Nasi Starsi Bracia - Żydzi

"The Jewish Council people have tried to exploit the blody
Friday for thier own purposes: to repress completely the
social and political life of the Ghetto. First they spread
the rumor that Friday's massacre was attributable to the
illegal publications.And then warned the people of the Ghetto
that if these (illegal publications) were to be repeated,
the fate of Lublin would be visited on Warsaw- i.e. the
deportation of the Jewish population......Bloody Friday
has had strong reprecussions. The illegal press has stopped
publishing.....Since the slaughter was the result of tattling
by the Jewish informers (apparently from the Kohn and Heller
firm) people tremble to speak a word.

"the Gestapo is destroying its Jewish agents one after
another. The consequence is that the chief Jewish agents,
men like Gancwajch Kohn and Heller, and Ehrlich live in
constant dread, in anticipation of the mortal blow. The reason
for this (liquidation of Jewish agents) is probably the
following: Firsrst of all, the jewish agents know too much,
many "businesses" beaing partnerships (between the
Gestapo and Jews); the Gestapo are fearful lest the Jewish
partner blab to another German, and the Gestapo lose out in
profitable undertaking. Secondly, there are rival Gestapo
apparatuses. Every chief, every Gestapo department, has its
own Jewish agents. When the Gestapo chiefs quarrel, each kills
the other's agents."

"the scenes when the wagons were loaded - the industriousness
of the Jewish police - the tearing of parents
from their children, wives from thier husbands"

"Letter from Lublin warning about - Szamek Grayer*
*Jewish Gestapo agent from Lublin sent to Warsaw to help
in the extermination

"The jewish police had a very bad name even before the
resettlement. The Polish police didn't take part in the
forced-work press gangs, but the Jewish police engaged in
that ugly business. Jewish policemen also distinguished
themeselves with thier fearful corruption and immorality.
But they reached the height of viciousness during the
resettlement. They said not a single word of protest against
this revolting assignment to lead their own brothers to the
slaughter. The police were psychologically prepared for the
dirty work and executed it throughly. And now people are
wracking their brains to understand how Jews, most of them
men of culture, former lawyers (most of the police officers
were lawyers before the war) , could have done away with
their brothers with thier own hands. How could Jews have
dragged women nad children, the old and the sick, to the
wagons - knowing they were all being driven to the slaughter ?
There are people who hold that every society has the police it
deserves, that the disease - cooperation with the Occupying
power in the slaughter of 300 000 Jews - is a contagion
affecting the whole of our society and is not limited to the
police, who are merly an expression of our society. Other
people argue that the police is the haven of morally weak
psychological types, who believe that the end determines all
means, and the end is to survive the war - even if survival is
bound up with the taking of other people's lives.

In the presence of such nihilism, apparent in the whole gamut
of our society, from the highest to the lowest, it is no surprise
that Jewish police executed the German resettlement orders
with the greatest of zeal. And yet the fact remains that most
of the time during the resettlement operation the jewish
police exceeded their daily quotas. That meant they were
preparing a reserve for the next day. No sign of sorrow or pain
appered on the faces of the policemen. On the contrary, one
saw satisfied and happy individuals, well fed, loaded with the
loot they carried off in company with the Ukrainian guards.

Very often, the cruelty of the Jewish police exceeded that
of the Germans, Ukrainians, and Letts. They uncovered more
than one hiding place, aiming to be plus catholique que le
pope and so curry favor with the Occupying Power. Victims
who succeeded in escaping the Germans eye were picked up by
the Jewish police. I watched the procession to the wagons on
the Umschlagplatz for several hours and noted that many Jews
who were fortunate enought to work thier way toward
the spot where the exempted people were standing were
forcibly dragged back to the wagons by the Jewish police.
Scores, and perhaps hundreds, of Jews were doomed by the
Jewish police during those two hours. The same thing
happened during the blockades. Those who didn't have the
money to pay off the police were dragged to the wagons, or
put on the lines going to the Umschlagplatz.

A scene I witnesed ar 3 Dzszika Street, opposite the
Umschlagplatz, one day when every policeman had to meet a
quota of four "heads" will remaind in my mind the symbol for
the Jewish police in Warsaw. I saw a Jewish policeman
pulling an old woman by the arm to the Umschlagplatz. He
had a hatchet on his schoulder. He used the hatchet to break
down locked apartments doors. As he approached the
Umschlagplatz where the watch was stationed, the policeman
shamefacedly took the hatchet off his schoulder and
transfered it to his hand. It was the general rule those
days to see individual policemen dragging men, women, and
children to the Umschlag.They took the sick there in rickshas.

For the most part, the Jewish police showed an incomprehensible
brutality. Where did Jews get such murderous violence ?
When in our history did we ever before raise so many hundreds
of killers, capable of snatching children off the street,
throwing them on the wagons, dragging them to the Umschlag ?
It was literally the rule for the scoundrels to fling women on
to Kohn-Heller streetcars, or on to ordinary trucks, by grabbing
them by the arms and legs and heaving. Merciless and violent,
they beat those who tried to resist. They weren't content simply
to overcome the resistance, but with the utmost severity punished
the "criminals" who refused to go to thier death voluntarily.
Every Warsaw jew, every woman and child, can cite thousands of
cases of the inhuman cruelty and violence of the Jewish police.
Those cases will never be forgotten by the survivors, and they
must and shall be paid for.

Beside the police, another group of (Jewish) organizations
shared in the resettlement operation. Gancwajch's redcapped
Special Ambulance Service was the worst. This organization of
swindlers had never given a single Jew the medical aid they
promised. They limited their activity to issuing authorization
cards and caps, for thousands of zlotys. Possesion of these,
together with Gancwajch's personal assistance, exempted the
owner from forced labor and was a defense against all kinds
of trouble and taxes in general. Besides, a Special Services
uniform enabled its wearer to perpetrate a variety of swindles
and blackmail associated with sanitation.

It was this pretty gang that now voluntarily reported for the
assigment of sending Jews to thier hereafter - and they
distinguished themeselves with thier brutality and inhumanity.
Their caps were covered with the bloodstains of the Jewish
people. The officials of the Jewish Council also cooperated in
the "operation" as dd the Service of the K.AM. - City Aid
Committee.

So long as the "operation" was in progress (that was the
name for the massacre of the Warsaw Jews) the populance
was silent.They allowed themeselves to be led to the slaughter
like sheep.I know that porters from the CENTOS (Children's Aid
Society) warehouse, who had many a time displayed courage in
the face of danger, allowed themeselves to be led off like
lambs during the "operation". The same can be said of most
men and women taken to the Umschlag at that time. This will
be an enternal mystery this passivity of the Jewish populance
even toward its own police. Now that the populance has
almed down somewhat, and they are reviewing what took place they
are becoming ashamed of having put up no resistance at all.
People remembered who was responsible forthe mass slaughter,
and concluded that it was the Jewish police who were the chief culprits;
somepeople go so far as to lay the whole guilt on the
police's shoulders. Now people are talking their revange.They
pass up no opportunity to remaind the Jewish police of thier
crime. Every policeman you talk to nowadays acts as innocent as
a newborn babe. He never took part in the operation. He was
assigned to this or that institution. Or else, if he was there ,
he saved people,from the Umschlag.Others did the seizing,not he.
From these protestations, one would gather that those who seized
people from the Umschlag were themeselves deported to various
labor camps or to Treblinki - since none of them are around; we
know the truth is exactly the opposite. It is the hoodlum and
the criminal element in the police that has remainded among the
among the 300 policemen who now on guard duty in the Ghetto,while,
on the contrary,the less diligent,who didn't have enough money
for "protection", have gone either to Treblinki or to camps like
those at Lublin.

So the time for soul-searching has come, the time for
revenge.A secret hand did away with Lejkin the police chief
in charge of the resettlement. The jewish police are persecuted
at every step. Not only by the Jews - the Poles, too,
demonstrate their hatered for the Jewish police. The ex-Jewish
policement working on the streetcar platforms are constantly
persecuted by the Polish workers. In Rembertow even German
soldiers persecuted them. Many shops protested against hiring
policemen. One shop voted to have all former policemen dismissed.
I know for a fact that ex-policemen in one outside work detail
wear their caps until they raech the watch at the Ghetto Wall,
becouse a cap is a sign of importance in the Ghetto. Once
outside the Ghetto, they take their caps off, becouse they are
afraid of the Polish populance, who hate the Jewish Law and
Order Service for what they did during the resettlement. A man
recognized a policeman who had taken away his parents in the
street, and attacked him. In Hallman's shop the relief committee
distributed dole to a sick ex-policeman. The furor against the
relief committee cannot be imagined. This happens everywhere
- ex-policemen are perescuted at every step.

People keep bringing up instances of the jewish police's
brutality during the resettlement. They tell this story:
A Jew was killed at 50 Leszno Street. His body lay there
in front of the gate. Two undertakers came along in a wagon
to remove the corps. That day, the police were scurrying
around like poisoned rats, becouse thier quota for the day
was five "heads". If they didn't meet it, they and their
families faced the deportation. Without thinking overlong
the police took away the two undertakers, leaving the corpse
to lie untended in the middle of the street. Another incident
that took place at 24 Leszno Street: A sixteen-year-old
baker's boy beat up a policeman who was trying to take away
boy's mother. The boy tore the policeman's short coat. he
was taken to the courtyard of the police headquarters, and
there given twenty-five stripes, as a result of which he died.

Still another, no less horible, instance: A policeman enters,
or rather, to be precise about it, breaks into an apartment.
All the tenants are hiding somewhere or other, leaving only
a three-month-old baby in his cradle. Without a moment's thought,
the policeman calls the German who is supervising the operation
in front the courtyard The German makes a face at being offered
such a victim. He beats the policeman up badly and shoots the
baby.

A number of people have assured me this is true.
There are many number of horrifying stories about the conduct
of the the Jewish police at the Umschlag. To them, nobody
was a person, only a "head" that could be blackmailed. The
only way to escape was by buying the police off with money,
iamonds,gold, and the like. The price per head varied. At first
it was 1000 or 2000 zlotys. Later it went up, until it reached
10000 zlotys per head. The exact sum depended on a complex of
subjective and objective factors, into which the Jewish police
had sometimes to draw "Yunakes" as partners, as well as the
Letts or Ukrainians who were on service in the Umschlagplatz.

The Jewish police were without mercy. You could be the
most worthy of persons, if you didn't have ransom money,
or relatives to pay the asking price, you would be sent away.
There are known cases where the police, in addition to money,
demanded payment in the form of woman's body. My friend Kalman
Zylbergberg knows the badge numbers of the policemen, and
the names of the women who paid for freedom with thier bodies.
The police had a special room in the hospital for this purpose.
As general rule, the police were beside themselves during the
resettlement. They were always furious at the recalcitrants who
refused to allow themeselves to be resettled. The police
themeselves were continually threatened with being sent to the
Umschlag with their wives and children. And then, they were
demoralized from before the resettlement. Those seized for the
Umschlag, particularly the women, put up resistance. All these
things created an imposible situation for the police, who reacted
like beasts.

Po I bitwie pod El Alamein, która opóźniła postępy państw Osi, brytyjski marszałek Bernard Law Montgomery przejął w sierpniu 1942 dowództwo 8 Armii od gen. Claude'a Auchinlecka. Sukces w bitwie zmienił losy całej kampanii. Niektórzy angielskojęzyczni historycy sądzą, że bitwa ta, wraz z bitwą pod Stalingradem, były dwoma zwycięstwami, które w największym stopniu przyczyniły się do porażki hitlerowskich Niemiec.