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| Jewish police detaining a former kapo who was recognized by former concentration camp inmates in the Zeilsheim Displaced Persons camp, Germany, ca. 1945. |
In the wake of World War II, many Holocaust survivors in Europe and Israel grappled with a desire for revenge. Some turned to improvised “honor courts” for relief.
Created within reconstituted Jewish communities and displaced persons (DP) camps, the tribunals had no jurisdiction outside of the Jewish community.
Active until 1950, the informal judiciaries handed out punishments ranging from bans on holding public office to banishment from the community.
“The courts tried survivors who were accused of having acted immorally toward other Jews and allegedly having helped the Nazis in their genocide,” said historian Laura Jockusch, who spoke about honor courts during a United States Holocaust Memorial Museum virtual event on October 26.
Estimates on the number of alleged “collaborators” put on trial vary, but the Jewish community in Poland alone opened 175 files and prosecuted 25 Jews as collaborators.
In German DP camps, where thousands of survivors lived, American authorities allowed honor courts and commissions for “liberated Jews” to “purge fugitive collaborators from the ranks of the Jewish community,” said Jockusch.
Historians estimate up to 200 people were tried in DP camp-based proceedings.






