The clandestine history of the Kovno Jewish ghetto police / by anonymous members of the Kovno Jewish ghetto police ; translated and edited by Samuel Schalkowsky ; Introduction by Samuel D. Kassow.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Kassow, Samuel D., author of added text.

Contributor:

Schalkowsky, Samuel, editor, translator.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Jews--Persecutions--Lithuania--Kaunas.

Jews.

Jews--Lithuania--Kaunas--History--20th century.

Jewish police officers--Lithuania--Kaunas--History--20th century.

Jewish police officers.

Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)--Lithuania--Kaunas.

Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945).

Kaunas (Lithuania)--Ethnic relations.

Kaunas (Lithuania).

Lithuania--History--German occupation, 1941-1944.

Lithuania.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (414 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Bloomington : Indiana University Press in association with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington, D.C., [2014]

Language Note:

English

Summary:

"As a force that had to serve two masters, both the Jewish population of the Kovno ghetto in Lithuania and its German occupiers, the Kovno Jewish ghetto police walked a fine line between helping Jews survive and meeting Nazi orders. In 1942 and 1943 some of its members secretly composed this history and buried it in tin boxes. The book offers a rare glimpse into the complex situation faced by the ghetto leadership and the Jewish policemen, caught between carrying out the demands of the Germans and mollifying the anger and frustration of their own people. It details the creation and organization of the ghetto, the violent German attacks on the population in the summer of 1941, the periodic selections of Jews to be deported and killed, the labor required of the surviving Jewish population, and the efforts of the police to provide a semblance of stability. The secret history tells a dramatic and complicated story, defending the actions of the police force on one page and berating its leadership on the next. A substantial introduction by distinguished historian Samuel D. Kassow places this powerful work within the context of the history of the Kovno Jewish community and its experience and fate at the hands of the Nazis"--Provided by the publisher.

Contents:

Cover; Contents; Preface; Acknowledgments; Map; Inside the Kovno Ghetto; HISTORY OF THE VILIAMPOLE [KOVNO] JEWISH GHETTO POLICE; 1. Introduction; 2. The Prehistory of the Kovno Ghetto; The First Weeks; Transfer to the Ghetto; 3. The Gruesome Period from the Beginning of the Ghetto to the Great Action; The First Days; Establishment of the Jewish Ghetto Police; The Personal Effects and Gold "Actions"; Development and Expansion of the Police Force; The "Jordan Certificates" and the "Rehearsal Action"; Airfield and City Work Brigades

The Actions: In the "Box" (September 26, 1941) and in the "Small Ghetto" (October 4, 1941)The Great Action; "Episode" of the German Jews; Illustrations; 4. Ghetto Situation after the Great Action (The survivor must live . . .); After the Action: Moods and Rumors; Camp or Ghetto; Labor Quota; Material Conditions; Events in the Ghetto after the Great Action; 5. The Elder Council, the Ghetto Institutions, the Police, and the Ghetto Population: Mutual Interrelationships; 6. Development of the Administrative Apparatus and of the Police after the Action; 7. The Ghetto Guard and the Jewish Police

The New Ghetto Guard (NSKK) Located inside the GhettoThe Gate and the Gate Guard; The Ghetto Guard and the Police Intermediary (Relations with Germans and Lithuanians); 8. The Ghetto during the Time of the NSKK, Wiedmann, and Hermann (Spring and Summer 1942); Jordan's Last Actions (The Riga Action and the Book Action); Departure of Jordan and Kaminski; New Masters, New Winds (Wiedmann, Hermann-German Labor Office); Evacuation of "Brazilke"; Workers for Palemon; The Labor Quota; Economic Conditions; Gardens; The Vilna Letter Episode; Ghetto Commissions

9. The Police in the Spring and Summer of 1942 (the Caspi Period)The Appearance of Caspi; The Caspi Personality; Police Reforms and Reorganizations; New Management; Caspi's Departure; 10. The Ghetto in the Times of Koeppen, Miller, and the Vienna Protective Police (Schutz Polizei); An Economy without Money; Days of Awe, Again Palemon; Vienozinskio Area Cleared Again; Riga a Second Time; The Meck Episode; Assaults; Chanukah and the New year-Beginning of the Ghetto Bright Period (the Time of Miller); 11. The Police in the Last Quarter of 1942; New Units (Gate and Detention-House Guards

Jail and Workshop Guards)Expansion of the Administrative Work of the Police (Penal Department, Criminal Department, "Passportization," Administrative Penalties); The Police as a Social Organization (the Swearing-in Ceremony, Police Concerts); Appendix: Evolution of the Manuscript; Bibliography; Index; A; B; C; D; E; F; G; H; I; J; K; L; M; N; O; P; R; S; T; U; V; W; Y; Z

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780253012975

025301297X

OCLC:

879352370