Lisa Anne Storer
Kovno Ghetto Jewish Policemen: A Collective Biography: Hidden Histories of Four Jewish Lithuanian Men: 1918-1945
2023 | Full access
On August 4, 1941, eleven days before the sealing of the Kovno ghetto on August 15, Moisei Kopelman/Moze Kopelmanas (1895-1945), the director of the largest Lithuanian insurance company, was persuaded to accept the position of chief of the Jüdische Ghetto Polizei/Žydų Ghetto Policija (Jewish Ghetto Police). Tanchum Aronstam/Tanchumas Aronstamas (1907-?), a manager in a textile factory, submitted an application to join the ghetto police with his interest noted on August 14, 1941. On August 17, 1941, Yehuda Zupovitz/Julius Zupavicius (1914-1944), a construction engineer who had worked for “Pieno Centras,” the largest Lithuanian dairy association, was mobilized to join the force because of his military knowledge as a reserve officer in the Lithuanian army. Thirteen days later, on August 30, 1941, Misha Hofmekler/Michelis Hofmekleris (1898-1965), a violinist and conductor, was placed in the police force by the Ältestenrat (Elder Council) to protect his life. Each of the four men became ghetto policemen for different reasons, yet in the literature Jewish ghetto policemen are most often described in monolithic terms resulting in a common perception that those who were members abused their power and profited as privileged ghetto functionaries. This impression exposes the understudied area in the historiography as to how and why individual men became ghetto policemen. Utilizing the framework of Krista Cowman’s interpretation of the methodology of collective biography, this study examines the individual lives that Kopelman, Aronstam, Zupovitz, and Hofmekler built and rebuilt. To do so, it will include relevant governmental policies related to Jewish life during Tsarist Russia (1804-1917), independent Lithuania (1918-1940), Soviet annexation (1940-1941), and German occupation (1941-1944). Moreover, it will address the following questions: What lives did Kopelman, Aronstam, Zupovitz, and Hofmekler build from 1918 to 1940, in an independent Lithuania, in relationship to family, education, religion, language proficiency, career, political affiliation, and military service? Which aspects did they or did they not adjust during Soviet annexation and then German occupation? Which prior knowledge and skills appeared or did not appear in their work as ghetto policemen? The purpose of the above questions is to dissolve the collective label of “Jewish ghetto policemen” to understand the individual lives that the men built and rebuilt, as linked by their shared status as Jewish ghetto policemen, to understand what they faced and how they reacted imprisoned in the Kovno ghetto.
Supervisor:
Prof. Eliyana Adler