(1880-1942), Chairman of the Warsaw Judenrat. Born in Warsaw, Czerniakow was trained as a chemical engineer. He served on the Warsaw Municipal Council from 1927-1934, and was elected to the Polish Senate in 1931. Even though Czerniakow was a member of the Jewish community's executive council before World War II, the Jews of Warsaw did not consider him to be one of their leaders. He was not a member of any Jewish political party, was considered to be an assimilated Jew, and could not speak Yiddish very well.
Czerniakow kept a diary from September 1939 until the day he died; it can be found today at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem. This public diary, which serves as a vital primary source, consists of 1,009 pages that chronicle the current events in Warsaw from the German invasion, through the establishment of the ghetto, to the beginning of the deportations.
The Germans began a two-month wave of deportations to the Treblinka Extermination Camp during the summer of 1942. On July 22 Czerniakow was ordered to round up Jews for "resettlement in the east." He knew what that innocuous term really meant, and was not prepared to surrender the Jews of his ghetto to certain death. The next day, at 4:00 p.m., Czerniakow took his own life. Some say that he left a note to his wife explaining his actions: "They are demanding that I kill the children of my people with my own hands. There is nothing for me to do but to die."
- Yad Vashem
Music: Chopin, Etude op.10 no.3 "Tristesse" in E major; Chopin: the Essentials, various artists
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