The Jewish Order Police

Holocaust Ghettos

Members of the Jewish order police in the Lodz
Ghetto</td>
</tr>
</table>

Jewish Order
Service police units were established by the German authorities in certain
locations under their brutal occupation. Almost immediately after their
establishment the Jewish Councils in Eastern Europe were ordered to organise
these units, usually as a forerunner to the creation of ghettos.

Whereas the
Judenrat itself, although also created on German orders, often contained
elements of pre-war voluntary association, the Jewish police came into being
only after the German occupation. There was no precedent for the existence
of a Jewish police force, and there was no indication that the Jews played
any part in the establishment of a Jewish police force within the ghettos.

The Germans set
the guidelines for the Judenrat to recruit members which included
physical fitness, military experience, and secondary or higher education.

In practice
these guidelines were not always closely followed. Formally the Jewish
police constituted one of the departments of the Judenrat, but from
the very beginning many Jewish Councils were apprehensive about the police
force’s public character and the way it would function.

They suspected
that the Germans would have direct supervision of the police and use it for
the implementation of their policies. Aware of this danger, many Jewish
Councils sought to establish their own means of controlling the police and
the standards of its behaviour, and tried to attract young Jews who would be
trustworthy.

In the initial
period some of the recruits did indeed believe that by joining the ranks of
the Jewish police gave them an opportunity to serve the community. But there
were other reasons for joining. Belonging to a protected organisation,
provided immunity from being seized for forced labour. Service in the Jewish
police also offered greater freedom of movement and the possibilities of
obtaining food and money.

The size of the
Jewish police force was not fixed but depended on the size of the Jewish
community. Thus in Warsaw the Jewish police at first numbered 2,000, in Lvov
500, in Lodz 800, in Krakow 150 and in Kovno 200.

In the larger
ghettos the Jewish police commanders held officer ranks and units were made
up of sub-divisions and district stations. The policemen were identified by
the different caps they wore and by the unit’s designation inscribed on
their armband, the yellow badge that they, like all other Jews, had to wear.

In the smaller
ghettos where the Jewish police consisted of a few men organisational
differentiations were not required.

The duties of the Jewish police can be divided into these
categories:

• 
  

  
  Directing
  traffic in the streets.

• 
  

  
  Supervising
  garbage collection and clearing snow and dirt off the streets.

• 
  

  
  Supervising
  sanitation in the buildings.

• 
  

  
  Preventing
  crime and operating a kind of court that served as an “arbiter” in
  disputes that arose in the ghetto.