He chose to work with Germany to save his family. Hand in hand with the Nazi gendarmes, he put the inhabitants of the ghetto into the wagons that carried them to their deaths. Too late he found out that the invader's promises could not be trusted ...
Calek Perechodnik joined the Jewish Order Service in Otwock in February 1941. One thought drove him:to create conditions that would allow his wife and daughter to survive. The career of a policeman was one of the few that gave hope for a better fate.
At first, this work did not seem like a reproach. Creation of the so-called Jüdischer Ordnungsdienst at the end of 1940 it was the work of the Jewish administration of the ghetto. Its task was to assist the Judenrat in maintaining order in increasingly crowded districts. "It's better to be ruled by your own brothers than SS or Gestapo thugs" - argues in the book "Jews 2. Politically Incorrect Stories" journalist Piotr Zychowicz.
"Everyone wanted to survive the war alone with their family ..."
Unfortunately, the practice showed that the devastated, as the officers of the Order Service were called, were particularly vulnerable to demoralization. This work made it possible to get rich quickly. Bribery quickly became common among policemen. Often there were also cases of their inhuman cruelty towards the remaining inhabitants of the ghettos.
In fact, the situation of the Jews of the Ordnungdienst became complicated only at the beginning of 1942. It was then that the leaders of the Third Reich made decisions about the final solution to the Jewish question. And because they were not able to organize the deportation of the representatives of the hated nation from the ghettos themselves ... they turned to the Security Service. In Warsaw, ordered the policemen to deliver a certain number of compatriots to the Umschlagplatz each day .
Perechodnik was assigned the same task. He and his colleagues from the Service were to herd the inhabitants of the Otwock ghetto to the square. The action was scheduled for August 18, 1942. In order to persuade the Jewish officers to obey, the Germans promised them that their families and they themselves would not be deported. In fact, it was perceived as the sparing of life. "The gendarmerie convinced the Jews that leaving the ghetto was tantamount to a death sentence," the policeman later recalled.
The Jewish police was established to keep order in the ghetto. The photo shows Warsaw odemans.
Like many others, Calek decided to accept this offer. “An atmosphere was created that, most of all, everyone wanted to survive the war alone with their family, live alone, live well and sell as little of their own things as possible,” he recalled years later. Meanwhile, as Zychowicz writes:
Confident in the German security guarantee, Perechodnik made no attempt to hide his wife and child. On the contrary, he himself led them to the square. Anna and Alusia found themselves in the crowd awaiting deportation, and Calek armed with a club, along with German gendarmes, kept order.
The lust for survival
It quickly turned out that faith in the German promises was a fatal mistake. “The German officer in charge of the deportation told the Jewish policemen that their wives would go along with the rest of the ghetto inhabitants. One of the policemen began to cry, but most of them were so amazed that they could not even utter a word "- reports Zychowicz.
The text is based on the book by Piotr Zychowicz "Żydzi 2. Politically incorrect stories" (Rebis 2018).
How did the officers behave? Most, including Calek himself, did not react. "The instinct for self-preservation, the desire to survive was stronger than the obligations towards one's own families" - he judged later bitterly. However, there were also cases of heroism. Odeman Willendorf deposited his badge and announced that he would accompany his family.
But the cruelty of the Germans did not end there. After they drove the policemen into despair, they suddenly offered them a new way out of the situation. They announced that they could save their wives and children, provided that ... they would help load the remaining Jews into the carriages!
Am I the murderer?
It is not surprising that the odemans, who had almost said goodbye to their families, made this decision. They began ruthlessly herding their countrymen on the train. They even locked the doors of the carriages with a bolt. Perechodnik later described that they worked at an insane pace. Just take your loved ones away from the square as soon as possible. But - once again - a terrible surprise awaited them. As Zychowicz tells in the book "Żydzi 2. Politically incorrect stories" :
It was obviously a trap. The Germans did not intend to keep their word even for a moment. When all the Jews were packed onto the trains, the gendarmes took their rifles off their shoulders and surrounded the officers of the Order Service. The men in silent horror had to watch as their wives and children entered the transport …
In 1942, Jewish policemen supported the German gendarmerie in the liquidation of the ghettos. Above, an officer from Gęsia 4 in Warsaw. Illustrative photo.
The Jewish policemen stayed in the ghetto for some time. They helped the German soldiers to catch the inhabitants who were hiding in the district. They led them to the posts, where those caught were immediately shot.
Perechodnik did not survive the war. He managed to escape from Otwock and get to the capital. He fought in the Warsaw Uprising, but died shortly after the city's capitulation. He managed to write down his account. It was published many years later, in 1993, under the title "Am I a Murderer?". It caused a shock - because today it is still difficult to answer this question.
Source:
Trivia is the essence of our website. Short materials devoted to interesting anecdotes, surprising details from the past, strange news from the old press. Reading that will take you no more than 3 minutes, based on single sources. This particular material is based on:
- Piotr Zychowicz, Jews 2. Politically incorrect stories , Rebis 2018.
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