Editing Chaim Rumkowski (section)

== Background ==
[[File:Helenówek Orphanage, Łódź, Poland.jpg|thumb|upright|Before the war, Rumkowski directed a Jewish orphanage in Łódź.]]
Chaim Rumkowski was born on February 27, 1877, to Jewish parents in Ilyino, a [[shtetl]] in [[Vitebsk Governorate]], [[Russian Empire]]<!-- most probably [https://www.jewishgen.org/Communities/community.php?usbgn=-2914421], [https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d6/%D0%9A%D0%B0%D1%80%D1%82%D0%B0_%D0%92%D0%B8%D1%82%D0%B5%D0%B1%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%B9_%D0%93%D1%83%D0%B1%D0%B5%D1%80%D0%BD%D0%B8%D0%B8_%281820%29.jpg see map] upper right corner, but for now it would be WP:SYNTH -->.<ref>{{lang|pl|[https://zakazanehistorie.pl/wladca-getta/ "Władca getta"]}} ("Lord of the Ghetto"), by {{ill|Leszek Pietrzak|pl}}, series "Forbidden Histories"</ref> In 1892, Rumkowski moved to [[Congress Poland]]. He became a Polish citizen after the establishment of the [[Second Polish Republic]] in 1918. Rumkowski became an activist of the Zionist movement and was involved in the Łódź Zionist Committee.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Pietrzak |first=Leszek |date=2019-02-27 |title=Władca getta |url=https://zakazanehistorie.pl/wladca-getta/ |access-date=2024-03-27 |website=ZAKAZANE HISTORIE |language=pl-PL}}</ref>

Before the [[Nazi Germany|German]] [[invasion of Poland]], Rumkowski was an insurance agent in [[Łódź]], a member of [[Qahal]], and the head of a Jewish [[orphanage]] at 15 Krajowa Street between 1925 and 1939. According to Dr Edward Reicher, a Holocaust survivor from Łódź, Rumkowski had an unhealthy interest in children.<ref name="ER">{{cite book |title=Country of Ash: A Jewish Doctor in Poland, 1939–1945 |author=Dr. Edward Reicher |translator=Magda Bogin |year=2013 |isbn=978-1-934137-45-1 |pages=47–48|publisher=Bellevue Literary Press }}</ref> Łódź was [[Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany|annexed by the invading Germans]] into [[Nazi Germany]] and became part of the territory of new {{lang|de|[[Reichsgau Wartheland]]}}, separate from the {{lang|de|[[General Government|Generalgouvernement]]}} established in most of the [[Occupation of Poland (1939–1945)|German-occupied Poland]]. Smaller Jewish communities [[expulsion of Poles by Nazi Germany|were dissolved]] and forcibly relocated to [[ghettos in Nazi-occupied Europe|metropolitan ghettos]]. The occupation authority ordered the creation of the new Jewish Councils known as the {{lang|de|[[Judenrat|Judenräte]]}} which acted as bridges between the Nazis and the prisoner population of the ghettos. In addition to managing basic services such as communal kitchens, infirmaries, post offices and vocational schools, common tasks of the {{lang|de|Judenräte}} included providing the Nazi regime with slave labor, and rounding up quotas of Jews for "resettlement in the East," a euphemism for deportations to [[extermination camp]]s in the deadliest phase of [[the Holocaust]].

On October 13, 1939, the Nazi {{lang|de|Amtsleiter}} in Łódź appointed Rumkowski the {{lang|de|Judenältester}} ('Chief Elder of the Jews'), head of the {{lang|de|[[Judenrat|Ältestenrat]]}} ('Council of Elders'). In this position, Rumkowski reported directly to the [[Nazi ghetto]] administration, headed by [[Hans Biebow]].<ref name="yadvashem-odot">[http://www1.yadvashem.org/odot_pdf/Microsoft%20Word%20-%205839.pdf "Rumkowski, Mordechai Chaim"]. ''[[Yad Vashem]] School for Holocaust Studies''. Retrieved: 1 October 2011.</ref> When the rabbinate was dissolved, Rumkowski performed weddings. The ghetto's money or [[scrip]], the so-called ''Rumki'' (sometimes ''Chaimki''), was derived from his name, as it had been his idea. His face was put on the ghetto postage stamps and currency, which led to his sarcastic nickname "King Chaim".<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.timesofisrael.com/scholars-polish-pm-distorts-history-by-saying-jews-participated-in-holocaust/|title=Scholars: Polish PM distorts history by saying Jews participated in Holocaust|access-date=2018-03-12|language=en-US}}</ref>

By industrializing the Łódź Ghetto, he hoped to make the community indispensable to the Germans and save the people of Łódź. On April 5, 1940, Rumkowski petitioned the Germans for materials for the Jews in exchange for desperately needed food and money. By the end of the month, the Germans had acquiesced, in part, agreeing to provide food, but not money. Although Rumkowski and other "Jewish elders" of the Nazi era came to be regarded as collaborators and traitors, historians have reassessed this judgment since the late 20th century in light of the terrible conditions of the time. A survivor of the Łódź ghetto, Arnold Mostowicz, noted in his memoir that Rumkowski gave a percentage of his people a chance to survive two years longer than the Jews of the [[Warsaw Ghetto]], destroyed in the [[Warsaw Ghetto Uprising|Uprising]].<ref name="Unger 2004 p. 11">Unger 2004, ''Reassessment'', p.&nbsp;11.</ref> However, as noted by [[Lucjan Dobroszycki]], the ultimate decision on the future was not his to make.<ref name="LD-61">Dobroszycki 1984, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=d1-U17adWKIC&pg=PR61 The Chronicle of the Lodz Ghetto],'' page 61.</ref>

=== Ghetto history prior to the "Final Solution" ===
The ghettoization of Łódź was decided on September 8, 1939, by an order of {{lang|de|[[SS-Oberführer]]}} [[Friedrich Uebelhoer]]. His top secret document stated that the ghetto was only a temporary solution to "the Jewish question" in the city of Łódź. Uebelhoer never implied the long-term survival of its inhabitants.<ref>Documents, p.&nbsp;194</ref> The ghetto was sealed on April 30, 1940, with 164,000&nbsp;people inside.<ref>Unger 2004, ''Reassessment'', p. 22.</ref> On October 16, 1939, Rumkowski selected 31 public figures to form the council. However, less than three weeks later, on November 11, twenty of them were executed and the rest disappeared, because he denounced them to the German authorities "for refusing to rubber-stamp his policies". Although a new {{lang|de|Judenrat}} was officially appointed a few weeks later, the men were not as distinguished, and remained far less effective than its original leaders. This change conceded more power to Rumkowski, and left no one to contest or restrain his decisions. Rumkowski had the [[Jewish Ghetto Police]] under his control also.<ref>Unger 2004, ''Reassessment'', p.&nbsp;19.</ref>

The Germans authorized Rumkowski as the "sole figure of authority in managing and organizing internal life in the [[ghetto]]".<ref name="Reassessment, p. 22">Unger 2004, ''Reassessment'', p.&nbsp;22.</ref> Rumkowski gained power by his domineering personality as much as by his words and deeds.<ref name="Reassessment, p. 22" /> Biebow from the first gave Rumkowski full power in organizing the ghetto, as long as it did not interfere with his main objectives: absolute order, confiscation of Jewish property and assets, coerced labor, and Biebow's own personal gain.<ref name="Reassessment, p. 23">Unger 2004, ''Reassessment'', p.&nbsp;23.</ref> Their relationship seemed to work effectively. Rumkowski had leeway to organize the ghetto according to his own lights, while Biebow sat back and reaped the rewards.<ref name="Reassessment, p. 23" /> In trying to keep Biebow happy, Rumkowski obeyed every order with little question, and provided him with gifts and personal favors. Rumkowski is said to have boasted of his willingness to cooperate with the German authorities: "My motto is to be always at least ten minutes ahead of every German demand."<ref name="momentmag">{{cite news |author=Hilma Wolitzer |url=http://momentmag.com/moment/issues/2011/10/book_lies.html |title=The Final Fantasy |work=[[Moment (magazine)|Moment]] |date=September–October 2011 |access-date=October 3, 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111011080629/http://momentmag.com/moment/issues/2011/10/book_lies.html |archive-date=October 11, 2011 }}</ref> He believed that by staying ahead of the Germans' thinking, he could keep them satisfied and preserve the Jews. Łódź was the last ghetto in Central Europe to be liquidated.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Trunk |first1=Isaiah |title=Judenrat: the Jewish councils in Eastern Europe under Nazi occupation |date=1972 |publisher=Macmillan |location=New York |isbn=978-0-8032-9428-8 |page=413 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=D7bobfzrcCoC }}</ref> However, only 877 inhabitants survived in the city until liberation, by [[rescue of Jews by Poles during the Holocaust|hiding with Polish rescuers]], and it is claimed that Rumkowski had nothing to do with it.{{citation needed|date=May 2018}}

=== Administration ===
[[File:Rumkowski testing soup.JPG|thumb|upright|Chaim Rumkowski in the [[Łódź Ghetto]], tasting soup.]]
Because of the confiscation of cash and other belongings, Rumkowski proposed a currency to be used specifically in the ghetto – the {{lang|de|[[ersatz]]}}. This new currency would be used as money, and by this alone, a person could buy food rations and other necessities.<ref>Unger 2004, ''Reassessment'', p.&nbsp;27.</ref> This proposal was considered arrogant{{By whom|date=April 2025}} and illustrated Rumkowski's lust for power. The currency was, therefore, nicknamed by ghetto inhabitants as the "Rumkin".<ref name="Reassessment, p. 28">Unger 2004, ''Reassessment'', p.&nbsp;28.</ref> It dissuaded smugglers from endangering their lives to get in and out of the ghetto with goods, as people could not pay for them with regular currency. Rumkowski believed that smuggling of food would "destabilize the ghetto with regard to the prices of basic commodities" and prevented it from taking place.<ref name="Reassessment, p. 28" />

Rumkowski did not allow public protests expressing dissent. With the help of the [[Jewish Ghetto Police]], he violently broke up demonstrations. On occasion, he would request the Nazis to come and break up the commotion, which usually resulted in protesters being killed. The leaders of these groups were punished by not being allowed to earn a living, which in effect meant that they and their families were doomed to starvation. Sometimes the strikers and demonstrators were arrested, imprisoned, or shipped off to labor camps.<ref>Unger 2004, ''Reassessment'', pp.&nbsp;34-35.</ref> By the spring of 1941, almost all opposition to Rumkowski had dissipated. In the beginning, the Germans were unclear of their own plans for the ghetto, as arrangements for the "[[Final Solution]]" were still being developed. They realized that the original plan of liquidating the ghetto by October 1940 could not take place, so they began to take Rumkowski's labor agenda seriously.<ref>Unger 2004, ''Reassessment'', p.&nbsp;36.</ref> Forced labor became a staple of ghetto life, with Rumkowski running the effort. "In another three years – he said – the ghetto will be working like a clock."<ref name="Reassessment, p. 38">Unger 2004, ''Reassessment'', p.&nbsp;38.</ref> This sort of "optimism" however, was met with a damning assessment by Max Horn from {{lang|de|[[Ostindustrie]]}}, who said that the ghetto was badly managed, not profitable, and had the wrong products.<ref name="LD-lxi">[[Lucjan Dobroszycki]] (1984), ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=d1-U17adWKIC&pg=PR61 The Chronicle of the Lodz Ghetto],'' page lxi. Google Books.</ref>