Council in Warsaw carried out its tasks through a very extensive administration; it also supervised the Jewish Order Service. For many residents of the ghetto, the Jewish Council was the very symbol of the German occupation. However, it also included activists who, within the limits imposed by the Nazis, tried to pursue the most effective social policy possible. The Jewish Council in Warsaw consisted of 24 members, with engineer Adam Czerniaków as the chairman. After his suicide on 23 July 1942, this function was assumed by his deputy, Marek Lichtenbaum. Jewish Emergency Service, the so-called “Red Ambulance”—an institution affiliated with “Thirteen”, the OFFICE TO COMBAT USURY AND SPECULATION. The aim of the Emergency Service was to provide medical assistance to the poorest inhabitants of the ghetto, but the organisation had a very bad reputation in the ghetto and was seen as collaborating.
JEWISH ORDER SERVICE (Jüdischer Ordnungsdienst), also known as the “Jewish police”—an organisation established in the ghettos in Poland, officially accountable to the Jewish Councils, but in fact subordinated to the German authorities. Its tasks included guarding the gates of the ghetto, carrying out forced labour, and participation in the prevention of epidemic. During the first period of the large-scale deportation to the Treblinka killing centre in the summer of 1942, the Jewish police escorted inhabitants of the ghetto to the train station Umschlagplatz. In Warsaw, the Order Service became synonymous with corruption and abuse of power. However, a number of pre-war social activists and people of high moral authority were involved in its operation, especially at first. The Commander of the Jewish Order Service was Józef Szeryński.
JOINT—see AMERICAN JOINT DISTRIBUTION COMMITTEE; AJDC.
JUDENRAT—see the JEWISH COUNCIL
Jüdische Hilfskomitee (JHK, official German-language equivalent of the Jewish Municipal Welfare Committee)—Warsaw branch of the Jewish Social Self-Help in Kraków, approved by the Germans. In March 1942, the JHK formally absorbed social institutions operating in the ghetto, including Centos and TOZ (The Society for the Protection of the Health of the Jewish Population in Poland).
KENNKARTE (German: identity card)—identity document issued in the General Government from the first half of 1942. It replaced the Polish identity card.
