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6. Development of the Administrative Apparatus and of the Police after the Action
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208 As noted, we slowly entered a new period after the action, a time when everything began slowly to stabilize and calm down. At that time, it was not possible to observe the transition, the evolution period, but now, as we look back upon those days, we readily see that it was the beginning of a new time period. New offices were being created, and existing ones were reorganized and stabilized. The first office to be established immediately after the Great Action was the commission for the liquidation of the property of those taken away. By order of the Elder Council, all the houses of residents who had been taken away were sealed and transferred to the jurisdiction of the commission. By means of public announcements, the Elder Council made it known that it was forbidden to take any belongings of those taken away without permission from the commission, even belongings of parents, brothers, or sisters. The commission returned some of the property in the sealed houses to very close relatives, and the rest was transferred to specially arranged rooms in Development of the Administrative Apparatus and of the Police after the Action 6 Developments after the Action 209 the clothing warehouses. The purpose of the Elder Council in arranging these warehouses was to distribute the belongings to those in need. Many quarrels took place in connection with this—altercations among the relatives themselves concerning inheritance items as well as various other incidents involving the commission and other parties interested in the properties . Later on, when the ghetto court was established, it was overwhelmed by quarrels over belongings. Many who shared quarters with someone who had been taken away grabbed or hid their belongings. With neither the relatives nor the commission able to find very much, the result was hundreds of quarrels and court cases. The commission was also not entirely pure. It was said in the ghetto that the employees of the office—the lower-rung and even the higher-up officials —were also not beyond being on the take. The more alert, the swifter, and the bigger the thief, the more he could steal, as there was no accurate accounting, the warehouse was not inventoried, and there were no controls —at least not at first. In spite of the fact that before reaching the warehouse the belongings were handled by many hands—they would go through various “transmigrations ”—many items valued at hundreds, even thousands, of rubles were assembled in the three warehouses. A welfare division was created by the commission, whose assignment was to distribute the belongings to those in need, first of all to those working at the airfield. Many items were distributed to the poor, particularly shoes and clothing. To some extent, this reduced somewhat the need for and the shortage of clothing. There were also a great deal of utensils, furniture, and other items of secondary utility, which were sold for money and the amounts received transferred to the Elder Council treasury. The Labor Office was reorganized at the same time. The former manager, Mr. F.,1 an unsympathetic person without social manners, was removed from his position and Mr. G. was appointed in his place. The mobilization, 1. Dov Levin provides the full names of the eleven people referred to in this chapter by initials only—see “How the Jewish Police in the Kovno Ghetto Saw Itself,” YIVO Bleter, new series, 3 (1997): 284–290 (Yiddish). [54.234.184.8] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 05:38 GMT) HISTORY OF THE VILIAMPOLE JEWISH GHETTO POLICE 210 penal, and city-brigade sections were established; work assignments were reorganized and rearranged and new people brought in. The seed of the future ghetto court was established in the form of the rapid -response court specifically to resolve work-related problems. If someone was caught not going to work, he would be turned over to the rapid-response court by the mobilization section. The matter would be handled publicly the same day and the accused given his punishment. The most common offense at that time was that of shirking work at the airfield. In addition to punishment , the task of the rapid-response court was also educational—a means of instilling fear in those wishing to malinger. The public sessions of the court, attended in the evenings by many people, led to the shaming of the accused: he would be reproached in the presence of everyone as being lazy and a malingerer. Many people—those having a...