Piotrkow — Tenenberg Facing the Judenrat

Piotrkow Trybunalski, 51,000 inhabitants in 1939 of whom 15,000 are Jews (29 per cent of the population), is one of the oldest towns in Poland. Situated forty-seven kilometres south of Lodz, on the Warsaw-Krakow axis, it has held an important Jewish community since the fifteenth century. The Germans occupy it on 5 September 1939.

Heydrich's Express Brief of 21 September orders the concentration of the Jews in the great industrial towns. The German commissioner Hans Drechsel (SS-Hauptsturmführer of the SD), posted to Piotrkow as early as 12 September, applies the instruction with particular zeal. On 8 October 1939 he issues an ordinance creating officially the Piotrkow ghetto — the first ghetto formally established on Polish soil. The perimeter covers four streets in the centre: ulica Garncarska, Starowarszawska, Wojska Polskiego, and Pereca. Boundaries marked by wooden barriers, watched by Polish police under German tutelage (Granatowa) and the SD.

15,000 Polish Jews (residents of Piotrkow) plus 10,000 Jews deported from other towns are crammed there within two months, that is 25,000 people in a space designed for 5,000. No wall — it is an open ghetto (walls will not come until the spring of 1940, and in Warsaw in October 1940). No total isolation — inhabitants can still go out with passes, forced labour is imposed in factories and farms.

Drechsel also establishes the first institutional Polish Judenrat, headed by Zalman Tenenberg. Imposed mission: organise internal administration, collect fines, supply lists for forced labour, manage the food shortage (official ration: 200 calories a day).