Judenrat - Definition

Judenrat, German for "Jewish council", were administrative bodies the Germans required Jews to form in each ghetto in General Government (Nazi-occupied colony in the central part of Poland). These bodies where responsible for local government in the ghetto, and stood between the Nazis and the ghetto population. They were generally composed of leaders of the Jewish community. They were forced by the Nazis to provide Jews for use as slave labour, and to assist in the deportation of Jews to extermination camps during the Holocaust. Those who refused to follow Nazi orders or were unable to cooperate fully were frequently rounded up and shot or deported to the extermination camps themselves. (See also Warsaw ghetto).

See also Adam Czerniakow, Mordechai Chaim Rumkowski.

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