Warsaw Ghetto Policeman's Badge

Authors

Object ID

2019.2.75ab

Object Name

Badge, Law Enforcement

Date

1942

Files

Content Warning

The Bulmash Family Holocaust Collection consists of images, documents, and artifacts related to the Holocaust. The collection contains materials that depict a number of topics that may be difficult for viewers to engage with, including: antisemitic descriptions, caricatures, and representation of Jewish people; Nazi imagery and ideology; descriptions and images of German ghettos; graphic images of the violence of the Holocaust; and the creation of the State of Israel. For more information, see our policy page.

Description

Front [a] and back [b] piece of badge. Front of badge is hexagon shape and includes blue Star Of David and border with text around border. Round back piece screws onto front hexagonal piece of badge.

Information Provided by Michael D. Bulmash:

Badge manufactured in Warsaw (maker’s mark “J. Olszewski GRAWER WARSZAWA”) worn by a member of a Jewish Service Police. These auxiliary police units were organized in the Jewish ghettos by local Judenrat councils under ultimate command of the occupying Germans. Jewish service police were conspicuous by their armbands, hats, and badges, but were allowed no firearms, and were used primarily to secure Jews- utilizing their batons- for deportation, or to guard food stores. Warsaw ghetto had the largest contingent of these policemen- as many as 2,500. They were both feared and detested by other ghetto residents for their willingness to exploit their charges for personal gain; for example, exchanging food for sexual favors. If they harbored any belief that they were different from other ghetto residents, however, the Nazis were to disabuse them of this illusion: they ultimately shared the same fate as the other ghetto victims.

Dimensions

a: 1 3/4" b: 1" diameter

Keywords

Warsaw Ghetto, Jewish Service Police

Subcollection

Ghettos

Recommended Citation

"Warsaw Ghetto Policeman's Badge" (1942). Bulmash Family Holocaust Collection. 2019.2.75ab.
https://digital.kenyon.edu/bulmash/1452