When
we talk of Nazi Collaborators we are not usually referring to Jews. When we
think of the Holocaust, we often imagine that the Germans were solely
responsible for the identification and deportation of Jews and others to the
death camps. The truth, however, is that a number of Jews worked under the
Nazis and helped to identify thousands of their fellow men for deportation to
the death camps.
The
Nazi collaborators on this list either volunteered to help the Nazis or were
forced to trade the lives of hundreds or thousands of their fellow Jews for their
own lives and the lives of their families. Greed, self-preservation, and hate
are the main reasons for the actions these individuals took.
10Nazi Collaborators: Calel Perechodnik
Calel
Perechodnik is the author of Am I a Murderer? Testament of a Jewish Ghetto
Policeman, which is from his memoirs about his life after joining the
ghetto police in Otwock. He may seem like a victim of circumstances, but that
does not change the fact that he worked on orders of the Nazis and contributed
to the deaths of
fellow Jews and even his wife.
Perechodnik
joined the ghetto police because he thought it would save him and his family
from the death camps. It was also a way to provide food for his family.
But
according to his memoirs, he developed a hatred for the Jews and himself,
blaming them for the way they were treated. He said that other nations hated
the Jews because they claimed to be a chosen race. When Perechodnik deserted
the Ghetto Police, the Nazis captured and executed him.
9Jozef Andrzej Szerynski
Jozef
Szerynski did not like being a Jew. After fighting in the Russian army during
World War I, he tried to distance himself from the Jews by changing his birth
name from Josef Szynkman to Jozef Andrzej Szerynski.
During
World War II, he was appointed the head of the police in the Jewish Ghetto of
Warsaw. The Gestapo charged him with identifying Jews for deportation to the
death camps.
Szerynski
executed his duty without any hesitation, leading thousands of men, women, and
children to the Treblinka extermination camp. In August 1942, just a month
after he had begun his assignment, an attempt was made on his life by a member
of the Jewish underground. But Szerynski survived.
After
overseeing two mass deportations that caused the deaths of 254,000
Jews, Szerynski committed suicide using cyanide in January 1943.
8Adam Czerniakow
Adam
Czerniakow was born in Poland and worked as an engineer for most of his life.
When the Nazis took over Poland, he was appointed head of the Warsaw Jewish
Ghetto. Czerniakow headed the 24-man Warsaw council that was charged with the
identification and capture of Jews for deportation.
Czerniakow
also recommended the appointment of Jozef Andrzej Szerynski as head of the
ghetto police. Under direct orders from Nazi bosses, Czerniakow oversaw the
daily deportation of 6,000 Jews.
According
to The Warsaw Diary of Adam Czerniakow, he tried his best to plead
for the exemption of orphans but to no avail. It is said that his wife and
thousands more were held hostage to ensure that he executed his duty.
Overwhelmed by the pressure, he committed suicide using cyanide. Czerniakow left a
note to his family saying that suicide was the right thing to do.
7Chaim Mordechai Rumkowski
Chaim
Mordechai Rumkowski was a Polish Jew appointed by the Nazis as the head of the
Jewish Council of Elders in Lodz Ghetto. There, he was the most influential and
powerful man. He even made his own currency called Chaimki with his face on it.
Referred
to by some people as “King Chaim the Terrible,” Rumkowski personally oversaw
the handover of more than 20,000 children, elderly, and sick Jews to the Nazis
for deportation to the extermination camps. He is remembered for his speech,
infamously named “Give Me Your Children.”
Rumkowski,
however, did not survive the Holocaust. In August 1944, he and his family ended
up in Auschwitz. There, he was beaten to death by fellow Jewish inmates for the
role he played in the deaths of thousands of children and elderly.
6Alfred Nossig
In
his biography, Alfred Nossig is described as a man with a brilliant mind who
studied law, science, and art. He encouraged Jews to try to assimilate as
Polish citizens. But when he discovered that the Poles did not want to accept
the Jews as Polish, Nossig became a Zionist.
Later,
when the Germans invaded Poland during World War II, Nossig became an
undercover agent for the Gestapo and produced regular reports about activities
of the Jewish underground which he delivered to the Gestapo. The Jewish
underground later found out about his activities and executed him.
Among
the documents found at his home after the execution were a Gestapo identity card and a list of Jews engaged in
anti-Nazi activities. It is believed that the identity card made it easy for
him to get access to his Nazi bosses without being arrested and deported. At
the time of his death, he was 78 years old.
5Abraham Gancwajch
Abraham
Gancwajch was an all-out supporter of the Nazis. He believed they would win
World War II, so he encouraged his fellow Jews to join the Nazis as a survival
tactic. A member of the Warsaw Ghetto Council, he tried to take over from Adam
Czerniakow but failed.
Gancwajch
formed a notorious gang called Group 13, also referred to as the Jewish Gestapo. The things they did
are so despicable that even fellow Nazi Jews like Czerniakow described
Gancwajch as an evil, ugly man who would do anything for a life of luxury.
Gancwajch
was known for engaging in smuggling activities and other illegal businesses
that helped him live like a king within the Jewish Ghetto. The Nazis let this
go on as long as he continued to fight the Jewish resistance for them.
The
Underground Jews sentenced Gancwajch to death but were never able to execute
him. It is not clear how he met his death, though it is believed that he died
in 1943.
4Ans van Dijk
The
Nazi collaborators weren’t always men. Ans van Dijk was born to Jewish parents
in the Netherlands. There, she lived a fairly normal life until the invasion by
the German forces. At the height of the Nazi operations, she was arrested. But
she was released on the condition that she would help the Nazi Intelligence
find other Jews in hiding.
Van
Dijk infiltrated the Jewish resistance and pretended to help families and
individuals escape or obtain false papers. In reality, she would just deliver
them to the Nazis for deportation. She executed this duty without any favor,
going as far as trapping her brother and his family.
At
the end of the war, van Dijk was arrested in The Hague, where she had moved and
was involved in a lesbian relationship. In June 1945, she was charged with 23
counts of treason. She pleaded guilty to all charges and was sentenced to
death.
Van
Dijk tried her best to avoid the execution. She appealed the sentence and
converted to Christianity, but all that failed. In January 1948, van Dijk
was executed by firing squad. She is believed to be responsible for
the deaths of 85 Jews and the arrests of 145. Some scholars still regard her as
a victim.
3Stella Goldschlag
Stella
Goldschlag was a paid “catcher” for the Nazis. She had studied in a Jewish
school and lived in the Jewish ghetto. Therefore, she knew a number of fellow
Jews who were hiding underground in Germany.
Peter
Wayden, her biographer, describes her as charming and beautiful. With her
blonde hair and blue eyes, she hardly looked like a Jew. According to her
biography, Goldschlag was arrested with her parents as they tried to leave
Germany. She was tortured until she agreed to help catch fellow Jews in hiding.
The
Nazis knew how much she loved her parents and that she would do anything to
keep them alive. But it is also recorded that she was offered 300 reichsmarks
as payment for every Jew she caught. Even after her parents were sent to a
concentration camp, she continued to catch Jews for the Nazis.
Goldschlag
used her good looks to gain people’s trust. She would offer them food and
accommodations, only to hand them over to the Nazis for deportation. It is
estimated that she helped to catch close to 3,000 Jews.
The
Germans named her “blonde poison.” After the war, she served 10 years
in prison, converted to Christianity, and became an outspoken anti-Semite.
Goldschlag committed suicide in 1994 by jumping out a window.
2Rolf Isaaksohn
Rolf
Isaaksohn offered to work as a catcher for the Gestapo. He bragged that he
could fill a whole train with Jews for deportation. After he married fellow
catcher Stella Goldschlag, they were even more effective together than the
Gestapo at arresting Jews in hiding.
Isaaksohn
had a talent for forging documents. This brought many Jews to him for
assistance, and he would easily hand them over. This is a man who actually
loved betraying his own people, and many Jews lived in fear of Mr. and Mrs.
Isaaksohn.
According
to Peter Wayden, who wrote about the couple, the Isaaksohns were very
innovative in the way they would get Jews in hiding. It didn’t even matter if
these people were childhood
friends.
All told, Isaaksohn caused the deaths of over 2,000 Jews.
1Moshe Merin
Sosnowiec Council with Moszek Merin (centre) fifth from the right, middle row.
In
his book Nightmares: Memoirs of the Years of Horror Under Nazi Rule in
Europe, Konrad Charmatz described Moshe Merin as impulsive and unstable.
Merin volunteered himself to the Nazis when they invaded Poland and presented
himself as the leader of the Sosnowiec Community Council.
The
Nazis installed Merin as the leader of the Central Office of the Jewish council
in East Upper Silesia, which put as many as 100,000 Jews under him. Merin
believed that he could save the lives of other Jews by following the orders of
the Nazis. When he was asked to choose 25,000 Jews for deportation, he gladly
did, arguing that at least he had saved a greater percentage.
Working
with the Jewish Ghetto Police, Merin fought the underground
resistance and personally signed the execution warrants of
those arrested. His actions, however, did not save him. Merin died in 1943 in
Auschwitz, where he had sent fellow Jews to be killed.
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