After July 1941, Warsaw ghetto, Bernard Kampelmacher. Study “Grodzisk
Mazowiecki. Sekcja Pracy Rady Żydowskiej” [Grodzisk Mazowiecki.
Labour Section of the Judenrat]. Organisation of forced labour for the
Jewish population, in camps of the Lublin district.
Attached are “Wyjątki z protokołów zebrań Rady Żydowskiej w Grodzisku”
[Excerpts of the minutes of the meetings of the Grodzisk Judenrat] concerning
the Labour Section.
[1] GRODZISK MAZOWIECKI
The Labour Section of the Judenrat
The beginning was very innocent. A German soldier asked a pedestrian,
a Jew, to help him load a cart. The next day about a dozen Jews were taken
to clean a school building for the army. The Jews were forced to work not
only by the military authorities and not only for the army. The municipality
functionaries had the Jews clean the streets, while the County Department¹¹¹⁸
ordered them to work on the roads. The Volksdeutsche and various janitors
engaged the Jews whenever they wanted, removing them from the street,
from their homes, shops, and workplaces. A craftsman could not start
his work because he could be taken away at any moment, and, of course,
beaten, too.
The Judenrat had already been established,¹¹¹⁹ but according to general
opinion interventions to protect Jews were not allowed. We mustered our courage
and we promised to provide any number of Jewish labourers as long as the
authorities specified it a day in advance.¹¹²⁰ Some institutions abided by that
informal agreement, while others preferred to use violence and rounded up
Jews on the street. So, we received the yellow Arbeitsbefehl¹¹²¹ documents a day
in advance. They specified the number of labourers, time and place of work,
the tools, and the three Councellors responsible for effecting the arrangements
of the work.
1118 Polish local self-government headed by a county governor.
1119 In late September 1939.
1120 See Doc. 141.
1121 (German) work order.
