Kraków Ghetto Jewish Council

The Jewish Councils were created to serve the purposes of the Nazi regime; they had prescribed tasks by the Nazi government and ones in which they took initiative. Isaiah Trunk, author of Judenrat: the Jewish Councils in Eastern Europe under Nazi Occupation believes the tasks of the Jewish Councils, in general, are divided into three classes:

1. Tasks imposed by the authorities, such as conduct of the census of the Jewish population, the supply of forced labor and registration of candidates for a work camp, for deportation, etc.

2. Routine tasks in social welfare, medical care, and in the economic and cultural fields- tasks which were a continuation of prewar communal activities

3. New tasks made essential by the complete elimination of the Jewish population in the ghetto from governmental and municipal services such as food supplies, the management of the ghetto dwellings, industry, health, police and judicial services, etc.[5]

Hans Frank and Reinhard Heydrich separate, but similar decrees defined a Jewish Council as a council of 24 Jews who are elected to their positions by the inhabitants of a particular ghetto.[6] However, for the Kraków Jewish Council, the composition of the council greatly changed because of resignations, arrests and murders, etc. from the first council to when the Kraków Ghetto was liquidated.[7] Local Nazi officials would directly and indirectly change the composition of the Kraków Jewish Council, when they were discontent with a particular action, and the Kraków Ghetto is known to have been greatly disadvantaged by the change in administration.[7] The first chairman of the Kraków Jewish Council was chosen by SS-Oberscharfuhrer Mark Siebert, who ordered that role to be filled by Marek Bilberstein.[1]

While in most cases a particular ghetto's Jewish Council served the inhabitants of that particular ghetto, there was a proposal, made by, and for the Kraków Jewish Council to become a central Jewish Council that would oversee the Ghettos in the Kraków district and act on behalf of their interests; however, nothing came of this proposition.[8]

Among the tasks of the Kraków Jewish Council was the establishment of housing in the city of Kraków -and later the Kraków Ghetto- for previous displaced inhabitants of Kraków and impoverished Jewish immigrants from other areas in the General Government and the Greater Reich. In the fall of 1939, the Jewish Council had to find living space for over 8,000 immigrants in the already grossly overpopulated sector of the city.[9] During the Jewish Council’s control of the Kraków Ghetto, the Nazi ghetto officials would arbitrarily change the boundaries of the ghetto, further displacing Jews in the ghetto, which made this task for the Jewish Council especially challenging.[10]

As mentioned, the Jewish Council sought out and coordinated housing for immigrants to its community.[11] To highlight the ingenuity of children in the ghettos, despite the horrific conditions,14-year old Jack Gruener, who arrived with his parents and was told by the Kraków Jewish Council to share a 3-bedroom apartment with 12 other people; the lack of privacy was difficult for most families, but Jack later discovered a dwelling for him and his family in the attic of the house they were inhabiting.[11]

Furthermore, The Kraków Jewish Council was ordered to provide a census of the Jewish population in the ghetto that included age, sex and occupation.[12] The Jewish Council was also allowed to establish a post office in the ghetto that the council was allowed to yield a tax from.[13] As Jews were isolated in the ghetto from the surrounding society, the Kraków Jewish Council was also given permission by the German authorities to pass judgement on certain litigation including, but not limited to, mediation between sub-tenants and tenants.[13]

The Kraków Jewish Council was also responsible for taxing the Jews in the ghetto.[14] This was performed by means of a regular tax and an extraordinary tax, where the former refers to a tax that all citizens, whereas the latter refers to specific taxes on items such as birth and wedding certificates and fees for the post office.[14]

The Kraków Ghetto Jewish Police were responsible for enforcing the decrees of the Nazis and the Jewish Council. Ghetto Jewish police were established on order of Nazi authorities, as with the Jewish councils, however, they were established by local Nazi officials, as opposed to an order from a central Nazi authority, like the decree that established the Jewish Councils.[15] Nazi officials wanted it to appear that Jews initiated the need for a ghetto police, and so they prompted the Kraków Jewish council to ask the local militia captain (stadthauptmann) for permission, and permission was subsequently granted.[15] Furthermore, the Jewish council was involved in choosing the ghetto police and “nepotism and graft” were highly prevalent in the selection.[16] However, soon after the Kraków ghetto police was formed they "severed ties" with the Jewish Council.[17]

There were other Jewish organizations that provided aid within the ghettos, and the Jewish Council would interact with their functionaries.[18] A particular organization, the JSS (Jewish Social Welfare) agency held a conference in September 1940 that brought together the representatives from the Jewish councils of Warsaw, Radom, Lublin, Czestochowa, and Kraków that had the aim of reducing the excessive burden on forced laborers in the various camps.[18]

Communicable disease was rampant due to the unsanitary conditions of the communities and efforts were made by the Jewish council to limit those disease through public health measures. In February 1940, The Kraków Health Department was established by physicians and run by Dr. Moritz Haber, a council member.[19] A portion of the budget was funded by the council, the rest from voluntary donations. This department oversaw the medical and hygienic care of ghetto shelters (mostly for immigrants) and the other “living section” of the ghetto.[19] The health department also coordinated the work of 156 physicians, 110 aides, along with facilities that included an outpatient clinic, radiology institute, a communicable disease station (as mandated by German authorities), and the only pharmacy in the Kraków Ghetto, although it only provided basic medicines.[19] In September 1940, a mere 36 patients were admitted to the hospital with infectious diseases, which was a result of the measures in place by the Jewish Council.[19] Lastly, to compensate for loss of public health officials, the Jewish Council, in the summer of 1940 operated a training course for hygiene personnel where 63 lectures and 5 day practical course was conducted for education on the fundamentals of hygiene theory.[20]

In the ghettos, there were a few different relief organizations that were involved in welfare operations in the ghettos, such as Jewish Social Welfare (JSS) which worked in the General Government areas, along with the Jewish Councils.[21] However, the JSS welfare in Kraków, and later in the Kraków ghetto was limited because Nazi officials limited the amount of aid they could provide.The Kraków Jewish council provided welfare in the form of soup kitchens, cash payouts and medicine.[21]