The Hebrew University of Jerusalem - Dalia Ofer
A comprehensive description of the origins of the ghetto police, its development, its leadership, and the relations of the police with the rest of the ghetto administration, with Nazi collaborators inside the ghetto, with German and Lithuanian guards and policemen in the ghetto area, and with the ghetto population generally. . . . Readers will be moved to reflections on the existential situation of the authors, their state of mind, psychology, and philosophical conundrums. It will clarify other questions about the policemen as a group: their social status prior to the war, their education, their ideological outlook, and their self-understanding. . . . We do not have a document of this kind, or such a full account of any ghetto organization, let alone the police—despised and hated in most ghettos as collaborators. And despite the particularity of each ghetto, many phenomena covered in this book were universal to all.
Raul Hilberg]]>
If this had been published earlier, I would certainly have used it in my work. For me, [among] the most enlightening passages are, above all, what goes on in the minds of people who lose a third of their community in a single day and then face an uncertain future. Noteworthy are also the self-evaluations by the police of their role, the manner in which they struggle to justify their acts, and their realistic descriptions of confrontations with ghetto inmates. No less significant is their recognition of the ghetto jail as a prison within a prison, or their characterization of the Jews as 'sheep.'
author of The Destruction of the European Jews - Raul Hilberg
If this had been published earlier, I would certainly have used it in my work. For me, [among] the most enlightening passages are, above all, what goes on in the minds of people who lose a third of their community in a single day and then face an uncertain future. Noteworthy are also the self-evaluations by the police of their role, the manner in which they struggle to justify their acts, and their realistic descriptions of confrontations with ghetto inmates. No less significant is their recognition of the ghetto jail as a prison within a prison, or their characterization of the Jews as 'sheep.'
Washington University in St. Louis - Solon Beinfeld
Almost all ghetto memoirs, diaries, and histories describe the ghetto police in harshly negative terms, as a corrupt and brutal force whose members went to great lengths to save themselves by assisting the Germans in the destruction of their fellow Jews. . . . Individual policemen, both during and after the Holocaust, tried to justify their motives and behavior, but we have little in the way of sustained narrative of the police, much less one from the perspective of the police themselves. The history of the Kovno ghetto police is a unique historical document because it was written by the policemen while the ghetto was still in existence. Significant with respect to ghetto police forces in general, it illuminates the special case of Kovno. The Kovno ghetto police were by no means exempt from criticism by ghetto inmates, however, the behavior and attitude of the police aroused less of the bitterness and scorn one finds elsewhere. . . . No better source than this detailed history of the Kovno ghetto police can be imagined.
Dalia Ofer
A comprehensive description of the origins of the ghetto police, its development, its leadership, and the relations of the police with the rest of the ghetto administration, with Nazi collaborators inside the ghetto, with German and Lithuanian guards and policemen in the ghetto area, and with the ghetto population generally. . . . Readers will be moved to reflections on the existential situation of the authors, their state of mind, psychology, and philosophical conundrums. It will clarify other questions about the policemen as a group: their social status prior to the war, their education, their ideological outlook, and their self-understanding. . . . We do not have a document of this kind, or such a full account of any ghetto organization, let alone the police—despised and hated in most ghettos as collaborators. And despite the particularity of each ghetto, many phenomena covered in this book were universal to all.
Raul Hilberg
If this had been published earlier, I would certainly have used it in my work. For me, [among] the most enlightening passages are, above all, what goes on in the minds of people who lose a third of their community in a single day and then face an uncertain future. Noteworthy are also the self-evaluations by the police of their role, the manner in which they struggle to justify their acts, and their realistic descriptions of confrontations with ghetto inmates. No less significant is their recognition of the ghetto jail as a prison within a prison, or their characterization of the Jews as 'sheep.'
Solon Beinfeld
Almost all ghetto memoirs, diaries, and histories describe the ghetto police in harshly negative terms, as a corrupt and brutal force whose members went to great lengths to save themselves by assisting the Germans in the destruction of their fellow Jews. . . . Individual policemen, both during and after the Holocaust, tried to justify their motives and behavior, but we have little in the way of sustained narrative of the police, much less one from the perspective of the police themselves. The history of the Kovno ghetto police is a unique historical document because it was written by the policemen while the ghetto was still in existence. Significant with respect to ghetto police forces in general, it illuminates the special case of Kovno. The Kovno ghetto police were by no means exempt from criticism by ghetto inmates, however, the behavior and attitude of the police aroused less of the bitterness and scorn one finds elsewhere. . . . No better source than this detailed history of the Kovno ghetto police can be imagined.
Dalia Ofer]]>
A comprehensive description of the origins of the ghetto police, its development, its leadership, and the relations of the police with the rest of the ghetto administration, with Nazi collaborators inside the ghetto, with German and Lithuanian guards and policemen in the ghetto area, and with the ghetto population generally. . . . Readers will be moved to reflections on the existential situation of the authors, their state of mind, psychology, and philosophical conundrums. It will clarify other questions about the policemen as a group: their social status prior to the war, their education, their ideological outlook, and their self-understanding. . . . We do not have a document of this kind, or such a full account of any ghetto organization, let alone the police—despised and hated in most ghettos as collaborators. And despite the particularity of each ghetto, many phenomena covered in this book were universal to all.
Solon Beinfeld]]>
Almost all ghetto memoirs, diaries, and histories describe the ghetto police in harshly negative terms, as a corrupt and brutal force whose members went to great lengths to save themselves by assisting the Germans in the destruction of their fellow Jews. . . . Individual policemen, both during and after the Holocaust, tried to justify their motives and behavior, but we have little in the way of sustained narrative of the police, much less one from the perspective of the police themselves. The history of the Kovno ghetto police is a unique historical document because it was written by the policemen while the ghetto was still in existence. Significant with respect to ghetto police forces in general, it illuminates the special case of Kovno. The Kovno ghetto police were by no means exempt from criticism by ghetto inmates, however, the behavior and attitude of the police aroused less of the bitterness and scorn one finds elsewhere. . . . No better source than this detailed history of the Kovno ghetto police can be imagined.
