Criminal
04-18-2004, 08:26 AM
http://www.ukar.org/ghepol01.jpg
http://www.ukar.org/mclell17.html
(1) Jewish prisoners were sometimes commandeered into police service.
Therefore, the Canadian war crimes unit should ascertain the frequency with which this occurred, and then possibly investigate Canadian Jews who had been Nazi prisoners to determine whether they had performed police services.
It also happened that people not in the ghetto police were commandeered to assist the German authorities in "actions" against the Jews. Thus in the Lublin Ghetto, for instance, Jewish prisoners in the SS camp at Lipowa Street were forced to take part in the raid ordered by Globocnik during the night of December 11-12, 1941, with the aim of seizing Jews for the Majdanek camp; 320 Jews were rounded up, and 150 were sent to Majdanek. (p. 477)
(2) Service in the Jewish Ghetto Police was voluntary, sometimes performed for payment, but sometimes "honorary." The number of Jewish Ghetto policemen was large.
Therefore, the defense that Jewish Ghetto Police service was coerced will sometimes not apply. Also, the argument that there were too few Jewish Ghetto Police to justify searching for any in Canada will not apply either.
However, there were ghettos where service in the police was considered an honorary duty for which no salary was paid. In the Warsaw ghetto, for instance, where salaries were paid only to the commandant and 100 high-ranking functionaries ..., the Council budget could not absorb an additional burden of more than 20,000 zlotys a month, a sum needed to pay the salaries of the 1,700 ghetto policemen. According to a person well versed in events in that ghetto, this was the primary cause of the negative selection of candidates for the ghetto police. The prospect of work without remuneration simply didn't attract well-qualified, honest people. Only dishonest ones, seeing an opportunity to make money the easy way, applied in large numbers. (Trunk, 1972, p. 498)
(3) The services performed by the Jewish Ghetto Police were diverse, and many of these services are of the sort that would qualify as war crimes or crimes against humanity.
Therefore, there appears to be no difference between the services performed by non-Jewish police functionaries who today are the targets of war crimes proceedings in Canada and the United States, and the services performed by the Jewish police functionaries who today seem to enjoy immunity from such war crimes proceedings.
The police collected cash contributions and taxes; they assisted in raiding, guarding, and escorting hungry, mentally exhausted people on their way to places of forced labor; and it was the ghetto police who often were ordered to enforce discipline in the presence of German officials. The ghetto police sentries formed the inside guard at the ghetto fences, and in the minds of the ghetto inhabitants they were identified with the German and Polish sentries outside the fences. Both the Germans and the Councils used the ghetto police to carry out confiscation of Jewish property and to combat smuggling, the only means of overcoming constant hunger in the ghettos. The Jewish police carried out raids against and arrests of inmates for offenses against draconic ghetto rules. Last but not least, in the final stages of the ghettos the Jewish police were called upon to assist in "resettlement actions." In short, the ghetto police came to be identified with the inhuman cruelty of the Nazi ghetto regime. (Trunk, 1972, p. 499)
(4) Some units of the Jewish Ghetto Police attained a level of professional competence that led to their being employed frequently and widely in anti-Jewish actions.
Therefore, Jewish collaboration cannot be excluded from prosecution on the assumption that it was rendered reluctantly or was of brief duration:
The police in some large ghettos became such experienced "resettlement" experts that the Germans would send them to adjacent ghettos to help in the "action." Thus squads of the Lwow Ghetto police took part in the deportation of the inmates from ghettos in Jaworow and Zloczow in April 1943, and in a number of small ghettos in the vicinity of Lwow. The Jewish police of the Sosnowiec and Bedzin Ghettos were dispatched to take part in "resettlements" in small ghettos in Eastern Upper Silesia, such as in Olkusz in July 1942. (Trunk, 1972, p. 514)
(5) Activities of the Jewish Ghetto Police sometimes included killing.
Therefore, it cannot be argued that the Jewish Ghetto Police should be immune from prosecution on the grounds that they participated only in the least culpable of the Nazi actions.
The ghetto police also executed punishments imposed by the Jewish Councils and ghetto courts, including death sentences on rare occasions. For instance, in the Vilna Ghetto the police hanged six persons on July 6, 1942, for the murder and robbery of two Jews. A seventh person was sentenced to death for stabbing a Jewish policeman and for informing on the Lida Jewish Council. All were sentenced by the ghetto court. Sometimes the ghetto police were forced to assist in the execution of death sentences imposed on Jews by German courts. On German orders, participation of the ghetto police in public execution of Jews took place in Zdunska Wola, Brzeziny, Leczyca, Belchatow, Poddebice, Wielun, Piontki, Ozorkow (all between February and April 1942), Bialystok (on December 31, 1943), and Lodz (where one execution was performed by a Jewish executioner and his assistants). (Trunk, 1972, pp. 482-483)
A squad of Vilna Jewish policemen, some 30 strong, was issued new uniforms and dispatched to Oszmiana in October 1942, where Jews from Smorgonie, Soly, and other small ghettos in the Vilna area were assembled. They were told that their task was "to deliver certificates" to the inmates of those ghettos. They took over from the Lithuanians the task of guarding the ghetto gate. On October 23, 1942, the Jews were driven to the assembly place by the police from the Vilna Ghetto accompanied by local policemen. They "selected" 200 sick and 392 elderly people; 410 were sent off to Zielkonka, some 7 or 8 kilometers from Oszmiana, in previously prepared carts. They were put to death in the presence of several Vilna Jewish policemen. According to Dvorzhetsky, the Jewish policemen took part in the actual execution.
An eyewitness from the Debica Ghetto relates that during the final "action" (on November 15, 1942) the ... Jewish camp Elder ordered the ghetto police to deliver some 50 "illegal" Jews, those who had escaped and somehow made it back to the camp later on. These were detained in a room of the local Talmud Torah and killed the same night, with the help of the ghetto police ("the men of the Ordnungsdienst grabbed the hands of the victims and Gabler [apparently the Lagerkommandant] shot them"). (Trunk, 1972, p. 514)
http://www.ukar.org/mclell17.html
(1) Jewish prisoners were sometimes commandeered into police service.
Therefore, the Canadian war crimes unit should ascertain the frequency with which this occurred, and then possibly investigate Canadian Jews who had been Nazi prisoners to determine whether they had performed police services.
It also happened that people not in the ghetto police were commandeered to assist the German authorities in "actions" against the Jews. Thus in the Lublin Ghetto, for instance, Jewish prisoners in the SS camp at Lipowa Street were forced to take part in the raid ordered by Globocnik during the night of December 11-12, 1941, with the aim of seizing Jews for the Majdanek camp; 320 Jews were rounded up, and 150 were sent to Majdanek. (p. 477)
(2) Service in the Jewish Ghetto Police was voluntary, sometimes performed for payment, but sometimes "honorary." The number of Jewish Ghetto policemen was large.
Therefore, the defense that Jewish Ghetto Police service was coerced will sometimes not apply. Also, the argument that there were too few Jewish Ghetto Police to justify searching for any in Canada will not apply either.
However, there were ghettos where service in the police was considered an honorary duty for which no salary was paid. In the Warsaw ghetto, for instance, where salaries were paid only to the commandant and 100 high-ranking functionaries ..., the Council budget could not absorb an additional burden of more than 20,000 zlotys a month, a sum needed to pay the salaries of the 1,700 ghetto policemen. According to a person well versed in events in that ghetto, this was the primary cause of the negative selection of candidates for the ghetto police. The prospect of work without remuneration simply didn't attract well-qualified, honest people. Only dishonest ones, seeing an opportunity to make money the easy way, applied in large numbers. (Trunk, 1972, p. 498)
(3) The services performed by the Jewish Ghetto Police were diverse, and many of these services are of the sort that would qualify as war crimes or crimes against humanity.
Therefore, there appears to be no difference between the services performed by non-Jewish police functionaries who today are the targets of war crimes proceedings in Canada and the United States, and the services performed by the Jewish police functionaries who today seem to enjoy immunity from such war crimes proceedings.
The police collected cash contributions and taxes; they assisted in raiding, guarding, and escorting hungry, mentally exhausted people on their way to places of forced labor; and it was the ghetto police who often were ordered to enforce discipline in the presence of German officials. The ghetto police sentries formed the inside guard at the ghetto fences, and in the minds of the ghetto inhabitants they were identified with the German and Polish sentries outside the fences. Both the Germans and the Councils used the ghetto police to carry out confiscation of Jewish property and to combat smuggling, the only means of overcoming constant hunger in the ghettos. The Jewish police carried out raids against and arrests of inmates for offenses against draconic ghetto rules. Last but not least, in the final stages of the ghettos the Jewish police were called upon to assist in "resettlement actions." In short, the ghetto police came to be identified with the inhuman cruelty of the Nazi ghetto regime. (Trunk, 1972, p. 499)
(4) Some units of the Jewish Ghetto Police attained a level of professional competence that led to their being employed frequently and widely in anti-Jewish actions.
Therefore, Jewish collaboration cannot be excluded from prosecution on the assumption that it was rendered reluctantly or was of brief duration:
The police in some large ghettos became such experienced "resettlement" experts that the Germans would send them to adjacent ghettos to help in the "action." Thus squads of the Lwow Ghetto police took part in the deportation of the inmates from ghettos in Jaworow and Zloczow in April 1943, and in a number of small ghettos in the vicinity of Lwow. The Jewish police of the Sosnowiec and Bedzin Ghettos were dispatched to take part in "resettlements" in small ghettos in Eastern Upper Silesia, such as in Olkusz in July 1942. (Trunk, 1972, p. 514)
(5) Activities of the Jewish Ghetto Police sometimes included killing.
Therefore, it cannot be argued that the Jewish Ghetto Police should be immune from prosecution on the grounds that they participated only in the least culpable of the Nazi actions.
The ghetto police also executed punishments imposed by the Jewish Councils and ghetto courts, including death sentences on rare occasions. For instance, in the Vilna Ghetto the police hanged six persons on July 6, 1942, for the murder and robbery of two Jews. A seventh person was sentenced to death for stabbing a Jewish policeman and for informing on the Lida Jewish Council. All were sentenced by the ghetto court. Sometimes the ghetto police were forced to assist in the execution of death sentences imposed on Jews by German courts. On German orders, participation of the ghetto police in public execution of Jews took place in Zdunska Wola, Brzeziny, Leczyca, Belchatow, Poddebice, Wielun, Piontki, Ozorkow (all between February and April 1942), Bialystok (on December 31, 1943), and Lodz (where one execution was performed by a Jewish executioner and his assistants). (Trunk, 1972, pp. 482-483)
A squad of Vilna Jewish policemen, some 30 strong, was issued new uniforms and dispatched to Oszmiana in October 1942, where Jews from Smorgonie, Soly, and other small ghettos in the Vilna area were assembled. They were told that their task was "to deliver certificates" to the inmates of those ghettos. They took over from the Lithuanians the task of guarding the ghetto gate. On October 23, 1942, the Jews were driven to the assembly place by the police from the Vilna Ghetto accompanied by local policemen. They "selected" 200 sick and 392 elderly people; 410 were sent off to Zielkonka, some 7 or 8 kilometers from Oszmiana, in previously prepared carts. They were put to death in the presence of several Vilna Jewish policemen. According to Dvorzhetsky, the Jewish policemen took part in the actual execution.
An eyewitness from the Debica Ghetto relates that during the final "action" (on November 15, 1942) the ... Jewish camp Elder ordered the ghetto police to deliver some 50 "illegal" Jews, those who had escaped and somehow made it back to the camp later on. These were detained in a room of the local Talmud Torah and killed the same night, with the help of the ghetto police ("the men of the Ordnungsdienst grabbed the hands of the victims and Gabler [apparently the Lagerkommandant] shot them"). (Trunk, 1972, p. 514)