Jewish collaboration with Nazi Germany

Motivated by anticommunism, conservative nationalism, anti-Zionism, and anti-liberalism, these groups had initially believed that Nazi antisemitism was merely rhetorical hyperbole or a tactic to "stir up the masses".

[1][2][3] In German-occupied Europe during World War II, Jews, Romani, and some other minorities, were destined for removal, first through ghettoization and exile, and finally through extermination.

To streamline the process of excluding Jews, and to ease the burden of management, Germans established Jewish institutions in the ghettos.

Formally, the Jewish police were subordinate to the Judenrats, but in most ghettos they quickly became independent of them and even gained a higher position, reporting directly to the Germans.

[4] According to Aharon Weiss's research, the activities of the first wave of Judenrat leaders were primarily aimed at improving the well-being of the communities they headed.

[16] Nazi agents who were Jewish include Stella Goldschlag, Ans van Dijk and Betje Wery.

Operating in Palestine since 1940, the Zionist Lehi group of about 100 members, led by Abraham Stern, regarded the British Empire as its main enemy.

In January 1941, they offered an anti-British partnership to Germany in exchange for allowing European Jews to emigrate to Palestine.

[20] According to Evgeny Finkel, defining "cooperation" in this way is problematic with regard to the activities of some Judenrat leaders and Jewish police, who were corrupt and despotic, and whose actions were guided primarily by the desire for profit and their own survival.