Editing Chaim Rumkowski (section)

=== 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>