Chaim Rumkowski Many observe and critique Chaim Rumkowski’s life when studying the Holocaust. His unusual story offers a unique vantage point, as this man was not a high ranking Nazi official or a fleeing fugitive, but instead the appointed Judenrat Chairman of the Lodz Ghetto. This position of power directly under Hans Biebow’s Nazi ghetto administration defined his role during World War Two and is the reason his life story has much to offer when it comes to the relationship between Nazis and the Jewish ghettos. Chaim Rumkowski’s controversial legacy owes its renown to his dictatorial style and pragmatic leadership over Lodz and has sparked both debate and divides between many historians. Rumkowski’s legacy inspires much discussion because
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The Krakow Ghetto was located in the capital of Nazi-occupied Poland, and was a much smaller ghetto than Lodz. 56,000 Polish Jews occupied this ghetto, whilst over 160,000 Polish Jews shared Lodz in only 1940, its second year of operation (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia - Lodz). Krakow began to dissolve in 1942 after the Germans began deporting Jews to Belzec (UM Center for Holocaust & Genocide Studies, Krakow Ghetto Memorial). Soon after in 1943, the Germans liquidated the ghetto, sending 5,000 Polish Jews to Auschwitz-Birkenau and the Plaszow Labor Camp (Virtual Jewish Library, Virtual Jewish World: Krakow, Poland). Rumkowski’s emphasis on productivity earned Lodz the Nazi favor Krakow and other ghettos lacked. Lodz grew to be a productive city, and Rumkovski’s proposition for the Germans to pay the city in food addressed concerns surrounding sustaining its large population (Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team, Chaim Mordechai Rumkowski). Despite having a lower population to feed and a location conducive to supply smuggling, Krakow suffered from starvation comparable to that in Lodz, where there were no nearby cities to support an illegal transfer of goods to the ghetto. The Warsaw Ghetto endured similar, if not worse, conditions. The Warsaw Ghetto’s estimated 400,000 Jews suffered severely from …show more content…
In 1940, Rumkowski submitted to the Germans his plans to organize sections of the ghetto into industrial blocks in an effort to make his Jewish ghetto a valuable asset to the German’s war industry. Rumkowski singlehandedly brought the number of enterprises in Lodz to 117, with 73,782 registered workers by the end of 1943 (Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust, PHENOMENON OF LODZ - GHETTO CHRONOLOGY OF HOPE AND DESPAIR). He accomplished gaining Jewish cooperation by confiscating tools and raw materials needed to start workshops, forcing people in the ghetto to work in the industries he created, and by the end of 1940 he announced his takeover of all private food stores, solidifying his rationing system. Rumkowski took control of industry, food, and communication, dictating all inhabitants’ daily lives. He enjoyed this immense power given to him by the Germans, and all who resided in the ghetto only could contact the outside through him. He disseminated his policies and views through the press, all of which he controlled. Among these was his intent to turn Lodz into a “gold mine for Germans” too valuable to destroy (Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust, CHAIM MORDECHAJ RUMKOWSKI - THE ELDEST OF THE JEWS IN LODZ GHETTO), This assumption of power after being named the Chairman naturally caused much shock to the Jewish people living in Lodz, but it’s clear that this
The Krakow Ghetto was located in the capital of Nazi-occupied Poland, and was a much smaller ghetto than Lodz. 56,000 Polish Jews occupied this ghetto, whilst over 160,000 Polish Jews shared Lodz in only 1940, its second year of operation (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia - Lodz). Krakow began to dissolve in 1942 after the Germans began deporting Jews to Belzec (UM Center for Holocaust & Genocide Studies, Krakow Ghetto Memorial). Soon after in 1943, the Germans liquidated the ghetto, sending 5,000 Polish Jews to Auschwitz-Birkenau and the Plaszow Labor Camp (Virtual Jewish Library, Virtual Jewish World: Krakow, Poland). Rumkowski’s emphasis on productivity earned Lodz the Nazi favor Krakow and other ghettos lacked. Lodz grew to be a productive city, and Rumkovski’s proposition for the Germans to pay the city in food addressed concerns surrounding sustaining its large population (Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team, Chaim Mordechai Rumkowski). Despite having a lower population to feed and a location conducive to supply smuggling, Krakow suffered from starvation comparable to that in Lodz, where there were no nearby cities to support an illegal transfer of goods to the ghetto. The Warsaw Ghetto endured similar, if not worse, conditions. The Warsaw Ghetto’s estimated 400,000 Jews suffered severely from …show more content…
In 1940, Rumkowski submitted to the Germans his plans to organize sections of the ghetto into industrial blocks in an effort to make his Jewish ghetto a valuable asset to the German’s war industry. Rumkowski singlehandedly brought the number of enterprises in Lodz to 117, with 73,782 registered workers by the end of 1943 (Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust, PHENOMENON OF LODZ - GHETTO CHRONOLOGY OF HOPE AND DESPAIR). He accomplished gaining Jewish cooperation by confiscating tools and raw materials needed to start workshops, forcing people in the ghetto to work in the industries he created, and by the end of 1940 he announced his takeover of all private food stores, solidifying his rationing system. Rumkowski took control of industry, food, and communication, dictating all inhabitants’ daily lives. He enjoyed this immense power given to him by the Germans, and all who resided in the ghetto only could contact the outside through him. He disseminated his policies and views through the press, all of which he controlled. Among these was his intent to turn Lodz into a “gold mine for Germans” too valuable to destroy (Los Angeles Museum of the Holocaust, CHAIM MORDECHAJ RUMKOWSKI - THE ELDEST OF THE JEWS IN LODZ GHETTO), This assumption of power after being named the Chairman naturally caused much shock to the Jewish people living in Lodz, but it’s clear that this