Judenrat

A Judenrat (German: [ˈjuːdn̩ˌʁaːt], lit. 'Jewish council'; Yiddish: יודענראט) was an administrative body, established in any zone of German-occupied Europe during World War II, purporting to represent the Jewish community in dealings with the Nazi authorities. The Germans required Jews to form Judenräte within occupied territories at local and sometimes national levels. Judenräte were particularly common in Jewish ghettos established by Nazi Germany in Eastern Europe, where in some cases, such as Łódź and Theresienstadt ghettos, they were known as the "Jewish Council of Elders" (Jüdischer Ältestenrat or Ältestenrat der Juden). Jewish communities themselves had established councils for self-government as early as the Middle Ages. The Jewish community used the Hebrew terms qahal (Hebrew: קהל) or qehilla (קהילה) but Nazi authorities used the German-language term Judenräte.