The Clandestine History of the Kovno Jewish Ghetto Police

5. The Elder Council, the Ghetto Institutions, the Police, and the Ghetto Population Mutual Interrelationships

187 Relation of the Police to the Elder Council and the Labor Office. Attitude of the Population toward the Police. Moral Level of the Offices and Employees of the Ghetto Institutions and of the Police. As noted, the police and the Labor Office were set up and organized during the very first days. According to the established order for such institutions , the largest organizations—in size and influence—were subordinated to the Elder Council. These were the organizations that, within the limits of their capability, had a say over the entire inner life of the ghetto. The Elder Council is the highest organization of the ghetto; everything and everybody were subordinated to it. It has veto rights over all decisions of the various offices. But, customarily, the Elder Council does not involve itself directly with the daily issues of the police or the Labor Office, such that the police, as the implementing organization—the “eye” of the ghetto—and The Elder Council, the Ghetto Institutions, the Police, and the Ghetto Population Mutual Interrelationships 5 HISTORY OF THE VILIAMPOLE JEWISH GHETTO POLICE 188 the Labor Office, as the organization dealing with the distribution of the Jewish work force, are largely autonomous in their fields of endeavor. These two organizations, although subject to the oversight of the Elder Council, are in fact the decision makers within the boundaries of their fields of activity , which encompasses the entire administrative life of the ghetto. The Elder Council is our official representative to the outside world, maintaining contact with the authorities, conveying in their name various instructions to the ghetto population, issuing direct orders to the ghetto inhabitants and to the offices of the ghetto institutions concerning all internal matters, and setting and approving the fees of all the offices. The Elder Council is the balebos [master of the house] over everything and everybody. The chief of police Mr. K. [Kopelman] was also a member of the Elder Council, meaning that the chief of police, as top man in the police, was at the same time also a member of the ghetto management. The Elder Council and the police force, although the latter is subordinate to the former in all matters, are essentially one entity, one complementing the other. The Elder Council makes decisions with the concurrence of the chief of police as its member, and the police, as its implementing arm, carries them out. That’s how it looks officially, and that’s how it also was in fact during the first days of the ghetto. But it is also true that in normal life not everything put on paper looks the same in practice. “What one eats is not as hot as when it was cooked.” As actual work began, as we entered the pace of ghetto life, mutual relationships took on different forms. In the course of their work, the relationship between the police and the Elder Council encountered various difficulties. Little disagreements grew into larger misunderstandings, which later developed into subtle struggles between them. Clearly, it could not be considered a struggle between equals, because, in the end, the police were subordinate to the Elder Council. But a critical attitude developed in police circles toward the Elder Council and a grudge or anger developed among the latter toward the police. The first misunderstandings were due to differences of opinion between the leaders of the police and the Elder Council as well as due to various interventions by the police that were not given any consideration by the Elder Council. The Elder Council, Institutions, and Ghetto 189 It is well known that it is easy to be critical of someone else, much easier than to have your own work exposed to the criticisms of others. But there were many matters in which the police intervened, believing themselves to be in the right, but without success. As previously noted, many of those who first joined the police believed that they were doing so without ulterior motives—only for the well-being of the ghetto. There is no such thing in the world as an idealistic “ghetto huckster.” But there does exist the ideal of working for the benefit of all, regardless of where and in what condition the community may find itself. The first group of people to join the police did so to work for the well-being of the ghetto Jews. Later, things became quite different. During the following...