Jewish Policemen in the Kovno Ghetto: Linked by an Institution, Recognized by Their Acts

Abstract

Several Jewish policemen, fearing that future generations would not believe the horrors that engulfed them in the Kovno ghetto, anonymously wrote a history of the Jewish police force. Anticipating accusations of subjectivity – policemen writing about their own institution and colleagues - they swore to future historians to provide objective perspectives. What the authors could not know was that Jewish policemen would be judged as corrupt and brutal collaborators after the war, a perception that defines them monolithically as “collaborative formations”. As this perception has constricted consideration of Jewish policemen in the historigraphy, this article hopes to expand understanding through identification of acts of resistance. To this purpose, it examines the lives of three policemen, Yehuda Zupovitz, Joshua Grinberg, and Mikhal Hofmekler. Although the sample is too small to be considered as representative of Kovno ghetto Jewish policemen, it allows identification of their acts. As this inquiry is part of a larger study that will examine the lives of 20 Kovno ghetto Jewish policemen, it will test the methodology of collective biography to identify the acts of the three during the pre-war years and during their imprisonment in the ghetto.