JEWISH EMERGENCY SERVICE, the so-called “Red Ambulance”—an institution affiliated
with “Thirteen”, the OFFICE TO COMBAT USURY AND SPECULATION. The
official 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 EMIGRATION AID SOCIETY, JEAS—institution operating in Poland from
1924, aimed at providing financial and organisational aid to Jewish emigrants.
JEWISH FIGHTING ORGANISATION (Polish: Żydowska Organizacja Bojowa), Jewish
resistance movement in occupied Poland, first set up in July 1942 by youth Zionist
movements, re-formed on a wider basis in October 1942. Jewish Fighting Organisation
numbered around 500 members and was instrumental in organizing and launching
the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.
JEWISH NATIONAL COMMITTEE (Polish: Żydowski Komitet Narodowy), coalition of
Jewish political organisations set up in the Warsaw Ghetto in October 1942 by Zionist
left and communist parties. In December 1942 together with Bund it set up the Jewish
Fighting Organisation (ŻOB)
JEWISH ORDER SERVICE (German: 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 epidemics. During the first period of the largescale
deportation to the Treblinka death camp 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 numer 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, established on 17 September 1940, approved by the Germans. In March.
