Calel Perechodnik

The Second World War - Criminals - Otwock - Otwock ghetto - Poland
Jewish collaborators - Jewish Ghetto Police

Perechodnik was born in 1916 in Otwock, south-east of Warsaw, in an orthodox Jewish family. In 1940, together with their family and 8,000 other Jews from Otwock, they were forced to move to the ghetto in Otwock. In order to support himself, his wife and daughter, in February 1941 Perechodnik joined the Jewish police, organized by the JudenratJudenrat (Jewish Council or Jewish Council of Elders) - organizations established by Nazi German authorities during World War II with the task of administering Jewish communities and implementing German orders issued against them. In addition to collaborating with the occupier, most Judenrat also engaged in corruption and were aimed at the destruction of the Jewish population. Only a few of them undertook cooperation with partisans. - the Jewish Council on the orders of Germany.

At the beginning of 1942, the German authorities launched the liquidation of the ghetto. The Jewish police were ordered to catch the Jews, who were then transported to the station and loaded onto freight trains going to the [extermination camp in Treblinka]. Perechodnik was assured by the commander of the Jewish PoliceGerman: Jüdischer Ordnungsdienst, literally Jewish Order Service, customarily Jewish police - during World War II, they ware partially subordinate to the Judenrat, collaborating with Nazi Germany, Jewish Police units operated inside ghettos, labor camps and concentration camps. The police dealt with requisitions, round-ups of other Jews, escorting displaced people and deportation actions. that his family would be protected. And so, on August 19, 1942, he brought his wife and daughter to the main square of the ghetto. However, he was betrayed: Anka and Alinka were among 8,000 Jews from Otwock sent to their deaths in Treblinka. Then he ended up in a labor camp himself. Perechodnik constantly blamed himself for the death of his wife and daughter. Before being transported to Treblinka, Anka asked Calel several times to obtain false documents for her that would identify her as an ethnic Polish woman, as she did not have a typical Jewish appearance. Perechodnik wrote later that she could easily pass for a Pole if she had dyed her hair. Perechodnik did not manage to get his wife papers in time, partly because of his laziness and partly because of "distrust of such things."

He is the author of his memoirs, written in Polish. He called it a "confession," addressing above all to his wife, whom he failed to save. He described in them, inter alia, relations between the Polish and Jewish population in Otwock, forced labor camps for Jews located near Warsaw, examples of help provided to Jews by Poles, the fate and mental condition of Jews hiding on the Aryan side, and cases of blackmail and denunciation. It was published under the title "Am I a murderer?". The author - a Nazi collaborator - dedicated it to "German sadism, Polish meanness and Jewish cowardice".

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