World War II Database

Contributor: C. Peter Chen

ww2dbaseAdam Czerniaków was born in Warsaw, Poland. After studying engineering, he became a teacher at the Jewish community's vocational school in Warsaw. Between 1927 and 1934, he was a member of the Warsaw Municipal Council. In 1931, he was elected to the Polish Senate. On 4 Oct 1939, he was appointed by the German occupation as the leading member of the Judenrat, or Jewish Council, to govern over the Jewish community in the city. On 22 Jul 1942, he was asked to start providing lists of 6,000 Jews per day for deportations, but he was also given a limited number of exemptions, to be given by his discretion namely for those vital in the everyday operations of running the ghetto and those whose spouse worked in German factories. He attempted to persuade the German authorities to extend the exemption to some of the orphans in the ghetto, but the request was denied. Unable to forgive himself for the inability to protect the people under his leadership, he committed suicide by swallowing a cyanide capsule. In the suicide note that he left for his wife, he wrote "[t]hey demand me to kill children of my nation with my own hands. I have nothing to do but to die".

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Adam Czerniaków Timeline