The Emperor of Lies (59 page)

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Authors: Steve Sem-Sandberg

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What we see in Genewein’s work is, rather, the history of the ghetto as he and the other Nazi officials saw it – or persuaded themselves it would look when it was eventually written. Genewein intends his images for the eyes of
future
observers, just as the writers of the
Chronicle
and
Encyclopedia
(albeit for completely opposite reasons) address their diary entries and miniature biographies to ‘later’ readers, who are ‘unfamiliar with the reality of the ghetto’. There is nothing in Genewein’s pictures, however, to indicate that he consciously arranged, or sought to create a flattering image of, the reality he was capturing. He himself probably saw the ghetto the way it appears in his pictures. It is apparent from a letter he wrote to family members back home in Austria that he saw the ghetto as a completely neutral part of the city of Łódź/Litzmannstadt, albeit shut off and under police surveillance, where impoverished Jews lived and earned their keep more or less honestly in workplaces provided for them by the Germans in their infinite generosity.

Whether Rumkowski is to be viewed as saviour or traitor, hero or scapegoat (a question that has preoccupied writers of the ghetto’s history from the very first) is thus, at one level, wholly theoretical. It all depends on the perspective one adopts. It is entirely possible to imagine alternative courses of history in which things could have turned out differently for Rumkowski. If von Stauffenberg had succeeded in his coup against Hitler in July 1944, for example, or if Stalin had not agreed to halt the Red Army offensive at the River Wisła. Then Poland might conceivably have been freed from German occupation six months earlier, and Mordechai Chaim Rumkowski could have stepped from the ruins of the Jewish ghetto of the city of Łódź as what he perpetually strove to be, the liberator of his imprisoned people, and not, as history now generally paints him, as one of the most obedient tools of the Nazi executioners.

Main Characters

Gettoverwaltung
(the German civilian ghetto administration)

Hans Biebow
, Amtsleiter, head of the German civilian administration

Joseph Hämmerle
, the ghetto administration’s head of finance and central purchasing

Wilhelm Ribbe
, responsible for the deployment of Jewish labour, exploitation of confiscated goods and factory management within the ghetto administration

Erich Czarnulla
, in charge (within the ghetto administration) of all production of metal goods and of deliveries to the Wehrmacht

Heinrich Schwind
, in charge of materials and stock control at Baluter Ring and Radegast, also responsible for supervising the supply of foodstuffs to the ghetto

Other German officials
(including military and police administration)

SS-Oberstürmbannführer and Regierungsrat
Otto Bradfisch
, from 21 January 1942 Leiter der Stapostelle Litzmannstadt, with responsibility for the deportations from the ghetto to Chełmno beginning at that time; previously with the SS-Einsatzkommando in the Ukraine. From 2 July 1943 Oberbürgermeister of Litzmannstadt (successor to Werner Ventzki)

SS-Hauptsturmführer
Günther Fuchs
, head of Referat II B 4, later IV B 4, the Department of ‘Jewish Affairs’

SS-Sturmscharführer
Albert Richter
, head of the Gestapo headquarters in the ghetto (1, Limanowskiego), and deputy head of the Department of ‘Jewish Affairs’

SS-Hauptscharführer and Kriminaloberassistent
Alfred Stromberg
, working at Referat II B 4, for ‘Jewish Affairs’ at Gestapo-Dienststelle Getto Litzmannstadt

The Eldest of the Jews in Litzmannstadt
(The Jewish ghetto administration)

Mordechai Chaim Rumkowski
, Eldest of the Jews, Chairman of the ruling ‘Council of Elders’ (
Beirat
), taken in the last transport to Auschwitz on 28 August 1944 and murdered there, with his whole family, probably the same day

Dora Fuchs
, Rumkowski’s (senior) secretary and head of all the Chairman’s secretariats (also responsible for contacts with the German ‘authorities’). Dora Fuchs survived the war and emigrated to Israel

Mieczysław Abramowicz
, secretary and personal assistant to Rumkowski

Józef Rumkowski
, Rumkowski’s brother, ran the ghetto’s largest hospital, and was also head the Chamber of Highest Control (later renamed the FUKR – Fach und Kontrollreferat), set up to combat corruption in the ghetto. Was in the last transport out of the ghetto in August 1944 and was murdered with the rest of his family

Rebeka
(Regina/Renia)
Wołk
, head of Rumkowski’s ‘Presidial Secretariat’, later (until spring 1944) the Dworska Street Secretariat, also called Sekretariat Wołkówna

Dr
Wiktor Miller
, head of the health authorities in the ghetto (succeeded Dr Leon Szykier in the position)

Leon Rozenblat
, chief of the regular police force of the ghetto (known until September 1940 as HIOD, Hilfsordningsdienst), later overshadowed by the Sonderabteilung; held the largely symbolic position of ‘Deputy’ Elder of the Jews over an extended period of time

Shlomo Hercberg
, Chairman of
Forshtand Marysin
, classed for administrative purposes as a separate enclave within the ghetto; also commandant of the Central Jail and of District VI (the Marysin district) of the ghetto police. Deported from the ghetto and murdered with his whole family in March 1942

Aron Jakubowicz
, head of the Central Labour Office (Centraler Arbeits-Resort); taken from the Litzmannstadt ghetto to one of the special labour units set up by Hans Biebow in Sachsenhausen. Jakubowicz survived the war

Stanisław
(Szaja)
Jakobson
, Chairman of the Jewish Court in the ghetto; deported to, and murdered in, Auschwitz in August 1944

Dawid Warszawski
, head of the Central Tailoring Workshop; murdered in Auschwitz in 1944

Henryk Neftalin
, Head of the Department of Statistics and Population Registration (Meldeamt, statistische Abteilung) and the Archive; murdered in Auschwitz in 1944

Szmul Rosensztajn
, manager of the only printing works in the ghetto; in that capacity also appointed head of the Chairman’s ‘Propaganda Department’. Szmul Rozenztajn was also editor of the ‘Geto-Tsajtung’ that was published for the first nine months the ghetto was in existence

Dr
Michał Eliasberg
, the Chairman’s personal physician (was among the thirteen doctors recruited by Rumkowski in Warsaw, who came to Łódź in May 1941)

The Special Department

(Sonderkommando, known from September 1942 as the Sonderabteilung)

Dawid Gertler
, arrested in the ghetto on 12 July 1943

Marek
(Mordka)
Kligier
, appointed Gertler’s successor in July 1943

Rumkowski’s family
(and staff)

Mordechai Chaim Rumkowski
, Eldest of the Jews

Regina Rumkowska
(Ruchla), Rumkowski’s wife (married in December 1941)

Stanisław Rumkowski
(born Stern, 1927), adopted as Rumkowski’s son in September 1942

Józef Rumkowski
, Rumkowski’s brother

Helena Rumkowska
(Princess Helena), Józef Rumkowski’s wife, put in charge of soup kitchens and other communal feeding points in the ghetto after these were ‘nationalised’ (including those run by various parties, interest groups and voluntary aid organisations)

Jakub Tausendgeld
, lawyer, and entrusted with the management of the Rumkowski family’s ‘assets’, including Chaim Rumkowski’s private resources

Icek Fajnsztajn
, Princess Helena’s personal secretary

Dr
Herz Garfinkel
, Princess Helena’s personal physician

Lev Kuper
, head groom and coachman

Dana Koszmar
, housekeeper to the Rumkowski family

Estera
(Etka)
Daum
, secretary and chief telephonist at Rumkowski’s Secretariat at Bałuty square. She survived the ghetto and returned after the war to the city of Łódź. In 2008 her personal diaries were published in Poland

The Gnieźnieńska Street families

Ada Herszkowicz
, concierge, block supervisor

Adam Rzepin
, unskilled labourer

Lida Rzepin
, Adam’s sister

Szaja Rzepin
, Adam and Lida’s father

Lajb Rzepin
, Szaja Rzepin’s brother; employed at the time of the 1940 general strike at the cabinet-maker’s in Drukarska Street – subsequently informer and spy for the Sonderabteilung and Kripo

Hala Wajsberg,
niece of puppet-maker Fabian Zajtman

Samuel Wajsberg,
carpenter

Jakub
and
Chaim
, their children

Moshe
and
Rosa Pinczewski

Maria Pinczewska
, their daughter

Jakub
and
Rakel Frydman

Feliks
and
Dawid
, their children

Staff and children of the Green House
(the children’s home in Okopowa Street)

Dr
Józef Rubin
, superintendent

Malwina Kempel
, nursery nurse; also Dr Rubin’s secretary

Rosa Smoleńska
, nursery nurse

Dr
Adrian Zysman
, paediatrician

Chaja Meyer
, cook/housekeeper

Józef Feldman
, caretaker, boiler-man

Older children:

Debora Żurawska

Kazimir Majerowicz
(The Blackamoor)

Nataniel Sztuk

Mirjam Szygorska
(died February 1942)

Estera Lubińska

Natasza Maliniak

Adam Gonik

Stanisław Stern
(later Rumkowski)

Younger children:

twins
Abram
and
Leon Moserowicz

Dawid, Teresa, Sofie, Natan
(from Helenówek)

Liba
,
Chawa
(and others)

The Schulz family
(from the collective at 27 Franciszkańska Street)

Arnošt Schulz
, doctor

Irena Schulzová
(Maman), his wife

Věra Schulzová
, their daughter

Martin and Josef
(Josel) Schulz, their sons

The Archive
(technically a subdivision of the ghetto’s Department of Statistics)

Henryk Neftalin
, head of department and member of the ruling Council of Elders

Dr
Oskar Singer
, Dr
Oskar Rosenfeld
and
Alicja de Buton
(invisible in the text but present throughout as writers for the
Ghetto Chronicle
)

Aleksander
(Aleks)
Gliksman
, archivist

Rabbi (technically ‘engineer’)
Itzhak Einhorn

Pinkas Szwarc
, artist, graphic artist, set designer

Mendel Grossman
, photographer

Listeners in Brzezińska Street

Werner Hahn
,
Schmul Krzepicki
,
Moszje Bronowicz
, ‘the boy’
Shem

Labour brigade at Radogoszcz

Harry
(Herry)
Olszer
, ‘Verwaltungsleiter’ (engineer), in charge of the construction site at Marysin

Workers

Marek Szajnwald
,
Jankiel Moskowicz
,
Gabriel Gelibter
,
Simon Roszek
,
Pinkas Kleiman
,
Herz Szyfer
(and others)

The German station guard
(at Radegast station)

Oberwachtmeister
Dietrich Sonnenfarb

Lothar Schalz, Markus Henze

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Helge Axelsson Johnsons Stiftelse in Stockholm and to the Institut für die Wissenschaften vom Menschen (IWM) in Vienna for grants and opportunities for writing and research.

Particular thanks to Dr Sascha Feuchert and his colleagues of Arbeitsstelle Holocaustliteratur at the Institut für Germanistik at Justus Liebig University in Giessen, Germany, and to the late Julian Baranowski of the city archives in Łódź, for allowing me access to as yet unedited sections of the
Ghetto Chronicle
and other unpublished material including official proclamations, photographs and correspondence.

The
Ghetto Chronicle
is now available in an unabridged, five-volume German edition of over three thousand pages in length, published in November 2007:
Die Chronik des Gettos Lodz/Litzmannstadt
(Wallstein Verlag). Its principal editors are Sascha Feuchert, Erwin Leibfried and Jörg Riecke, assisted by Dr Julian Baranowski, Joanna Podolska, Krystyna Radziszewska and Jacek Walicki. Thanks to the staff of the Vienna University Library (Departments of Judaism and Contemporary History) and to the Jewish Library in Stockholm; to Zbigniew Janeczek for permission to reproduce the map on p. vi.

Many thanks also to Andrea Löw, Dirk Rupnow and Klaus Nellen (Vienna); to Jakub Ringart and Artur Zonabend (Stockholm); thanks also to Magnus Bergh, Anders Bodegård, Sarah Death, Aimée Delblanc, Stephen Farran-Lee, Carl Henrik Fredriksson, Peter Fröberg Idling, Joakim Hansson, Dagmar Hartlová, Tora Hedin, Lars Jakobson, Mariusz Kalinowski, Lennart Kerbel, Charlotte Kitzinger, Gisela Kosubek, Irena Kowadło-Przedmojska, Ola Larsmo, Paul Levine, Magnus Ljunggren, Karin Lundwall, Johanna Mo, Birgit Munkhammar, Joanna Podolska, Helena Rubinstein, Björn Sandmark, Kaj Schueler, Caterina Pascual Söderbaum, Tomasz Zbikowski and Andrea Zederbauer for advice, recommendations, reading and help with translations, and much more.

To Katerina and Sasha.

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