Official metal cap badge of the Jewish Police in the Warsaw Ghetto (Jüdischer Ordnungsdienst Warschau), which operated between 1940–1943. Warsaw, early 1940s. Rare.
At its center, a Star of David and the bilingual German–Polish inscription: ORDNUNGSDIENST, SŁUŻBA PORZĄDKOWA – “Order Service.” The letters J, R, W, Z are an abbreviation for Jüdischer Religionsverband Warschau – Zentrale (Central Office of the Jewish Religious Association of Warsaw).
The Jewish police force had no official uniform. Identification was through a special cap or an armband. They were not permitted to carry weapons, but some units were equipped with rubber batons. Only about ten percent of the Jewish police had close ties to the Jewish community prior to the Holocaust. Their leaders were selected based on their obedience to the Nazis. Policemen could move about relatively freely, received more food than the general ghetto population, and were generally spared from the forced labor imposed on others.
The role of the Jewish police was to enforce the orders of the Judenrat, which in turn was responsible for implementing German directives. This included collecting fines and valuables, fulfilling labor quotas, escorting forced laborers to their workplaces, guarding the ghetto walls and gates to prevent escapes, and preparing and executing deportations to the extermination camps.
Emanuel Ringelblum wrote about the Jewish police in the Warsaw Ghetto: “The cruelty of the Jewish police often exceeded that of the Germans, Ukrainians, and Latvians.”
Many Jewish policemen were hunted down and killed after the war by camp survivors and partisans. In the American-occupied zone in Munich, 40 former policemen were accused of “improper conduct” and boycotted by the She’erit Hapletah community. In Israel, several trials were held during the 1950s under the Nazi and Nazi Collaborators (Punishment) Law, in which Jewish policemen were charged. Most were acquitted, with the courts recognizing that they had acted under extraordinary circumstances.
35 mm. Signs of wear.
