Abraham Gancwajch

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Abraham Gancwajch
Entrepreneur
Known forBeing a Nazi collaborator in the Warsaw Ghetto

Abraham Gancwajch (1902–1943) was a prominent

kingpin of the ghetto underworld.[2] Opinions about his ghetto activities are controversial, though modern research concludes unanimously that he was an informer and collaborator motivated chiefly by personal interest.[3][4]

Biography

Gancwajch was born in

Zionist journalist with an oratorical skill.[3]

After the

collaborationist organization in the Warsaw Ghetto, described by Israel Gutman and Emanuel Ringelblum as the "Jewish Gestapo".[3][4][7]

Gancwajch believed the Germans would win the war and called on Warsaw's Jews to serve them as a basic means of surviving.

Third Reich in an overseas country.[4] Adam Czerniaków, whom Gancwajch attempted to usurp as head of the Judenrat,[3][9] mentioned him in his diary as "a despicable, ugly creature".[10] Janusz Korczak, who ran an orphanage in the Ghetto, when asked why he was dealing with him, replied, "I will see the devil himself to save my children."[2]

Final events and disappearance

In the Warsaw Ghetto Gancwajch lived a lavish life, collecting hefty sums from others by various means.[3] On the other hand, he helped the poor and artists. But all his initiatives became corrupted; for example, he set up a hospital with ambulances, but the network soon came to be used primarily for smuggling by Group 13, a racketeering network that was officially to have combated black-marketeering in the Ghetto.[3] After most of the Group 13 was eliminated by the Germans in 1943, Gancwajch reemerged outside the ghetto on the Aryan side in Warsaw,[3] where he and other members of his group, pretending to be Jewish underground fighters, were hunting for Poles hiding or otherwise supporting the Jews. He was also the leader of the infamous Żagiew, a Gestapo-sponsored Jewish organization.[11] He is also known to have tried to sabotage attempts at the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.[3] The Jewish Combat Organization sentenced him to death, but were never able to execute him. His ultimate fate remains unknown.[4][7][12]

See also

References

  1. ^ Antwerp Immigration record. "Abraham Gancwajch 1916–1930". Birth Year: 1902. Częstochowa, Poland. File Number: 171785. Antwerpen, Belgium – via FamilySearch 2014.
  2. ^
    ISBN 0-7425-4333-1
    – via Google Print.
  3. ^
    ISBN 0-275-97649-1, Google Print, pp. 94–98
    .
  4. ^
    Zaglebie
    Judenrats who also followed the same policy of "serving" the Germans. Merin was deported to Auschwitz.
  5. ^ see for confirming report from Czestochowa
  6. ISBN 0-87663-400-5, Google Print, p. 136
    .
  7. ^
    ISBN 0-664-22353-2, Google Print, p. 413
    .
  8. ^ "All Are Equal." Archived 2014-12-17 at the Wayback Machine Janusz Korczak biography at Korczak.com
  9. ISBN 0-300-06852-2, Google Print, p. 70
    .
  10. ISBN 1-56663-230-7
    .
  11. ISBN 0-7864-0371-3, Google Print, p. 66
    .
  12. ^ "Abraham Gancwajch, The "13": Nazi Collaborators in the Warsaw Ghetto". www.holocaustresearchproject.org. Retrieved 19 October 2020.
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