Event History
On July 10, 1941 German and Lithuanian authorities ordered the surviving 29,761Jews of Kovno to move into a ghetto by August 15. The ghetto was created in the suburb of Vilijampole, known to Jews as Slobodka, an impoverished area lacking modern plumbing and sanitation facilities. Prior to the formation of the ghetto, both Lithuanians and Jews had lived in this neighborhood. Anxious to find housing and protection from the indiscriminate violence in the city, most Jews moved to the Kovno ghetto in advance of the August 15 deadline. Previously, no more than 12,000 people lived in this neighborhood. Each person moving into the ghetto was allocated less than ten square feet of living space, and two or even three families shared a single apartment. Between August 1941 and September 1943, when the ghetto was converted into a concentration camp, the Jews were forced to relocate several more times as the Nazis kept reducing the borders of the ghetto. The first of the four reductions came almost immediately after the closure of the ghetto on August 17, 1941. The others occurred on October 4, 1941, following the "Small Ghetto Action," on May 1, 1942 and on October 5, 1942. During the initial move into the ghetto Jews were forbidden to use motor vehicles, so they transported their belongings by horse-drawn wagon or simply carried them. An order issued by the mayor of the city limited the amount of household goods and personal effects each person could take with them into the ghetto. However, their new lodgings often could not accommodate even the few belongings they managed to transfer, and excess furniture and household items had to be left outside.
The Kovno ghetto Jewish police force was created on order of the German occupation authorities in July 1941, even before the ghetto was sealed. The policemen, who were initially recruited from the ranks of Jewish veterans and sportsmen, were issued separate armbands to set them apart from the rest of the ghetto population. Their primary function was to maintain order and discipline in the ghetto and to enforce the orders of the Jewish Council. The police worked closely with every Council office, particularly the labor department. With time, the police assumed additional responsibilities. Following the outlawing of a separate ghetto judiciary in August 1942, the police assumed responsibility for the ghetto's courts, which handled both civil and criminal disputes. It also became the role of the ghetto police to produce fellow Jews for forced labor brigades, maintain the two ghetto jails, and enforce German orders, including the round-up of Jews for deportation. Some ghetto residents held the police responsible for the policies it had to enforce and accused it of cooperating with the Germans. Yet, most of the police maintained high moral standards and gradually gained the respect of the population. On November 11, 1942, every member of the police force signed an oath pledging to act for the welfare of the Jewish community. In fact, several members of the police, including its commander Moshe Levin and his deputies Yehuda Zupovitz and Ika Grinberg, were active in the underground resistance movement. The Kovno ghetto Jewish police force was brought to an abrupt end during the infamous police action of March 27, 1944. German SS officers, seeking information about the ghetto's underground and hiding places, ordered the 140 members of the Jewish police to assemble. They were immediately arrested and taken to the Ninth Fort, where 36 of them, including Levin, Zupovitz and Grinberg, were executed. Others were tortured and then released. A few policemen, including Tanchum Arnshtam, revealed information about ghetto hideouts, and they became the nucleus of a new police force that worked directly with the Germans.
See https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005174.
See Also "Kauen Main Camp" in Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos Volume 1 Part A.
See "Kauen" in Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, Volume 1 Part A
See Also https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/kovno.
