Judenrats, German for "Jewish council", were administrative bodies that the Germans required Jews to form in each ghetto in General Government (the Nazi-occupied teritory of Poland) and later in the occupied territories of the Soviet Union.
These bodies were responsible for local government in the ghetto, and stood between the Nazis and the ghetto population. They were generally composed of leaders of the Jewish community (with the exception of in the Soviet Union, where Jewish organizations were eliminated in 1930s). They were forced by the Nazis to provide Jews for use as slave labour, and to assist in the deportation of Jews to extermination camps during the Holocaust. Those who refused to follow Nazi orders or were unable to cooperate fully were frequently rounded up and shot or deported to the extermination camps themselves.
In a number of cases, e.g., in Minsk ghetto , Judenrats cooperated with Jewish underground.
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