former chairman of the Association of Textile Manufacturers,” arrested on
8 November 1939 and imprisoned in the camp several days later. Over the several
months of his stay in Radogoszcz, the man met several representatives
of the so-called first Beirat (Advisory Council),⁶ arrested and imprisoned on
11 November 1939.
That Council was established by the Eldest of the Jews in Łódź (in
German: Der Älteste der Juden in Litzmannstadt),⁷ a position held by Mordechai
Chaim Rumkowski, appointed on 13 October 1939 by Albert Leister, the
German Commissioner of Łódź. The first Beirat included: Fiszel Lieberman,
Jakub Schlosser, Abram Ajzner, Włodzimierz Glass, Dawid Helman, Dawid
Windman, Izydor Weinstein, Henryk Akawie, Mieczysław Hertz, Dawid
Stahl, Jakub Gutman, Edward Babiacki, Leon Mokrski, Szmuel Hochenberg,
Jonas Rozen, Jakub Leszczyński, Ignacy Jaszuński, Szmul Faust, Juliusz
Damm⁸, Maks Wyszewiański, Jakub Lando, Chil Majer Pick, Leon Rubin,
Zygmunt Warszawski, Jakub Hertz, Stefan Glatter, Artur Frankfurt, Pinchas
Gierszowski, Dawid Warszawski, Markus Bender, and Robert Szwitgal.
This Council, however, lasted less than a month, until 11 November 1939,
when its members (except Szmul Faust and Dawid Windman) were arrested
and taken to prison in Radogoszcz. Of those who arrived, only the following
escaped death: Dawid Helman, Dawid Warszawski, Chil Majer Pick,
Pinchas Gierszowski, Artur Frankfurt, Leon Mokrski, Maks Wyszewiański,
and Jakub Lando⁹.
6 The Beirat is interchangeably called the Ältestenrat (Council of Elders), and the Judenrat. See ‘Beirat, bajrat’, in Kronika getta łódzkiego/Litzmannstadt-Getto, vol. 1–5, ed. J. Baranowski, K. Radziszewska, A. Sitarek, M. Trębacz, J. Walicki, E. Wiatr, P. Zawilski (Łódź, 2009), vol. 5, pp. 274–275.
7 This title was used interchangeably in its Polish and German forms.
8 Dr Juliusz (A.?) Damm (1892–?), industrialist and activist in merchants’ and industrialists’ organizations.
9 Important information supplementing our knowledge of the fate of the original composition of the Jewish Community in Łódź is contained in a testimony that survived in the Ringelblum Archive entitled “Wspomnienia z pierwszych miesięcy okupacji w Warszawie (09.1939–01.1940)” [Recollections of the first months of the occupation in Warsaw (September 1939–January 1940). The author of the testimony mentions that on 24 November 1939 members of the Community were deported “in an unknown direction. Probably to the Buchenwald camp.” Listed were the following names: Abram Ajzner, Henryk Akawie, Edward Babiański, Dr Juliusz Damm, Stefan Glatter, Włodzimierz Glass,
