Background
He was born on February 27, 1877. Before the Nazi German invasion of Poland, Mordechaj (in Polish) Rumkowski was an insurance agent in Łódź; member of Qahal, and in 1925–1939 head of a Jewish orphanage at Krajowa 15 Street.
He was born on February 27, 1877. Before the Nazi German invasion of Poland, Mordechaj (in Polish) Rumkowski was an insurance agent in Łódź; member of Qahal, and in 1925–1939 head of a Jewish orphanage at Krajowa 15 Street.
Rumkowski was made chairman of the Jewish Council on October 13, 1939, andgiven wide powers by Hans Biebow. the German responsible for the ghetto. Biebow directed Rumkowski to set up workshops in which the ghetto’s Jews would labor for the Germans; eventually Rumkowski established 120 such places. He believed that by working for the Germans the situation of the Jews would improve. Later, after the deportations had begun, Rumkowski believed that by cooperating with the Germans and making as many Jews as possible important to the German war economy, Jews would be saved.
Rumkowski earned a reputation for his organizational skill. He was diligent, but as time went on he concentrated on gaining more and more power into his own hands, and became dictatorial. When the German administration ordered the ghetto to print its own money, in lieu of Polish or German money. Rumkowski’s picture adorned the bills. Later, opponents of Rumkowski were included in deportation transports.
After the establishment of the Chelmno extermination camp in December 1941, the Germans made Rumkowski take part in organizing transports from Lodz to the camp. Rumkowski strive to convince the Germans to deport fewer people, but his pleas were not answered. Some 52.000 Jews were deported from Lodz to the camp between January and May 1942. Since Rumkowski and his staff designated who would be deported, they earned much hatred among the ghetto population. During the next big deportation in September, the Germans did not employ Rumkowski. They deported over 22,000 people, using brutality. Rumkowski became more convinced that he could ameliorate the tragedy by working with the Germans.
The final destruction of the ghetto began late in June 1944. In August all the workplaces and the Jewish Council were closed down. Rumkowski and his family were sent to Auschwitz, where he perished.
Because of his dictatorial mien and his policy of giving the Germans “limbs in order to save the body,” the figure of Rumkowski has emerged from the Holocaust clouded in controversy. There are those who blame him for the destruction of Lodz Jewry. Others point out that in the summer of 1944 Lodz was the last large ghetto in Eastern Europe, with over 70,000 residents, and had the Soviets liberated it before the final deportations, tens of thousands of Jews would have been saved.
Rumkowski took an active role in the deportations of Jews. Some historians and writers describe him as a traitor and as a Nazi collaborator. Rumkowski aimed at fulfilling the Nazi demands with the help of their own Orpo Security Police if necessary. His rule, unlike the leaders of other ghettos, was marked with abuse of his own people coupled with physical liquidation of political opponents. He and his council had a comfortable food ration, and their own special shops. He was known to get rid of those he personally disliked by sending them to the camps. Additionally, he sexually abused vulnerable girls under his charge. Failure to succumb to his abuse meant death to the girl. Holocaust survivor Lucille Eichengreen who claims to have been abused by him for months as a young woman working in his office wrote: "I felt disgusted and I felt angry, I ah, but if I would have run away he would have had me deported, I mean that was very clear."
Rumkowski was ruthless, using his position as head of the Judenrat to confiscate property and businesses that were still being run by their rightful Jewish owners in the ghetto. He established numerous departments and institutions that dealt with all of the ghetto's internal affairs, from housing tens of thousands of people, to distributing food rations. Welfare and health systems were also set up. For a time, his administration maintained seven hospitals, seven pharmacies, and five clinics employing hundreds of doctors and nurses. Despite their effort, many people could not be helped due to the shortage of medical supplies allowed in by the Germans.
Rumkowski helped maintain school facilities. Forty-seven schools remained in operation schooling 63% of school-age children. There was no education in any other ghetto as advanced as in Łódź. He helped set up a "Culture House" where cultural gatherings including plays, orchestra and other performances could take place. He was very involved in the particulars of these events, including hiring and firing performers and editing the content of the shows. He became integrated in religious life. This integration deeply bothered the religious public. For example, since the Germans disbanded the rabbinate in September 1942, Rumkowski began conducting wedding ceremonies, and altering the marriage contract (ketubah). "He treated the ghetto Jews like personal belongings. He spoke to them arrogantly and rudely and sometime beat them".
Due to Rumkowski's harsh treatment, and stern, arrogant personality, the Jews began to blame him for their predicament, and unleashed their frustration on him instead of the Germans, who were beyond their scope of blame. The most significant display of this frustration and resistance was a series of strikes and demonstrations between August 1940 and spring of 1941.
Quotes from others about the person
In his memoirs, Yehuda Leib Gerst described Rumkowski as a complex person: "This man had sickly leanings that clashed. Toward his fellow Jews, he was an incomparable tyrant who behaved just like a Führer and cast deathly terror to anyone who dared to oppose his lowly ways. Toward the perpetrators, however, he was as tender as a lamb and there was no limit to his base submission to all their demands, even if their purpose was to wipe us out totally. Either way, he did not properly understand his situation and positing and their limits."
Historian Michael Unger in his Reassessment of the Image of Mordechai Chaim Rumkowski (2004) explored the materials leading to what is being said about him. Rumkowski is described "on the one hand, an aggressive, domineering person, thirsty for honor and power, raucous, vulgar and ignorant, impatient (and) intolerant, impulsive and lustful. On the other hand, he is portrayed as a man of exceptional organizational prowess, quick, very energetic, and true to tasks that he set for himself." Research performed by Isaiah Trunk for the book Judenrat attempted to revise the prevailing view of Rumkowski as traitor and collaborationist.