Object ID
2019.2.75ab
Object Name
Badge, Law Enforcement
Date
1942
Files
Download Full Text (663 KB)
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