuseum.cz/index.php/Search/Index?search=judenrat Documents about the Judenrat in the Ghetto Terezín (Theresienstadt)] in the collection of the [http://www.jewishmuseum.cz Jewish Museum Prague].
*{{de icon}} [http://www.hagalil.com/archiv/2004/10/murmelstein.htm An article in German]
* Correspondence between JDC and representatives of Jewish community organizations located inside the [http://search.archives.jdc.org/notebook.asp?lang=ENG&dlang=ENG&module=search&page=list&rsvr=4¶m=%3Cuppernav%3Eglobal%3C/%3E%3Cnob%3E1%3C/%3E%3Cdlang%3EENG%3C/%3E%3Crsvr_ser%3E@@4@@NAMES@@2%3C/%3E%3Csearch_type%3Eglobal%3C/%3E%3Cnrsvr%3EY%3C/%3E%3Csort%3ERN@A%3C/%3E%3Cdispq%3EWORDz3z2626087%3C/%3E%3Cquery_name%3Eideanet-app_3788_938388%3C/%3E%3Cquantity%3E10%3C/%3E%3Cstart_entry%3E1%3C/%3E%3Cnum_of_items%3E3%3C/%3E%3Cquery_index%3E@global%3C/%3E%3Cthumb%3E0%3C/%3E%3Csmode%3Edts%3C/%3E%3Cfirst_item%3E1%3C/%3E%3Cbook_id%3E2626087%3C/%3E%3Cview%3Erecords%3C/%3E%3Cwords%3E2626087@@0002626087@@2626087@@0002626087@@n%3C/%3E¶m2=%3Cnvr%3E3%3C/%3E%3Csearch_type%3Eglobal%3C/%3E%3Cnob%3E0%3C/%3E&site=ideaalm Collection: Records of the American Joint Distribution Committee: Warsaw office, 1939–1941]
==Literature==
*Isaiah Trunk:''Judenrat. The Jewish Councils in Eastern Europe under Nazi Occupation,'' Stein & Day, 1977, {{ISBN|0-8128-2170-X}}
*V. Wahlen:''Select Bibliography on Judenraete under Nazi Rule'', in: ''Yad Vashem Studies'' 10/1974, s. 277-294
*Aharon Weiss:''Jewish Leadership in Occupied Poland. Postures and Attitudes'', in ''Yad Vashem Studies'' 12/1977, s. 335-365
*Marian Fuks: ''Das Problemm der Judenraete und Adam Czerniaks Anstaendigkeit.'' inSt. Jersch-Wenzel: ''Deutsche - Polen - Juden'' Colloquium, Berlin, 1987 {{ISBN|3-7678-0694-0}}, s. 229-239
*Dan Diner: ''Jenseits der Vorstellbaren- Der "Judenrat" als Situation''. In: Hanno Loewy, Gerhard Schoenberner: ''"Unser Einziger Weg ist Arbeit." Das Ghetto in Lodz 1940–1944.''. Vienna 1990, {{ISBN|3-85409-169-9}}
*Dan Diner: ''Gedaechtniszeiten. Ueber Juedische und Andere Geschichten.'' Beck 2003, {{ISBN|3-406-50560-0}}
*Doron Rabinovici: ''Instanzen der Ohnmacht. Wien 1938–1945. Der Weg zum Judenrat.'' Juedischer Verlag bei Suhrkamp, 2000, {{ISBN|3-633-54162-4}}
*Dan Michman: 'Jewish "Headships" under Nazi Rule: The Evolution and Implementation of an Administrative Concept', in: Dan Michman: ''Holocaust Historiography, a Jewish Perspective. Conceptualizations, Terminology, Approaches and Fundamental Issues'', London/Portland, Or.: Vallentine Mitchell, 2003, pp. 159–175. {{ISBN|0-85303-436-2}}
* Dan Michmann: 'On the Historical Interpretation of the Judenräte Issue: Between Intentionalism, Functionalism and the Integrationist Approach of the 1990s', in: Moshe Zimmermann (ed.), ''On Germans and Jews under the Nazi Regime. Essays by Three Generations of Historians. A Festschrift in Honor of Otto Dov Kulka'' (Jerusalem: The Hebrew University Magnes Press, 2006), pp. 385–397.
{{Holocaust Poland}}
{{Authority control}}
[[Category:Jewish Nazi collaboration]]
[[Category:Nazi terminology]]
[[Category:Holocaust terminology]]'
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'@@ -48,5 +48,5 @@
[[Hannah Arendt]] stated in her 1963 book ''[[Eichmann in Jerusalem]]'' that without the assistance of the ''Judenräte'', the registration of the Jews, their concentration in ghettos and, later, their active assistance in the Jews' deportation to extermination camps, fewer Jews would have perished because the Germans would have encountered considerable difficulties in drawing up lists of Jews. In occupied Europe, the Nazis entrusted Jewish officials with the task of making such lists of Jews along with information about the property they owned. The ''Judenräte'' also directed the [[Jewish Ghetto Police]] to assist the Germans in seizing Jews and loading them onto transport trains leaving for [[Nazi concentration camps|concentration camps]].
-In her book, Arendt wrote that: "To a Jew, this role of the Jewish leaders in the destruction of their own people is undoubtedly the darkest chapter of the whole dark story. [...] In the matter of cooperation, there was no distinction between the highly assimilated Jewish communities of Central and Western Europe and the [[Yiddish]]-speaking masses of the East. In Amsterdam as in Warsaw, in Berlin as in Budapest, Jewish officials could be trusted to compile the lists of persons and of their property..."<ref name="Arendt117">{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yGoxZEdw36oC&lpg=PP1&pg=PA118#v=onepage&q=%22To%20a%20Jew,%20this%20role%20of%20the%20Jewish%20leaders%20in%20the%20destruction%20of%20their%20own%20people%20is%20undoubtedly%20the%20darkest%20chapter%20of%20the%20whole%20dark%20story%22&f=false | title=Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil |work=The Wannsee Conference, or Pontius Pilate | publisher=Penguin | ISBN=1101007168 | date=2006 | accessdate=16 June 2015 | author=[[Hannah Arendt]] | pages=117–118}}</ref>
+In her book, Arendt wrote that: "To a Jew, this role of the Jewish leaders in the destruction of their own people is undoubtedly the darkest chapter of the whole dark story. [...] In the matter of cooperation, there was no distinction between the highly assimilated Jewish communities of Central and Western Europe and the [[Yiddish]]-speaking masses of the East. In Amsterdam as in Warsaw, in Berlin as in Budapest, Jewish officials could be trusted to compile the lists of persons and of their property, to secure money from the deportees to defray the expenses of their deportation and extermination, to keep track of vacated apartments, to supply police forces to help seize Jews and get them on trains, until, as a last gesture, they handed over the assets of the Jewish community in good order for final confiscation..."<ref name="Arendt117">{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yGoxZEdw36oC&lpg=PP1&pg=PA118#v=onepage&q=%22To%20a%20Jew,%20this%20role%20of%20the%20Jewish%20leaders%20in%20the%20destruction%20of%20their%20own%20people%20is%20undoubtedly%20the%20darkest%20chapter%20of%20the%20whole%20dark%20story%22&f=false | title=Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil |work=The Wannsee Conference, or Pontius Pilate | publisher=Penguin | ISBN=1101007168 | date=2006 | accessdate=16 June 2015 | author=[[Hannah Arendt]] | pages=117–118}}</ref>
Arendt's view has been challenged by other historians of the Holocaust, including [[Isaiah Trunk]] in his book ''Judenrat: The Jewish Councils in Eastern Europe Under Nazi Occupation'' (1972). Summarising Trunk's research, Holocaust scholar [[Michael Berenbaum]] has written: "In the final analysis, the Judenräte had no influence on the frightful outcome of the [[The Holocaust|Holocaust]]; the Nazi extermination machine was alone responsible for the tragedy, and the Jews in the occupied territories, most especially [[Occupation of Poland (1939–1945)|Poland]], were far too powerless to prevent it."<ref>{{cite web| url = https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0011_0_10457.html| title = Judenrat| author = Berenbaum, Michael | accessdate = September 28, 2013| publisher = jewishvirtuallibrary.org}}</ref>
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0 => 'In her book, Arendt wrote that: "To a Jew, this role of the Jewish leaders in the destruction of their own people is undoubtedly the darkest chapter of the whole dark story. [...] In the matter of cooperation, there was no distinction between the highly assimilated Jewish communities of Central and Western Europe and the [[Yiddish]]-speaking masses of the East. In Amsterdam as in Warsaw, in Berlin as in Budapest, Jewish officials could be trusted to compile the lists of persons and of their property, to secure money from the deportees to defray the expenses of their deportation and extermination, to keep track of vacated apartments, to supply police forces to help seize Jews and get them on trains, until, as a last gesture, they handed over the assets of the Jewish community in good order for final confiscation..."<ref name="Arendt117">{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yGoxZEdw36oC&lpg=PP1&pg=PA118#v=onepage&q=%22To%20a%20Jew,%20this%20role%20of%20the%20Jewish%20leaders%20in%20the%20destruction%20of%20their%20own%20people%20is%20undoubtedly%20the%20darkest%20chapter%20of%20the%20whole%20dark%20story%22&f=false | title=Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil |work=The Wannsee Conference, or Pontius Pilate | publisher=Penguin | ISBN=1101007168 | date=2006 | accessdate=16 June 2015 | author=[[Hannah Arendt]] | pages=117–118}}</ref>'
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0 => 'In her book, Arendt wrote that: "To a Jew, this role of the Jewish leaders in the destruction of their own people is undoubtedly the darkest chapter of the whole dark story. [...] In the matter of cooperation, there was no distinction between the highly assimilated Jewish communities of Central and Western Europe and the [[Yiddish]]-speaking masses of the East. In Amsterdam as in Warsaw, in Berlin as in Budapest, Jewish officials could be trusted to compile the lists of persons and of their property..."<ref name="Arendt117">{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yGoxZEdw36oC&lpg=PP1&pg=PA118#v=onepage&q=%22To%20a%20Jew,%20this%20role%20of%20the%20Jewish%20leaders%20in%20the%20destruction%20of%20their%20own%20people%20is%20undoubtedly%20the%20darkest%20chapter%20of%20the%20whole%20dark%20story%22&f=false | title=Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil |work=The Wannsee Conference, or Pontius Pilate | publisher=Penguin | ISBN=1101007168 | date=2006 | accessdate=16 June 2015 | author=[[Hannah Arendt]] | pages=117–118}}</ref>'
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