Kraków Ghetto Jewish Police

The Kraków OD, unlike many other Jewish Police forces, served as willing enforcers of Nazi policies and the Gestapo.

[6] Tadeusz Pankiewicz said that before the war Spira was an Orthodox Jew who wore a full beard and a long black capote.

In part because of Spira's sycophantic qualities, the Kraków OD collaborated with Nazi officials and local police to a greater degree than other ghettos.

[3] Many Jews who had joined in the hopes of protecting their community, like some on the Judenrat, quickly resigned when faced with rampant corruption and violence within the force.

[9] The creation of the OD was initially suggested as originating from the Judenrat, in the hope of presenting treatment of the ghetto inhabitants as a Jewish issue.

Later, many Jewish Police forces would shift to assisting German authorities in rounding up Jews for labor, deportation, and extermination.

[16] The Kraków OD were unsympathetic to resistance movements within the ghetto, and would arrest suspected members of the Jewish underground without hesitation.

[19] Symcha Spira took advantage of the German authorities' poor view of the Judenrat, and sought to convince Gestapo agents of his superior power and influence over fellow Jews.

[24] Jews who could not present a work permit or proof of employment were held in the courtyard of the OD building, which had formerly been a Catholic orphanage.

[27] During this aktion, members of the OD worked alongside German and Polish Blue Police, throwing away luggage, inspecting papers, and beating those who did not comply with orders.

Not long after the liquidation of the ghetto, the OD and all remaining Jews were deported to Płaszów and murdered,[31] including the notorious Symcha Spira and his family, who were executed.