DECEMBER 22, 1940 The Jewish police is an accomplished fact. More candidates presented themselves than were needed. A special committee chose them, and “pull” played an important part in their choice. At the very end, when only a few posts were available, money helped, too... Even in Heaven not everyone is a saint.
The chief commissioner of this ghetto police is Colonel Szerynski, a converted Jew who was the police chief of Lublin before the war. Under him are three assistant commissioners: Hendel, Lejkin and Firstenberg, who together form the supreme police council. Then come the regional commandants, the district chiefs (the regions are divided into districts), and finally the ordinary policemen who perform routine duties.
Their uniform consists of a dark blue police cap and a military belt to which a rubber club is attached. Over the visor of the cap there is a metal badge bearing the Star of David and the inscription Jüdischer Ordnungsdienst (Jewish Order Service). On a blue ribbon around the cap, the policeman’s rank is indicated by special signs: one round tin disk the size of a thumbnail for a policeman, two for a senior policeman, three for a district chief; one star for a regional commandant, two stars for the three assistant commissioners, and four for the commissioner himself.
Just like all the other Jews, the Jewish policemen must wear a white armband with the blue Star of David, but in addition, they wear a yellow armband with the inscription Jüdischer Ordnungsdienst. They also wear metallic badges with their numbers on their chests.
Among the duties of these new Jewish policemen are guarding the gates of the ghetto together with German gendarmes and Polish policemen, directing traffic in the ghetto streets, guarding post offices, kitchens and the community administration, and detecting and suppressing smugglers. The most difficult task of the Jewish police is the curbing of beggars— this actually consists in driving them from one street to another, because there is nothing else to do with them, especially as their number is growing from hour to hour.
Central Police Headquarters, the so-called KSP, are at 15 Ogrodowa Street; the five regional offices are on Twarda Street, Ogrodowa Street, Leszno Street, at Gesia near Nalewki, and near the Jewish cemetery.
I experience a strange and utterly illogical feeling of satisfaction when I see a Jewish policeman at a crossing—such policemen were completely unknown in pre-war Poland. They proudly direct the traffic—which hardly needs to be directed, for it consists only of rare horse-driven carts, a few cabs and hearses—the latter are the most frequent vehicles. From time to time Gestapo cars rush by, paying no attention whatsoever to the Jewish policemen’s directions, and perfectly indifferent as to whether they run people over or not.
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