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Ghettos 1939–1945 New Research and Perspectives on Definition, Daily Life, and Survival

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Ghettos 1939–1945 New Research and Perspectives on Definition, Daily Life, and Survival UNITED STATES HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL MUSEUM CENTER FOR ADVANCED HOLOCAUST STUDIES Ghettos 1939–1945 New Research and Perspectives on Definition, Daily Life, and Survival Symposium Presentations W A S H I N G T O N , D. C. Ghettos 1939–1945 New Research and Perspectives on Definition, Daily Life, and Survival Symposium Presentations CENTER FOR ADVANCED HOLOCAUST STUDIES UNITED STATES HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL MUSEUM 2005 The assertions, opinions, and conclusions in this occasional paper are those of the authors. They do not necessarily reflect those of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council or of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. The articles in this collection are not transcripts of the papers as presented, but rather extended or revised versions that incorporate additional information and citations. All the contributions were copyedited. Although the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum makes every reasonable effort to provide accurate information, the Museum cannot guarantee the reliability, currency, or completeness of the material contained in the individual papers. First printing, August 2005 Copyright © 2005 by Christopher R. Browning; Copyright © 2005 by Dennis Deletant; Copyright © 2005 by Dan Michman; Copyright © 2005 by Sara Bender; Copyright © 2005 by Alexandra Garbarini; Copyright © 2005 by Gershon Greenberg; Copyright © 2005 by Henry M. Abramson. Contents Foreword.......................................................................................................................................... i Paul A. Shapiro Before the “Final Solution”: Nazi Ghettoization Policy in Poland (1940–1941)...........................1 Christopher R. Browning Aspects of the Ghetto Experience in Eastern Transnistria: The Ghettos and Labor Camp in the Town of Golta............................................................................................................15 Dennis Deletant Reevaluating the Emergence, Function, and Form of the Jewish Councils Phenomenon ............67 Dan Michman The Białystok and Kielce Ghettos: A Comparative Study .............................................................85 Sara Bender A Tale of Two Diarists: A Comparative Examination of Experiences in Eastern and Western Europe.......................................................................................................................95 Alexandra Garbarini The Theological Letters of Rabbi Talmud of Lublin (Summer–Fall 1942) .................................113 Gershon Greenberg Deciphering the Ancestral Paradigm: A Hasidic Court in the Warsaw Ghetto..........................129 Henry M. Abramson Soviet Archival Sources for Studying the Jewish Experience during the Holocaust...................147 Vadim Altskan Appendix: Biographies of Contributors.......................................................................................159 Foreword In the ghettos of the Middle Ages Jewish contact with the outside world was carefully regulated. “The gates of the ghetto were closed at night—from the outside in those localities where the object was to confine the Jews, and from the inside where the gates served chiefly as protection against attack…. Seclusion from the outer world,” as The Jewish Encyclopedia vividly expressed it in 1903, “developed a life apart within the ghetto, and close communion among the members was in a certain way a power for good, fostering not only the [social and] religious life, but especially morality.”i A highly developed hierarchy of officials ran ghetto government, courts, police, and religious institutions. The last of the major ghettos established in medieval times finally disappeared with the European revolutions of 1848. Did the Nazi- and Axis-made ghettos of Europe between 1939 and 1945 share any characteristics with those of the Middle Ages? Clearly they were closed “from the outside,” but did Jews perceive themselves as better protected inside? For how long? And based on what assumptions, information, or lack of information? Furthermore, what were the aims and policies of those establishing the ghettos? How monolithic was the process of ghettoization, deportation, and destruction experienced in the most populous ghettos, those of Warsaw and Lodz? How different were the ghettos of Eastern and Western Europe, and what about the case of Transnistria? Can ghettos be defined with clarity or consistency in Nazi-dominated Europe? These questions beget further important questions about the nature of Jewish life—and the struggle for life—within ghettos. What was the nature of the “life apart” that developed within ghetto confines? Can we characterize civil and religious institutions, economic structure, family life, and cultural creation? For whom did the Jewish Councils—the Judenräte—work? For the perpetrators? For fellow Jews? For themselves? How did Jews subjected to ghettoization understand what was happening to them? Through observation and logic? Through a religious prism? On the basis of political ideology? And, if so, was it a Jewish or secular ideology? By psychological adaptation to preserve sanity? What were their responses to an unknown future? How did Jews preserve the dignity of life under Nazi onslaught? What of the strong, the weak, the rich, the poor, Jewish officials, and resistors? ii • FOREWORD These were some of the questions addressed during the symposium Ghettos, 1939–1945: New Research and Perspectives on Definition, Daily Life, and Survival, organized by the Museum’s Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies as part of its continuing series of scholarly symposia. The mission of the Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies is to support scholarship and publications in the field of Holocaust studies, to promote the growth of Holocaust studies at American universities, to foster strong relationships between American and international scholars, to collect Holocaust- related archival documents worldwide, and to organize programs to ensure the ongoing training of future generations of scholars. The symposium was divided into two sessions. The first session, entitled Definition, Administration, and Resistance, began with Christopher R. Browning, Frank Porter Graham Professor of History at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Professor Browning discussed Nazi ghettoization policy in Poland, detailing the administration, stages, and motives of the perpetrators. Dennis Deletant, Professor of Romanian Studies at University College London, explained how the ghetto experience in the eastern Transnistrian town of Golta differed from ghetto experiences in German- occupied Europe, where Jews were concentrated in Jewish communities with established social infrastructures to assist them. Dan Michman, Professor of Modern Jewish History at Bar-Ilan University, reevaluated the emergence, function, and form of Jewish Councils, exploring their varied areas of authority and to whom they were subordinate. Sara Bender, Professor of Jewish History at the University of Haifa, compared the ghettos of Bialystok and Kielce, revealing that the process of ghettoziation, deportation, and destruction was not monolithic even in Poland. Lenore J. Weitzman, Clarence J. Robinson Professor of Sociology and Law at George Mason University, addressed the subject of kashariot, female couriers in the Jewish resistance who carried information, secret documents, and various forms of aid among the Polish ghettos, working to circumvent Nazi efforts to isolate the Jews.ii The second session, Daily Life, Culture, and Religion, “offer[ed] insights,” to quote the paper of one of our contributors, “into individuals’ ongoing attempts to make sense of and accommodate themselves to a world of constantly shrinking prospects.” Gustavo Corni, Chair for Contemporary History at the University of Trento, Italy, described daily life in the ghettos throughout Eastern Europe, detailing characteristics—overcrowding, hunger, contraband, religion, and culture—of the “life apart.”iii Alexandra Garbarini, Assistant Professor of History at Williams College, FOREWORD • iii contributed a moving analysis of two ghetto diaries, highlighting how Jews used theology, history, and rationalism to interpret an unknown future. Gershon Greenberg, Professor of Philosophy at American University, described the theological and religious turmoil of Rabbi Talmud of Lublin, who used the prism of religion to try to make sense of the ghettoization, deportation, and destruction around him. Henry M. Abramson, Assistant Professor of History and Judaic Studies at Florida Atlantic University, discussed the psychological and social mechanisms used by Warsaw Hasidim as they reacted to events unfolding in the ghetto. Vadim Altskan, Program Coordinator in the Center’s International Archival Programs Division, closed the session by highlighting opportunities for new research in recently released archives from the former Soviet Union, such as oral and written testimonies that reveal how Jews forced into ghettos made sense of what was happening to them. At the end of the symposium one of our panelists remarked, “There are so many questions and so few conclusions we can be sure of. Looking at ghettos from the inside out gives very different answers than looking from the outside in. How [can we, as scholars, best attempt] to encompass the diversity of [the ghetto] experience? It is clear that we are just at the beginning of this research[, and that] our generalizations must all be reassessed.” I hope that the seminar made a contribution to that crucial process. The symposium
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