The Ghetto as a Form of Government

Isaiah Trunk's classic study of the Jewish Councils in Eastern Europe under the Nazi regime points to four major conclusions. (1) The ghetto was a captive city-state, totally subordinate to German authority while remainng a Jewish entity with traditions and expectations rooted in Jewish experience. The Jewish councils that were placed in charge of the ghettos were facing a dilemma in that they could not follow German instructions without hurting Jews and could not help Jews without obeying the Germans. (2) As a socioeconomic unit, the ghetto was hovering between life and death. The Jewish population could not support itself in definitely by trading with the outside world; impoverish ment spelled out its doom. (3) For the incarcerated Jews, the ghetto was also a mirage. It instilled thoughts of normalcy and continuity in the Jewish community at a time when the Germans were preparing for deportations of the victims to death camps. (4) Finally, the ghetto councils and their police organs were a self-destructive mechanism insofar as they con fiscated assets or recruited labor and, in the end, rounded up the people for transport in trains waiting nearby.