The jewish ghetto police - what happened to them?

Watched The Pianist the other night, which I quite enjoyed. I did wonder what happened to the Jewish police who assisted the SS in the deportation of the Jews from the ghetto.

Were they rounded up by the Russians along with the Germans? Hung by the polish resistance? Or did the Germans kill most of them after their job was done?

 

Killed by the Nazis. This was precisely part of the dirty game. The Nazis were experts at playing with people's hope. They would divide, deport some and leave others, do the opposite the next day, make people believe that if they were helpful, they might be spared etc.. On the whole thye did try to kill all those who witnesses the crimes, so being a Jew in a Ghetto wasn't the best place to be, policeman or not.

 

If they werent killed by the Nazis, they met their fate in the hands of the liberating Russians or by their own victims which they tormented for so long in order to save their own skin.

In my eyes these individuals were no better then their masters.......

 

Were they worse than their masters? They did turn on their own people after all.

What are some of the other examples of the nazi's playing with peoples hopes?

Cheers

 

They took a chance and thought it was their only hope to survive. I would call it survival instinct. Of course others did not , but who is to blame: them or those who forced them to do so?

 

well it was their choice, they weren't forced into that line of work.

Though on the other hand, for some I guess that choice didn't just affect them, but also their families. Perhaps they joined to ensure they could afford to feed their families.

Perhaps they were also promised their immediate family would be spared?

 

With SS/Einsatzkommando you could never be sure, I think. Every day was uncertain and the end result would be anyway being sent to the camp to certain death. Perhaps the future was "longer" for those in ghettos, in camps , if i recall correctly, the Jews doing the cleaning up of gas chambers and putting dead to the ovens the period of changing personnel was 2-3 months.

 

As I said it was a survival instict based on despair. People would never have made such a choice under normal conditions, but Nazis where masters at pushing people into making desperate choices and divide communities. They would make a mother choose between her own children so what is to be expected?

 

I never realised they did that, ive been reading about the ghetto but i bet i have just scratched the surface. Are there any documentaries out there solely about the ghetto?

 

Theres several. In English look for 'Maus. My Father Bleeds History. It is in the graphic novel or 'comic book' form but dont let it throw you off. It has become a respected work by scholars. The illustrator is the American son of a survivor of the Polish Jewish comunity. Over the years he pieced together his fathers experince and eventually put it together in this book. A quick read its easy to miss the nuances of the story. Read it slowly and thoughtfully and the true horror of not only the Jews situation but that of all occupied Europe sinks in.

Spiegelmann holds little back. His father made it clear that his buisness wealth made it possible to survive for a time through petty bribes and shady business deals with the local German authorities. Eventually he went to the camps, where he lived through the last years of the war.

http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Atlantis/2671/

http://www3.iath.virginia.edu/holocaust/spiegelman.html

http://www.amazon.com/Maus-Survivors-Father-History-Troubles/dp/0679748407

 

The fate of the Milice in France was fairly easy compared to the collaborationist police in the eastern occupied territories. Still not pleasant to be on the losing side.