A meeting of the Warsaw Jewish council. Sitting behind table, 2nd to 4th from left: industrialist Abraham Gepner; chairman Adam Czerniakow; and lawyer Gustav Wielikowski. Warsaw, Poland, between 1939 and 1942. Photograph »

Mordechai Chaim Rumkowski, Jewish council chairman in Lodz ghetto, seen here speaking amongst Jewish ghetto policemen. Lodz, Poland, ca. 1942. Photograph »

Jewish council chairman Mordechai Chaim Rumkowski delivers a speech. Lodz ghetto, Poland, between 1941 and 1943. Photograph »

Jews in the Lodz ghetto line up outside the labor office of the Jewish council in the hopes of finding employment outside the ghetto. Lodz, Poland, between 1941 and 1943. Photograph »

Members of the Lvov Jewish council are hanged by the Germans. Lvov, Poland, September 1942. Photograph »

Employees of the Jewish council in the Kovno ghetto assemble during roll call, which was taken on a daily basis. Kovno, Lithuania, between 1941 and 1943. Photograph »

A meeting of the Kovno ghetto Jewish council. Chairman Elchanan Elkes sits at the center. Kovno, Lithuania, 1943. Photograph »

Scene photographed by George Kadish: Jewish prisoners behind a barred window in the Kovno ghetto jail. The Jewish council administered its own jail in the ghetto. Kovno, Lithuania, 1943. Photograph »

Jacob Edelstein, chairman of the Jewish council in Theresienstadt. He was deported, and shot in Auschwitz in 1944. Theresienstadt, Czechoslovakia, 1942–1943. Photograph »

Jewish children in an orphanage operated by the Jewish council of the Vilna ghetto. Vilna, 1942. Photograph »