“If indeed human selection was so careful, so cautious, why were these people so bad, why did they harm the population so badly, why did the people hate them so much?” (p. 33). This was a question posed by Stanisław Gombiński, a former member of the Jewish Order Service (Jüdischer Ordnungsdienst), the official name of the Jewish “police” in the captive city-state that was the Warsaw ghetto. Established in November 1940, the service was conceived with commitment to the highest standards of professionalism. All members joined voluntarily. One of the core conditions for admission was an impeccable past. Yet after a brief three years of existence, the Order Service had become synonymous with corruption, violence, and collaborationism, enjoying widespread contempt among the Jewish population. Its most symbolic—and devastating—act of moral deterioration was the participation of its members in the “Great Action” (Grossaktion), the German codename for...
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