User:MyMoloboaccount/Symche Spira

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‘Przeciw swoim: Wzorce kolaboracji żydowskiej w Krakowie i okolicy’, Zagłada Żydów - Studia i materiały, Rocznik naukowy Centrum Badań nad Zagładą Żydów IFiS PAN, Nr 2 (2006), ss. 202-220. Witold Medykowski

Ryszard Kotarba A historical guide to the German camp in Płaszów 1942–1945 page 17 The Jewish police OD (Jüdischer Ordnungsdienst) was established pursuant to the Municipal Governor’s directive of 5 July 1940 to act as the police in the Jewish part of the city and then in the ghetto. Initially, it was a typical law enforcement service, service in it was understood to be a social and civic duty. In March 1941, the Jewish police moved into the ghetto (ul. Józefińska 37). The OD also operated its own prison. Prisoners at this facility included both Jews arrested in the ghetto and Jews caught in the city with so-called “Aryan papers”, i.e. forged documents, thanks to which they were able to protect themselves while pretending to be Poles. Abundant evidence shows that the behavior of OD officers changed over time. During resettlement campaigns, they had to forcibly bring people to transports and although they were in danger themselves, they felt a taste for authority and its related benefits.Over time, their voice became decisive in ghetto matters, and communal authorities submitted to this system. The OD under the command of Symche Spira emerged as a group completely independent of the Judenrat, responsible solely to the German police authorities, with its ranks composed of cynical and corrupt people, overzealously executing German orders. Additionally,the ghetto was home to a group of dangerous informers. Some of them were entitled to go outside the Jewish district, regularly contacted the Sicherheitspolizei, and took part in arrests, both of Jews and Poles.

Ordinary Jews: Choice and Survival During the Holocaust - Page 84

When Spira married off his daughter, SS and Gestapo officers in charge of the ghetto took part in the celebration alongside Jewish religious authorities. According to a rumor, one of these officers even asked a famous rabbi to bless him. Evgeny Finkel

Writing War in the Twentieth Century - Page 123 One of the Muller family's most painful crises occurred when Symche Spira put Stella's father on a detail to hang six Poles the following day, causing Muller to effectively suffer a nervous breakdown

https://www.jewishgen.org/yizkor/schindler/sch010.html The effects of what had been decided at Wannsee were soon being felt in the Krakow Ghetto. The OD was being re-shaped, re-equipped with new style uniforms, and strengthened with collaborating Jews of the ghetto. One appointment was that of Simha Spira. He had been a glazier before the war, but was now the head of the Jewish police. Spira, a much despised individual, seemed to relish his close association with the Nazis. Spira took his orders not from the Judenrat but from Untersturmfuhrer Brand and the Gestapo.[9] Spira even organized his own political section, which was used with devastating effect to the advantage of the SS.[10]

SCRIPTA JUDAICA CRACOVIENSIA Vol. 11 (2013) pp. 147–160 JÜDISCHER ORDNUNGSDIENST IN OCCUPIED KRAKÓW DURING THE YEARS 1940-19451 Alicja Jarkowska-Natkaniec

According to German official documents,in 1941, 40 men aged between 19 and 53 belonged to the OD. The largest group among the members of the OD consisted of civil servants, tailors, and representatives of various crafts and professions. The latter group included merchants, accountants, doctors and engineers.27 Thus, they represented the elite of the Jewish community in Kraków The OD in the Kraków ghetto was divided into four divisions: political, financial, criminal and civil. According to Bieberstein the latter branch was subject to and followed the orders of the Gestapo. Supposed members of this branch included: Julian Appel, a certain Blodek, the brothers Michał and Ignacy Pacanower, Natan Schleifer and Wiktor Wertal.28 Starting in 1941, Symche Spira gradually became dependent on the authority of the Judenrat. It is not inconceivable that he was able to conduct recruitment to the OD single-handedly. Aleksander Bieberstein, a witness of those events, stated that the most important avenues for admission to the Jewish police were bribery, favoritism and the ability to salute superiors in Polish and German.29 The uniforms of OD-men did not undergo any significant changes. Spira obtained an additional allocation for all order-keeping units. They received jackets supposedly made from blankets, along with nightsticks. Members of the civil division of the OD received additional allocations. In addition to the basics, they received jackets, shirts, ties and armbands with the inscription Ordnungsdienst in Hebrew.30 OD members, in addition to their service at the gates of the Kraków ghetto, were responsible for maintaining order within the gates, writing out summonses, directing traffic, escorting Jewish workers for forced labor outside the ghetto, and inspecting the documents (identity cards) of ghetto residents. A gradual increase in the responsibilities of the OD followed from August 1941 to March 1943. In August 1941, the German authorities issued orders for the relocation of Jews from new communities connected to Kraków to the ghetto.31 In October of that year more than 20,000 people lived in the Kraków ghetto.32 Consequently, the German authorities carried out inspections of the documents in the Jewish quarter, directed by Symche Spira. After preparing a list of about a thousand old and unemployed people, the OD began raids and blockades of housing along with identity card inspections.33

On 26 June 1942 OD-men were forced by the Gestapo to perform a show execution, hanging seven unknown men on the railway embankment next to the Płaszów station.44 Because there were Poles among the murdered, the event was commemorated by the Nazis. This crime was aimed at awakening aversion to Jews, as the perpetrators, among the residents of Kraków.45 One can only assume that the events of 26 June and October 1942 had a demoralizing effect on the members of the OD. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Public_execution_near_P%C5%82asz%C3%B3w-Prokocim_train_station_in_occupied_Krak%C3%B3w.jpg

Life in the Ghettos During the Holocaust - Page 112 Spira's job was to create a Jewish police unit loyal to the Gestapo. The OD carried out Gestapo orders, implemented regulations decreed by the Judenrat, kept order within the ghetto, and captured Jews who committed crime https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/pa1036370

The Krakow Ghetto and the Plaszow Camp Remembered By Malvina Graf University Press of Florida 1989