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Due to Rumkowski's harsh treatment, and stern, arrogant personality, the Jews began to blame him for their predicament, and unleashed their frustration on him instead of the Germans, who were beyond their reach.<ref name="Reassessment, p. 33" /> The most significant display of this frustration and resistance was a series of strikes and demonstrations between August 1940 and spring of 1941. Led by activists and leftist parties against Rumkowski, the workers abandoned their stations and went to the streets handing out fliers:
Due to Rumkowski's harsh treatment, and stern, arrogant personality, the Jews began to blame him for their predicament, and unleashed their frustration on him instead of the Germans, who were beyond their reach.<ref name="Reassessment, p. 33" /> The most significant display of this frustration and resistance was a series of strikes and demonstrations between August 1940 and spring of 1941. Led by activists and leftist parties against Rumkowski, the workers abandoned their stations and went to the streets handing out fliers:


{{blockquote|Brothers and sisters! Turn out ''en masse'' to wipe out at long last, with joint and unified force, the terrible poverty and the barbaric behaviour of the [[Kehilla (modern)|Kehilla]] representatives toward the wretched, exhausted, starved public... The slogan: bread for all!! Let's join forces in war against the accursed Kehilla parasite... – ''Demonstration Leaflet'' <ref>Unger 2004, ''Reassessment'', p. 34.</ref>}}
{{blockquote|Brothers and sisters! Turn out ''en masse'' to wipe out at long last, with joint and unified force, the terrible poverty and the barbaric behaviour of the [[Kehilla (modern)|Kehilla]] representatives toward the wretched, exhausted, starved public... The slogan: bread for all!! Let's join forces in war against the accursed Kehilla parasite... – ''Demonstration Leaflet'' <ref>Unger 2004, ''Reassessment'', p.&nbsp;34.</ref>}}


== Death at the hands of the ''Sonderkommando'' ==
== Death at the hands of the ''Sonderkommando'' ==
Line 98: Line 98:
In his memoirs, Yehuda Leib Gerst described Rumkowski as a complex person: "This man had sickly leanings that clashed. Toward his fellow Jews, he was an incomparable tyrant who behaved just like a Führer and cast deathly terror to anyone who dared to oppose his lowly ways. Toward the perpetrators, however, he was as tender as a lamb and there was no limit to his base submission to all their demands, even if their purpose was to wipe us out totally. Either way, he did not properly understand his situation and position and their limits."<ref name="Unger2004">{{cite book |last=Unger |first=Michael |title=Reassessment of the Image of Mordechai Chaim Rumkowski |location=Jerusalem |publisher=Keterpress Enterprises |year=2004 |at=8, 57 (note 127) |isbn=978-3-8353-0293-8 |id=For the Dov Paisikovic testimony ''[[:de:Dov Paisikovic|(de)]]'' on gas chambers see transcripts from the [[Frankfurt Auschwitz trials]] of 1965. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ajeULi_Te3gC&q=%22How+Rumkowski+Died%22}}</ref>
In his memoirs, Yehuda Leib Gerst described Rumkowski as a complex person: "This man had sickly leanings that clashed. Toward his fellow Jews, he was an incomparable tyrant who behaved just like a Führer and cast deathly terror to anyone who dared to oppose his lowly ways. Toward the perpetrators, however, he was as tender as a lamb and there was no limit to his base submission to all their demands, even if their purpose was to wipe us out totally. Either way, he did not properly understand his situation and position and their limits."<ref name="Unger2004">{{cite book |last=Unger |first=Michael |title=Reassessment of the Image of Mordechai Chaim Rumkowski |location=Jerusalem |publisher=Keterpress Enterprises |year=2004 |at=8, 57 (note 127) |isbn=978-3-8353-0293-8 |id=For the Dov Paisikovic testimony ''[[:de:Dov Paisikovic|(de)]]'' on gas chambers see transcripts from the [[Frankfurt Auschwitz trials]] of 1965. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ajeULi_Te3gC&q=%22How+Rumkowski+Died%22}}</ref>


Historian Michal Unger, in her ''Reassessment of the Image of Mordechai Chaim Rumkowski'' (2004) explored the materials leading to his reputation. Rumkowski is described "on the one hand, an aggressive, domineering person, thirsty for honor and power, raucous, vulgar and ignorant, impatient (and) intolerant, impulsive and lustful. Because of this, he was always hated by all Jews and Nazis who knew him and dealt with him. On the other hand, he is portrayed as a man of exceptional organizational prowess, quick, very energetic, and true to tasks that he set for himself."<ref>Unger (2004), "Reassessment," p. 13.</ref> Research performed by Isaiah Trunk for the book ''Judenrat'' attempted to revise the prevailing view of Rumkowski as traitor and collaborationist.<ref>Unger (2004), "Reassessment", p. 9.</ref>
Historian Michal Unger, in her ''Reassessment of the Image of Mordechai Chaim Rumkowski'' (2004) explored the materials leading to his reputation. Rumkowski is described "on the one hand, an aggressive, domineering person, thirsty for honor and power, raucous, vulgar and ignorant, impatient (and) intolerant, impulsive and lustful. Because of this, he was always hated by all Jews and Nazis who knew him and dealt with him. On the other hand, he is portrayed as a man of exceptional organizational prowess, quick, very energetic, and true to tasks that he set for himself."<ref>Unger 2004, ''Reassessment'', p.&nbsp;13.</ref> Research performed by Isaiah Trunk for the book ''Judenrat'' attempted to revise the prevailing view of Rumkowski as traitor and collaborationist.<ref>Unger 2004, ''Reassessment'', p.&nbsp;9.</ref>


Rumkowski took an active role in the deportations of Jews. Some historians and writers describe him as a [[treason|traitor]] and as a Nazi collaborator; Rumkowski aimed at fulfilling the Nazi demands with the help of their own Orpo Security Police if necessary.<ref name="Trunk52">Isaiah Trunk (2008), ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=ugVsNrbMSx4C&q=%22we+did+not+believe%22 Łódź Ghetto: A History],'' page 52. {{ISBN|0253347556}}.</ref> His rule, unlike the leaders of other ghettos, was marked with abuse of his own people coupled with physical liquidation of political opponents. He and his council had a comfortable food ration and their own special shops. He was known to get rid of those he personally disliked by sending them to the camps. Additionally, he sexually abused vulnerable girls under his charge.<ref>[[Laurence Rees|Rees, Laurence]],''"Auschwitz: The Nazis and the 'Final Solution'"'', especially the testimony of [[Lucille Eichengreen]], pp. 105-131. BBC Books. {{ISBN|978-0-563-52296-6}}.</ref><ref name=originsandinitiatives>Rees, Laurence.[https://www.pbs.org/auschwitz/about/transcripts_2.html "Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi state"]. ''[[BBC]]/[[KCET]]'', 2005. Retrieved: 1 October 2011.</ref> Failure to submit to him meant death to the girl. Holocaust survivor [[Lucille Eichengreen]], who claimed to have been abused by him for months as a young woman working in his office, said, "I felt disgusted and I felt angry, I ah, but if I would have run away he would have had me deported, I mean that was very clear."<ref name=originsandinitiatives />
Rumkowski took an active role in the deportations of Jews. Some historians and writers describe him as a [[treason|traitor]] and as a Nazi collaborator; Rumkowski aimed at fulfilling the Nazi demands with the help of their own Orpo Security Police if necessary.<ref name="Trunk52">Isaiah Trunk (2008), ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=ugVsNrbMSx4C&q=%22we+did+not+believe%22 Łódź Ghetto: A History],'' page 52. {{ISBN|0253347556}}.</ref> His rule, unlike the leaders of other ghettos, was marked with abuse of his own people coupled with physical liquidation of political opponents. He and his council had a comfortable food ration and their own special shops. He was known to get rid of those he personally disliked by sending them to the camps. Additionally, he sexually abused vulnerable girls under his charge.<ref>[[Laurence Rees|Rees, Laurence]],''"Auschwitz: The Nazis and the 'Final Solution'"'', especially the testimony of [[Lucille Eichengreen]], pp. 105-131. BBC Books. {{ISBN|978-0-563-52296-6}}.</ref><ref name=originsandinitiatives>Rees, Laurence.[https://www.pbs.org/auschwitz/about/transcripts_2.html "Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi state"]. ''[[BBC]]/[[KCET]]'', 2005. Retrieved: 1 October 2011.</ref> Failure to submit to him meant death to the girl. Holocaust survivor [[Lucille Eichengreen]], who claimed to have been abused by him for months as a young woman working in his office, said, "I felt disgusted and I felt angry, I ah, but if I would have run away he would have had me deported, I mean that was very clear."<ref name=originsandinitiatives />

Revision as of 09:00, 19 December 2024

Chaim Rumkowski
Chaim Rumkowski (left) and Hans Biebow (right) in the Łódź Ghetto
Born(1877-02-27)February 27, 1877
Ilyino, Velikoluksky District, Russian Empire
DiedAugust 28, 1944(1944-08-28) (aged 67)
Auschwitz-Birkenau, German-occupied Poland
Cause of deathLynching
NationalityPolish
Other namesKing Chaim I
Known forHead of Judenrat, Łódź Ghetto

Chaim Mordechaj Rumkowski (February 27, 1877 – August 28, 1944) was the head of the Jewish Council of Elders in the Łódź Ghetto appointed by Nazi Germany during the German occupation of Poland.[1][2]

Rumkowski was, before the German invasion of Poland, an unsuccessful businessman, Zionist activist and orphanage director.[3][2]

On 1 October 1939, he was appointed by the German occupation authorities as president of the Lodz Ghetto, one of the largest Jewish ghettos in Poland. In this position he was the leader and person most responsible to the Nazis for the Judenrat or governing council of the ghetto, the body that was responsible for the internal organisation of the ghetto: food distribution, hygiene, housing, public order and the operations necessary to ensure the effective deportation of ghetto inhabitants to the extermination camps.[4] Rumkowski accrued much power by transforming the ghetto into an industrial base manufacturing war supplies for the Wehrmacht in the mistaken belief that productivity was the key to Jewish survival beyond the Holocaust. The Germans liquidated the ghetto in 1944. All remaining prisoners were sent to death camps in the wake of military defeats on the Eastern Front.

As the head of the Judenrat, Rumkowski is remembered for his speech Give Me Your Children, delivered at a time when the Germans demanded his compliance with the deportation of 20,000 children to Chełmno extermination camp. Like some other members of the Judenrats established by the Nazis, he probably believed (mistakenly) that diligent cooperation with the extermination efforts of European Jewry would serve to prevent his own elimination and that of other Jews. However, this was not the case: in August 1944, Rumkowski and his family joined the last transport to Auschwitz,[5] and he was murdered there on August 28, 1944, by Jewish Sonderkommando inmates who beat him to death as revenge for his role in the Holocaust. This account of his final moments is confirmed by witness testimonies of the Frankfurt Auschwitz trials.[6][7]

Background

Before the war, Rumkowski directed a Jewish orphanage in Łódź.

Chaim Rumkowski was born on February 27, 1877, to Jewish parents in Ilyino, a shtetl in Vitebsk Governorate, Russian Empire.[8] In 1892, Rumkowski moved to Congress Poland. Rumkowski never finished any kind of basic education although he did finish his Jewish religious education, as a result he did not speak any language correctly or completely except Yiddish which he pronounced with a strong Lithuanian accent.[9] He became a Polish citizen after the establishment of the Second Polish Republic in 1918. Rumkowski became an activist of the Zionist movement and was involved in the Łódź Zionist Committee.[10]

Before the German invasion of Poland, Rumkowski was an insurance agent in Łódź, a member of Qahal, and the head of a Jewish orphanage in Helenowka, a small town located on the outskirts of Lodz which he ruled between 1925 and 1939[3] at 15 Krajowa Street between 1925 and 1939. According to Dr. Edward Reicher, a Holocaust survivor from Łódź, Rumkowski had an unhealthy interest in children.[11] During his administration Rumkowski raped many of the children living there and at one point caused a small gonorrhea epidemic at the orphanage which he covered up with the help of a local Jewish doctor who survived the war to tell his story (Rumkowski refused to send children with gonorrhea to the hospital even though many were in serious condition as antibiotics did not yet exist at the time);[12] this doctor never charged for his services not realizing that Rumkowski had been raping the children who he initially thought had been infected through contaminated bedding or towels (which the doctor knew was entirely possible) until he visited the orphanage to treat the children and dismissed this theory upon seeing that it was exceptionally neat.[13]

Rumkowski would later regretfully mention that he had to declare bankruptcy by paying the mothers of children he had raped to buy their silence since some of the children living there still had one of their parents alive but had been sent there because that parent was unable to care for them for whatever reason.[14] Additionally, Rumkowski also embezzled and stole the orphanage's funds and donations intended for it.[15][16]

In addition to his sexual abuse, Rumkoski was feared by all the children for his excessively strict and punitive style.[16]

Rumkowski remained a devout and active Zionist throughout his adult life. This, combined with his seemingly charitable work as director of a Jewish orphanage, made Rumkowski a respected leader in the regional Jewish community.[16]

Rumkowski claimed to be a relative of leading Nazi ideologue Alfred Rosenberg, with whom he said he maintained regular and friendly correspondence, something that would have been unlikely given that such correspondence has never been found, because the family tree of every member of the Nazi Party had to be thoroughly traced by the authorities and if a Jewish ancestor was found (no matter how distant) it could mean the end of his professional career or even his life, and even if this had been true it is unlikely that Rosenberg would have risked maintaining such a relationship with a Jewish relative in an open or friendly manner.[9]

Leadership of the Lodz Ghetto

Łódź was annexed by the invading Germans into Nazi Germany and became part of the territory of new Reichsgau Wartheland, separate from the Generalgouvernement established in most of the German-occupied Poland. Smaller Jewish communities were dissolved and forcibly relocated to metropolitan ghettos. The occupation authority ordered the creation of the new Jewish Councils known as the Judenräte which acted as bridges between the Nazis and the prisoner population of the ghettos. In addition to managing basic services such as communal kitchens, infirmaries, post offices and vocational schools, common tasks of the Judenräte included providing the Nazi regime with slave labor,[1] and rounding up quotas of Jews for "resettlement in the East," a euphemism for deportations to extermination camps in the deadliest phase of the Holocaust.

On October 13, 1939, the Nazi Amtsleiter in Łódź appointed Rumkowski the Judenältester ("Chief Elder of the Jews"), head of the Ältestenrat ("Council of Elders"). In this position, Rumkowski reported directly to the Nazi ghetto administration, headed by Hans Biebow.[17][1][18] It is not known for certain how he managed to obtain the position or on what metrics the Nazis based their evaluation and selection of him; but, according to Primo Levi, who judged him in a middle term, mentioning that his crimes were undoubtedly unforgivable but that they also occurred in exhausting circumstances, it is believed that the Nazis were inclined towards Rumkowski because they found in him a combination of a complete absence of morality combined with extreme weakness and enormous ambition for power and respect;[19] this is what translated into his lack of will to put up the slightest resistance to the most terrible orders imposed by the Nazis, such as handing over the elderly, children and babies for immediate execution. However Rumkowski was chosen, it is known that he was immediately chosen by the Nazis as soon as they captured the city of Lodz in October 1939.[20][19] When the rabbinate was dissolved, Rumkowski performed weddings. The ghetto's money or scrip, the so-called Rumki (sometimes Chaimki), was derived from his name, as it had been his idea. His face was put on the ghetto postage stamps and currency, which led to his sarcastic nickname "King Chaim" or "Chaim I".[21][22] Additionally, after the Nazi conquest of Lodz, Rumkowski was the only Jewish politician (a member of the General Zionist Party) who did not resign in protest, the only Jewish politician in any official position remaining when the Nazis arrived, and the only one willing to openly work with the Nazis who were by then already notorious anti-Semites. Throughout his administration, Rumkowski also censored all mail (incoming and outgoing) and works of fiction published through any means.[23]

Postcard from the Litzmannstadt ghetto from 1941 censorship stamp "The Elder of the Jews in Litzmannstadt Ch. Rumkowski" postmark "Litzmannstadt" from April 8, 1941.

By industrializing the Łódź Ghetto, he hoped to make the community indispensable to the Germans and save the people of Łódź. On April 5, 1940, Rumkowski petitioned the Germans for materials for the Jews in exchange for desperately needed food and money. By the end of the month, the Germans had acquiesced, in part, agreeing to provide food, but not money. Although Rumkowski and other "Jewish elders" of the Nazi era came to be regarded as collaborators and traitors, historians have reassessed this judgment since the late 20th century in light of the terrible conditions of the time. A survivor of the Łódź ghetto, Arnold Mostowicz, noted in his memoir that Rumkowski gave a percentage of his people a chance to survive two years longer than the Jews of the Warsaw Ghetto, destroyed in the Uprising.[24] However, as noted by Lucjan Dobroszycki, the ultimate decision on the future was not his to make.[25]

But despite what he assumed must have been a grim task, Rumkowski generally seemed to relish his power as he openly flaunted it, seemed to take his position as if he were a ruler, and abused it regularly: he raped women (mostly underage girls, having abused underage girls for decades).[15][26][27] while deporting those who resisted him,[28][29][28] he openly beat the inhabitants of the ghetto as if they were his children,[30] also he hired painters to create images of him walking through the streets of the ghetto while people threw flowers at him or tried to hug him,[23] he withdrew food rations from people he disliked,[23] he openly insulted his subordinates in public[29][28] and he traveled in a rickety cart surrounded by the Jewish police and a crowd of guards and servants who forced everyone in front of the cart to give way to him, so the inhabitants of the ghetto nicknamed him "Chaim I" as if he were a real king, who took advantage of this to use expressions such as "my Jews", "my ghetto", "my factories".[29][28] However, Rumkowski did show signs of depression in the fall of 1942 when deportations intensified, but he never left his post,[31] and also he unsuccessfully attempted to negotiate with the Nazis to reduce the number of deportees.[32]

Ghetto history prior to the "Final Solution"

The ghettoization of Łódź was decided on September 8, 1939, by an order of SS-Oberführer Friedrich Uebelhoer. His top secret document stated that the ghetto was only a temporary solution to "the Jewish question" in the city of Łódź. Uebelhoer never implied the long-term survival of its inhabitants.[33] The ghetto was sealed on April 30, 1940, with 164,000 people inside.[34] On October 16, 1939, Rumkowski selected 31 public figures to form the council. However, less than three weeks later, on November 11, twenty of them were executed and the rest disappeared, because he denounced them to the German authorities "for refusing to rubber-stamp his policies." Although a new Judenrat was officially appointed a few weeks later, the men were not as distinguished, and remained far less effective than its original leaders. This change conceded more power to Rumkowski, and left no one to contest or restrain his decisions. Rumkowski had the Jewish Ghetto Police under his control also.[35]

The Germans authorized Rumkowski as the "sole figure of authority in managing and organizing internal life in the ghetto".[34] Rumkowski gained power by his domineering personality as much as by his words and deeds.[34] Biebow from the first gave Rumkowski full power in organizing the ghetto, as long as it did not interfere with his main objectives: absolute order, confiscation of Jewish property and assets, coerced labor, and Biebow's own personal gain.[36] Their relationship seemed to work effectively. Rumkowski had leeway to organize the ghetto according to his own lights, while Biebow sat back and reaped the rewards.[36] In trying to keep Biebow happy, Rumkowski obeyed every order with little question, and provided him with gifts and personal favors. Rumkowski is said to have boasted of his willingness to cooperate with the German authorities: "My motto is to be always at least ten minutes ahead of every German demand."[37] He believed that by staying ahead of the Germans' thinking, he could keep them satisfied and preserve the Jews. Łódź was the last ghetto in Central Europe to be liquidated.[38] However, only 877 inhabitants survived in the city until liberation, by hiding with Polish rescuers, and it is claimed that Rumkowski had nothing to do with it.[citation needed]

Administration

Chaim Rumkowski in the Łódź Ghetto, tasting soup.

Because of the confiscation of cash and other belongings, Rumkowski proposed a currency to be used specifically in the ghetto – the ersatz. This new currency would be used as money, and by this alone, a person could buy food rations and other necessities.[39] This proposal was considered arrogant and illustrated Rumkowski's lust for power. The currency was, therefore, nicknamed by ghetto inhabitants as the "Rumkin".[40] It dissuaded smugglers from endangering their lives to get in and out of the ghetto with goods, as people could not pay for them with regular currency. Rumkowski believed that smuggling of food would "destabilize the ghetto with regard to the prices of basic commodities" and prevented it from taking place.[40]

Rumkowski did not allow public protests expressing dissent. With the help of the Jewish Ghetto Police, he violently broke up demonstrations (resulting in many deaths) and in most cases called for some protesters to be brutalized and others killed as a warning to others, regardless of whether the demonstrations were peaceful or not or whether the demands or grievances were legitimate or not.[41] On occasion, he would request the Nazis to come and break up the commotion, which usually resulted in protesters being killed. The leaders of these groups were punished by not being allowed to earn a living, which in effect meant that they and their families were doomed to starvation. Sometimes the strikers and demonstrators were arrested, imprisoned, or shipped off to labor camps.[42] By the spring of 1941, almost all opposition to Rumkowski had dissipated. In the beginning, the Germans were unclear of their own plans for the ghetto, as arrangements for the "Final Solution" were still being developed. They realized that the original plan of liquidating the ghetto by October 1940 could not take place, so they began to take Rumkowski's labor agenda seriously.[43] Forced labor became a staple of ghetto life, with Rumkowski running the effort. "In another three years – he said – the ghetto will be working like a clock."[44] This sort of "optimism" however, was met with a damning assessment by Max Horn from Ostindustrie, who said that the ghetto was badly managed, not profitable, and had the wrong products.[45]

Deportations

In January 1942, some 10,000 Jews were sent aboard Holocaust trains to Chełmno based on selections made by the Judenrat.[46] An additional 34,000 victims were sent to Chelmno by 2 April, with 11,000 more in May, and over 15,000 in September 1942, for a total of 71,000 for 1942 as a whole. The children and the elderly as well as anyone deemed "unfit for work" in the eyes of the Judenrat would follow them.[46]

Rumkowski actively cooperated with German demands, hoping to save the majority of the ghetto inmates. Such behaviour set him at odds with the Orthodox observant Jews, because there could be no justification for delivering anyone to certain death. Following the creation of the extermination camp at Chełmno in 1941, the Nazis ordered Rumkowski to organize several waves of deportations. Rumkowski claimed that he tried to convince the Germans to reduce the number of Jews required for deportation and failed; and in the first five months of the year 55,000 people were deported, chosen by the Rumkowski administration.[32][47]

Give Me Your Children

Chaim Rumkowski delivering a speech in the ghetto, 1941–42

On German orders Rumkowski delivered a speech on September 4, 1942, pleading with the Jews in the ghetto to give up children 10 years of age and younger, as well as the elderly over 65, so that others might survive. "Horrible, terrifying wailing among the assembled crowd" could be heard, reads the transcriber's note to his parlance often referred to as: "Give Me Your Children".[47] Some commentators see this speech as exemplifying aspects of the Holocaust.[48]

A grievous blow has struck the ghetto. They [the Germans] are asking us to give up the best we possess – the children and the elderly. I was unworthy of having a child of my own, so I gave the best years of my life to children. I've lived and breathed with children. I never imagined I would be forced to deliver this sacrifice to the altar with my own hands. In my old age, I must stretch out my hands and beg: Brothers and sisters! Hand them over to me! Fathers and mothers: Give me your children!

— Chaim Rumkowski, September 4, 1942 [48]

The speech was answered with great clamor and a gigantic chorus of cries and groans from the crowd,[20] and 20,000 people were deported.[32] Rumkowski believed that the orderly surrender of all children under the age of ten, the elderly over 65 and the sick to the Nazis would save useful people. A period without deportations then began in which Rumkowski saw confirmation that his approach was correct.[32]

Personality

Rumkowski was ruthless, using his position as head of the Judenrat to confiscate property and businesses that were still being run by their rightful Jewish owners in the ghetto, and establishing an ironclad government that made the Lodz ghetto a "model" for Nazi expectations, whose instructions for the extermination of its inhabitants were punctually fulfilled. His figure has therefore been the subject of various studies and debates.[49] He established numerous departments and institutions that dealt with all of the ghetto's internal affairs, from housing tens of thousands of people, to distributing food rations.[50] Welfare and health systems were also set up. For a time, his administration maintained seven hospitals, seven pharmacies, and five clinics employing hundreds of doctors and nurses. Despite their effort, many people could not be helped due to the shortage of medical supplies allowed in by the Germans.

Rumkowski helped maintain school facilities. 47 schools remained in operation schooling 63% of school-age children. There was no education in any other ghetto as advanced as in Łódź.[51] He helped set up a "Culture House" where cultural gatherings including plays, orchestra and other performances could take place. He was very involved in the particulars of these events, including hiring and firing performers and editing the content of the shows.[52] He became integrated in religious life. This integration deeply bothered the religious public. For example, since the Germans disbanded the rabbinate in September 1942, Rumkowski began conducting wedding ceremonies, and altering the marriage contract (ketubah).[53] "He treated the ghetto Jews like personal belongings. He spoke to them arrogantly and rudely and sometime beat them".[54]

Due to Rumkowski's harsh treatment, and stern, arrogant personality, the Jews began to blame him for their predicament, and unleashed their frustration on him instead of the Germans, who were beyond their reach.[54] The most significant display of this frustration and resistance was a series of strikes and demonstrations between August 1940 and spring of 1941. Led by activists and leftist parties against Rumkowski, the workers abandoned their stations and went to the streets handing out fliers:

Brothers and sisters! Turn out en masse to wipe out at long last, with joint and unified force, the terrible poverty and the barbaric behaviour of the Kehilla representatives toward the wretched, exhausted, starved public... The slogan: bread for all!! Let's join forces in war against the accursed Kehilla parasite... – Demonstration Leaflet [55]

Death at the hands of the Sonderkommando

In the summer of 1944, as the Red Army advanced on Poland, the Germans decided to close down the ghetto, that is, to kill its inhabitants once and for all. Between 23 June and 14 July, 7,000 Jews were shipped to Chelmno, in an operation also coordinated by Rumkowski and under the command of Hans Bothmann.[32] Finally, in August, the Judenrat was suspended, the ghetto workshops were closed and its last inhabitants were sent to die in Auschwitz on 28 August 1944, among them Rumkowski himself and his family, along with other Nazi collaborators.[56]

There are conflicting accounts regarding Rumkowski's final moments. One version suggests that Rumkowski was murdered along with his family in the gas chambers of Auschwitz.[57] According to one contemporary source he was murdered upon his arrival at Auschwitz by the Jews of Łódź who preceded him there.[58] This version of events, however, has been challenged by historians. Another report, submitted by a Sonderkommando member from Hungary, Dov Paisikovic [de], states on 30 August 1944 that the Jews of Łódź approached the Sonderkommando Jews in secrecy, and asked them to kill Rumkowski for the crimes he committed in the Łódź Ghetto, so they beat him to death at the gate of the Crematorium No. 2 and disposed of his corpse.[6] In his final moments, he proved to be a coward and was so terrified of his impending death that he lost all composure, bursting into tears on the floor and losing control of his sphincters, urinating and defecating on himself. His family was executed in the gas chambers of Birkenau.[59]

Debate over Rumkowski's role in the Holocaust

Token money in the ghetto with Rumkowski's signature

The consensus among almost everyone who has written about Rumkowski has been almost universally negative;[60][49] however, several writers throughout history have attempted to explore Rumkowski's motivations, not so much to excuse or explain the vile actions he committed but to understand him. He is generally described as a traitor and collaborator.[29] Other times he is referred to as an "ambitious old man", a "megalomaniac" or a "mentally ill" person.[61][19] The truth is that, whatever his motivations for his actions, while in power he took advantage of this position of power in the ghetto to commit numerous abuses and atrocities against its inhabitants.[49]

Some researchers and witnesses claim that he was motivated by the idea that by helping the Nazis kill some of the ghetto's inhabitants, a total massacre would be avoided and time would be gained until the regime fell or decided to end the extermination, thus giving some Jews a chance to survive;[1] in essence, sacrificing a few (perhaps the minimum necessary) to save the majority.[30][62]

This argument is partly confirmed by the fact that, on the eve of the outbreak of World War II, Rumkowski (who was a lifelong devout Zionist) naively came to believe that the openly expressed hatred of Jews by Hitler and the Nazis would be a good thing for the Jews because it would mean that the Germans would create their own nation for the Jews in order to get rid of them;[63][2] Rumkowski even made plans for after the war to create an official archive of ghetto documents so that postwar historians could use them to write history books, implying that he thought he and the Jewish community would survive the war intact.[1][18][64]

However, Rumkowski's apparent good intentions are also contradicted by negative facts concerning the misdeeds and abuses of power that Rumkowski committed such as his megalomania, and according to Dr. Edward Reicher, a Jew who knew him personally and survived the Holocaust and documented his pederastic sexual predations better than anyone else, said that Rumkowski was a "lunatic" and "megalomaniac" who suffered from a "persecution delusion."[61]

In his memoirs, Yehuda Leib Gerst described Rumkowski as a complex person: "This man had sickly leanings that clashed. Toward his fellow Jews, he was an incomparable tyrant who behaved just like a Führer and cast deathly terror to anyone who dared to oppose his lowly ways. Toward the perpetrators, however, he was as tender as a lamb and there was no limit to his base submission to all their demands, even if their purpose was to wipe us out totally. Either way, he did not properly understand his situation and position and their limits."[6]

Historian Michal Unger, in her Reassessment of the Image of Mordechai Chaim Rumkowski (2004) explored the materials leading to his reputation. Rumkowski is described "on the one hand, an aggressive, domineering person, thirsty for honor and power, raucous, vulgar and ignorant, impatient (and) intolerant, impulsive and lustful. Because of this, he was always hated by all Jews and Nazis who knew him and dealt with him. On the other hand, he is portrayed as a man of exceptional organizational prowess, quick, very energetic, and true to tasks that he set for himself."[65] Research performed by Isaiah Trunk for the book Judenrat attempted to revise the prevailing view of Rumkowski as traitor and collaborationist.[66]

Rumkowski took an active role in the deportations of Jews. Some historians and writers describe him as a traitor and as a Nazi collaborator; Rumkowski aimed at fulfilling the Nazi demands with the help of their own Orpo Security Police if necessary.[67] His rule, unlike the leaders of other ghettos, was marked with abuse of his own people coupled with physical liquidation of political opponents. He and his council had a comfortable food ration and their own special shops. He was known to get rid of those he personally disliked by sending them to the camps. Additionally, he sexually abused vulnerable girls under his charge.[68][69] Failure to submit to him meant death to the girl. Holocaust survivor Lucille Eichengreen, who claimed to have been abused by him for months as a young woman working in his office, said, "I felt disgusted and I felt angry, I ah, but if I would have run away he would have had me deported, I mean that was very clear."[69]

Primo Levi, an Auschwitz survivor, in his book The Drowned and the Saved, concludes: "Had he survived his own tragedy...no tribunal would have absolved him, nor, certainly, can we absolve him on the moral plane. But there are extenuating circumstances: an infernal order such as National Socialism exercises a frightful power of corruption against which it is difficult to guard oneself. To resist it requires a truly solid moral armature, and the one available to Chaim Rumkowski...was fragile." At best, Levi viewed Rumkowski as morally ambiguous and self deluded. Hannah Arendt, in her book Eichmann in Jerusalem, placed Rumkowski's egotism at the low end of the spectrum of wartime ghetto leadership examples.[70][71]

Professor Yehuda Bauer points out that if the Russians had continued their summer offensive in 1944, Lodz would have been the only ghetto to be liberated with a significant number of its inhabitants still alive, and Rumkowski might be remembered in a very different light, possibly like a hero.[72][62]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e Krakowski, Shmuel (1990). "Rumkowski, Mordechai Chaim". In Gutman, Israel; Rozett, Robert; Shalvi, Moshe; Wigoder, Geoffrey; Raanan, Tsvi; Ariel, Aharon (eds.). Enciclopedia del Holocausto. Vol. III (E-K). Nueva York, Estados Unidos: Macmillan Publishers/Yad Vashem/Sifriat Poalim Publishing House. pp. 1312–1314. ISBN 9780028960906. LCCN 89013466. OCLC 20594356 – via Internet Archive.
  2. ^ a b c Dombrowska, Danuta (January 1, 2007) [1971]. "Rumkowski, Chaim Mordechai" (PDF). In Skolnik, Fred; Berenbaum, Michael; Baskin, Judith; Gafni, Shlomo S.; Gilon, Rachel (eds.). Encyclopaedia Judaica. Vol. 17 (Ra-Sam) (2nd ed.). Detroit, Estados Unidos: Macmillan Reference USA (Gale). pp. 528–529. ISBN 978-0-02-865945-9. LCCN 2006020426. OCLC 70174939.
  3. ^ a b Reicher 2013, p. 50, Section 15.
  4. ^ Kaplan, Thomas Pegelow; Gruner, Wolf (June 5, 2020). Resisting Persecution: Jews and Their Petitions during the Holocaust. Berghahn Books. ISBN 978-1-78920-721-7.
  5. ^ Dombrowska, Danuta (2007). "Chaim Mordechai Rumkowski". In Berenbaum, Michael; Skolnik, Fred (eds.). Encyclopaedia Judaica (2nd ed.). Detroit: Macmillan Reference. ISBN 978-0-02-866097-4.
  6. ^ a b c Unger, Michael (2004). Reassessment of the Image of Mordechai Chaim Rumkowski. Jerusalem: Keterpress Enterprises. 8, 57 (note 127). ISBN 978-3-8353-0293-8. For the Dov Paisikovic testimony (de) on gas chambers see transcripts from the Frankfurt Auschwitz trials of 1965.
  7. ^ Helen Aronson (November 21, 2011). Nazi Collaborators: Hitler's Inside Man (Television production). Military Channel. Event occurs at 58:29. © MMX, World Media Rights Limited
  8. ^ "Władca getta" ("Lord of the Ghetto"), by Leszek Pietrzak [pl], series "Forbidden Histories"
  9. ^ a b Reicher 2013, p. 53, Section 15.
  10. ^ Pietrzak, Leszek (February 27, 2019). "Władca getta". Zakazane Historie (in Polish). Retrieved March 27, 2024.
  11. ^ Reicher 2013, pp. 47–48.
  12. ^ Reicher 2013, p. 51, Section 15.
  13. ^ Reicher 2013, p. 50-53, Section 15.
  14. ^ Reicher 2013, p. 51-52, Section 15.
  15. ^ a b Eichengreen, Lucille; Fromer, Rebecca Camhi (January 10, 1998). Rumkowski and the Orphans of Lodz [Rumkowski y los huérfanos de Lodz]. San Francisco, Estados Unidos: Mercury House. ISBN 9781562791155. LCCN 99033995. OCLC 41754048.
  16. ^ a b c Reicher 2013, p. 52, Section 15.
  17. ^ "Rumkowski, Mordechai Chaim". Yad Vashem School for Holocaust Studies. Retrieved: 1 October 2011.
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    También disponible en el sitio web de la revista (sin autor ni fecha de publicación original listados): https://www.commentary.org/articles/commentary-bk/dictator-of-the-lodz-ghettothe-strange-history-of-mordechai-chaim-rumkowski    {{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)
  24. ^ Unger 2004, Reassessment, p. 11.
  25. ^ Dobroszycki 1984, The Chronicle of the Lodz Ghetto, page 61.
  26. ^ Reicher & March 29, 2013, p. 52.
  27. ^ Reicher & March 29, 2013, pp. 50–53.
  28. ^ a b c d Laurence Rees (guión); Linda Hunt (narración); Dominic Sutherland y Martina Balazova (dirección); Ian Kershaw (consultoría); Laurence Rees, David Orenstein, Richard Cable, Megan Callaway, Anil Dewan, Philip Dunn, Linda Feferman, Mary Mazur, David Neiman y Gwynn Perry (producción); Jack Moody, Alán Lygo y Douglas Varchool (edición) (January 18, 2005). "Orders & Initiatives" [Órdenes e iniciativas]. Auschwitz: Inside The Nazi State. Season 1. Episode 2. Los Ángeles, Estados Unidos. Public Broadcasting Service (PBS)/Public Media Group of Southern California. KCET (Community Television of Southern California).
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  33. ^ Documents, p. 194
  34. ^ a b c Unger 2004, Reassessment, p. 22.
  35. ^ Unger 2004, Reassessment, p. 19.
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  39. ^ Unger 2004, Reassessment, p. 27.
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  44. ^ Unger 2004, Reassessment, p. 38.
  45. ^ Lucjan Dobroszycki (1984), The Chronicle of the Lodz Ghetto, page lxi. Google Books.
  46. ^ a b Shirley Rotbein Flaum (2007). "Lodz Ghetto Deportations and Statistics". Timeline. JewishGen Home Page. Retrieved March 26, 2015. Source: Encyclopedia of the Holocaust (1990), Baranowski, Dobroszycki, Wiesenthal, Yad Vashem Timeline of the Holocaust, others.
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  52. ^ Unger 2004, Reassessment, pp. 31-32.
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  54. ^ a b Unger 2004, Reassessment, p. 33.
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  56. ^ "The Terrible Choice".
  57. ^ "Holocaust Historical Society".
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  59. ^ Checinski, Michael (May 1, 1979). Podhoretz, John; Greenwald, Abe; Rothman, Noah; Moskot, Carol; Gjermani, Kejda; Beck, Malkie; Roberts, Stephanie; Leffell, Michael (eds.). "Observations: How Rumkowski Died" [Observaciones: Como murió Rumkowski]. Commentary. 67 (5). Nueva York, Estados Unidos: Commentary Inc.: 63. ISSN 0010-2601. OCLC 488561243 – via ProQuest
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  60. ^ Huppert, Shmuel (2011) [1989]. "King of the Ghetto Mordecai Haim Rumkowski, the Elder of Lodz Ghetto". In Marrus, Michael Robert (ed.). The Nazi Holocaust. Part 6: The Victims of the Holocaust [El Holocausto nazi. Parte 6: Las víctimas del Holocausto]. Vol. 1 (2da ed.). Berlín, Alemania: De Gruyter. pp. 307–339. doi:10.1515/9783110968736.307. ISBN 9783110968736. LCCN 89012246. OCLC 1164787048.
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References

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