The Warsaw Diary of Adam Czerniakow: Prelude to Doom

This diary is a must read for those who would study the Holocaust. It is a study of a decent man under indecent circumstances. He does what he can to help but, in so doing, he necessarily is complicit with the Nazis. If he had been able to foretell the end result, he may have taken a different path. He couldn't. The Holocaust was a work in progress and didn't, even from the Nazi perspective, start as a plan for annihilation. It started as a plan to contain and control people, many of whom were non-Jews. Czerniaikow did as much as he could to protect his increasingly confined and crowded people. His success made the end all the more terrible. His document is that of the complexities and irrationality of a system terrible beyond its own expectations. Yes, Czerniakow, as a leader, was complicit but he did as well as he could. Ron Braithwaite author of novels--"Skull Rack" and "Hummingbird God"--on the Spanish Conquest of Mexico

With great interest I have red the "The Warsaw Diary of Adam Czerniakow". It is very moving and an example of outmost dignity in such catastrophical situations.I was touched by the serenity of Professor Raul Hilberg explaining the personality of Adam Zcerniakow in the film "SHOA".He has not deceived me...! By the way, now that the Israelis are building Walls... should they not read this terrible Testimony? I recommend then to do

Adam Czerniakow's diary covers the period from the German attack on Poland (early September 1939) through late July 1942. At that time, faced with the prospect of turning over thousands of Jews for the first transports to the death camp at Treblinka, Czerniakow chose to commit suicide instead. While, of course, focusing on the sufferings of the Jews, Czerniakow never loses sight of the sufferings of the Poles. For instance, he includes an entry on the partial destruction of the Royal Castle and the Church (actually, Cathedral) of St. John, by German artillery (p. 75). He also mentions the massacre of Poles (and some Jews) by the Germans at Wawer (late December, 1939; p. 103). Czerniakow first mentions Treblinka while it had only been used as a forced-labor camp for mostly Poles (p. 316). The creation of the Warsaw Ghetto by the Germans uprooted a large number of Poles as well as Jews, as described in a report by Czerniakow: "The resettlement, encompassing 700 ethnic Germans, 113,000 Poles, and 138,000 Jews, was carried out at once; 11,567 non-Jewish apartments in the Jewish district and some 13,800 Jewish apartments in the rest of the city were surrendered." (p. 396). Clearly, at that stage of the German occupation, property acquisition was very much a two-way street. The Germans enclosed the Jews in the ghetto in order to starve them, but both Poles and Jews cooperated to thwart this German intention. In the introduction, Josef Kermisz elaborates on this: "If Warsaw's Jews had had to live on the official bread ration, they would all have died of starvation in the first year. Czerniakow tells stories of smugglers and underground trade...The German plan, to starve the Jews to death quickly, was foiled...Thousands, Jews and non-Jews, were occupied with smuggling." (p. 13). Czerniakow mentions some events whose potential significance was not realized until later. For example, in the July 1, 1940 entry in his diary, Czerniakow alludes to the German plan to resettle both German and Polish Jews in Madagascar (p. 169). Ironically, in the first two years of the German occupation, Poles were more likely to be killed by the Germans than Jews. At times, Poles actually disguised themselves as Jews! Czerniakow describes this in two entries; that of February 20, 1940 (p. 119) and of May 8, 1940 (p. 147). In the latter, he writes: "Some Poles are beginning to wear Jewish armbands [to avoid being impressed for labor in Germany]." The brackets had been inserted by the editors of this volume. Both Poles and Jews were corrupted by the brutalities of the German occupation. The Polish blackmailers (szmalcowniki) are well known, but it is seldom realized that they also had their Jewish counterparts. Josef Kermisz commented: "Czerniakow poured out his wrath on Jews who served the Germans, the informers, extortionists, and underworld figures who degraded and corrupted the ghetto." (p. 19). The looting of even the dead was not limited to Poles. In the entry for Nov

Adam Czerniakow's diary covers the period from the German attack on Poland (early September 1939) through late July 1942. At that time, faced with the prospect of turning over thousands of Jews for the first transports to the death camp at Treblinka, Czerniakow chose to commit suicide instead. While, of course, focusing on the sufferings of the Jews, Czerniakow never loses sight of the sufferings of the Poles. For instance, he includes an entry on the partial destruction of the Royal Castle and the Church (actually, Cathedral) of St. John, by German artillery (p. 75). He also mentions the massacre of Poles (and some Jews) by the Germans at Wawer (late December, 1939; p. 103). Czerniakow first mentions Treblinka while it had only been used as a forced-labor camp for mostly Poles (p. 316). The creation of the Warsaw Ghetto by the Germans uprooted a large number of Poles as well as Jews, as described in a report by Czerniakow: "The resettlement, encompassing 700 ethnic Germans, 113,000 Poles, and 138,000 Jews, was carried out at once; 11,567 non-Jewish apartments in the Jewish district and some 13,800 Jewish apartments in the rest of the city were surrendered." (p. 396). Clearly, at that stage of the German occupation, property acquisition was very much a two-way street. The Germans enclosed the Jews in the ghetto in order to starve them, but both Poles and Jews cooperated to thwart this German intention. In the introduction, Josef Kermisz elaborates on this: "If Warsaw's Jews had had to live on the official bread ration, they would all have died of starvation in the first year. Czerniakow tells stories of smugglers and underground trade...The German plan, to starve the Jews to death quickly, was foiled...Thousands, Jews and non-Jews, were occupied with smuggling." (p. 13). Czerniakow mentions some events whose potential significance was not realized until later. For example, in the July 1, 1940 entry in his diary, Czerniakow alludes to the German plan to resettle both German and Polish Jews in Madagascar (p. 169). Ironically, in the first two years of the German occupation, Poles were more likely to be killed by the Germans than Jews. At times, Poles actually disguised themselves as Jews! Czerniakow describes this in two entries; that of February 20, 1940 (p. 119) and of May 8, 1940 (p. 147). In the latter, he writes: "Some Poles are beginning to wear Jewish armbands [to avoid being impressed for labor in Germany]." The brackets had been inserted by the editors of this volume. Both Poles and Jews were corrupted by the brutalities of the German occupation. The Polish blackmailers (szmalcowniki) are well known, but it is seldom realized that they also had their Jewish counterparts. Josef Kermisz commented: "Czerniakow poured out his wrath on Jews who served the Germans, the informers, extortionists, and underworld figures who degraded and corrupted the ghetto." (p. 19). The looting of even the dead was not limited to Poles. In the entry for Nov

This is the daily diary of the man who was the head of the Judenrat (Jewish Council) in Warsaw during the Nazi occupation and most of the ghetto period. Czerniakow was misunderstood by a lot of people, and to avoid this I suggest some background reading about the ghetto first (Emanuel Ringelblum's Notes from the Warsaw Ghetto, Bogdan Wojdowski's Bread for the Departed, John Hersey's The Wall (fiction)). This is because Czerniakow does not give a lot of detail about life in the ghetto (and occupied Warsaw before the ghetto) for the ordinary person. It does not at all mean he was unaware of conditions; he was trying to do an impossible job and please everyone at the same time: the ghetto residents, the other council members, the profiteers, the Polish city administration, the German army, and the SS. That he accomplished any positive goals at all is remarkable and his story must be looked at from that perspective. It comes across clearly that he acted according to his conscience and put his personal concerns last. Without the introductions and the supplementary notes the diary might be difficult to understand, as Czerniakow did not always put down full names or explanations and kept entries brief. It was suggested he may have been afraid of it falling into the wrong hands with good reason. Therefore, I would say it takes a reader with some knowledge of the ghetto period and the Nazi occupation of Poland to get the fullest understanding from this book. I do on that basis give it the highest recommendation.