MZ-445-D

List of 34 people who were members of the Jewish Council of Elders in Oświęcim and its officials. The list dates from early 1941 and was compiled shortly before the deportation of Jews from the city to the ghettos in Chrzanów, Będzin, and Sosnowiec (March-April 1941). Józef Gross was then the head of the organization. At the beginning of the occupation, in September 1939, the Jewish community was transformed by the Germans into the Council of Elders of the Jewish Religious Community of Auschwitz (Ältestenrat der Juden in Auschwitz), with Leon Schönker at its head in September 1939. In the following months, the position was held twice by Józef Gross (February and July 1940). Twice the council was also administered by commissioners – Ick Alter Borenstein from Dąbrowa Górnicza and Chaim Merin from Sosnowiec. At the beginning of January 1940, it was subordinated to the Headquarters of the Jewish Councils of Elders of Eastern Upper Silesia in Sosnowiec, which was presided over by Mojżesz Merin, who was given special powers by the Germans.