Small Riga Ghetto

77
The German Gestapo set up a ghetto command headquarters at 56 Ludzas
Street. A German Jewish police force was also created. Its chief was the German
Jew Frankenberg. * This police force still tried to advocate the view that
"the law is the law", which under the circumstances was quite useless. By contrast,
our Jewish police force only tried to exploit all the regulations to our advantage.
Each group had its own administration, supply system, and a section of the
labor authority. The central labour authority, however, was responsible both
for the German Jews and for us; but the Germans had an extra representative
on it, a man from Cologne named Schultz.
At the end of December, the "man-eater" Krause became the commandant of
both ghettos. We found out that before the war he had been a police detective
in Berlin. ** The Gestapo man Max Gymnich from Cologne was appointed as
his functionary and assistant. *** These two murderers acquired a large and
dangerous dog to lend them support.
A prison for inmates from both ghettos was set up in the area where the
Hanover group was quartered. When it became too full, an annex was set up
in the courtyard of the command headquarters. All too many of us got to know
this prison. The smallest misstep, even a suspicion, was enough to land one in
it. Once there, many people disappeared forever.
VI.
In the beginning the German Jews did not yet have to work outside the ghetto;
instead, they were assigned to clear out the apartments of the people who had
been "evacuated". Women also worked at the delousing stations under the supervision
of the Gestapo man Buchholz. ****
The German Jews were given their first rude surprise by the Latvian Danskop.
He shot eighteen young girls whom he unjustly suspected of having stolen
things from Jewish houses. Of course this incident caused the greatest consternation
in the German ghetto.
* [Ed.: He was a figure head. The real police chief of the German ghetto was Rudolf Haar.]
** [Ed.: Not in Berlin, but in Breslau.]
*** [Ed. Gymnich functioned as Krause's chauffeur.]
**** [Ed.: The German Jews went to work outside one day after arrival in the ghetto! There
was, at that time, no delousing station, but a clothing depot with clothes to be fixed for later
use of German Jews. Since they never received their luggage, they could ask for and got replacements
for their worn out clothes and shoes.]