Kovno Jewish Ghetto Police

The Jewish Ghetto Police (Jüdische Ghetto-Polizei or Jüdischer Ordnungsdienst) was organized in August 1941. Like ghetto police elsewhere, the Kovno ghetto police found themselves serving two masters: the German occupation authorities and the Jewish council. They did their best to help the Jewish population while at the same time following Nazi orders. While many of their actions aroused the ire of the Jewish population, who accused them of favoritism and corruption, the Jewish police cooperated with the resistance and helped smuggle food into and children out of the ghetto. Members of the police kept a remarkable chronicle which recorded the life of the ghetto, the dilemmas faced by the police in their relations with the Germans, the Judenrat, and the ghetto population, and their efforts to preserve some modicum of decency and integrity. The leaders of the ghetto police—Moshe Levin, Yehuda Zupevitz, and Ike Griberg—showed great heroism in March 1944 when they refused, under torture, to divulge information about hiding places and Jewish resistance. Very few Jewish policemen survived the war.