Józef Diament

Józef Samuel Diament (born 8 February 1894 in Radom, died 10 August 1942 in the Auschwitz concentration camp) was the chairman of the Supreme Council of Elders of the Jewish Population of the Radom District (Judenrat, overseeing the entire Radom District) from likely December 1939 to April 1942, and an advisor on social welfare to the head of the Radom District. Arrested on charges of economic abuses, he perished in the concentration camp at Auschwitz.

Pre-War Life Diament was an assimilated Radom Jew. At age 24, he formally changed his names from Szmul-Josek to Samuel Józef. His degree of assimilation is further evidenced by giving his daughters Polish names, Stefania and Henryka. Before World War II, he worked as an accountant and was a co-owner of an iron foundry, likely the Glinice foundry at 7 Średnia Street. He did not participate in the activities of the Jewish community. On 26 September 1939, he became chairman of the established Jewish Social Self-Help Committee, making him the primary representative of the city's Jewish community to the Germans. To Radom's Jews, he was largely unknown. He leveraged his positions as Judenrat chairman and welfare advisor to address housing, medical, and material assistance for Jewish deportees arriving in the Radom District. He traveled by car across the district to personally oversee resettlement operations, closely cooperating with the Germans and often securing concessions. In January 1942, he persuaded the occupation authorities to abandon plans to deport Jews from rural areas such as Firlej, Jedlnia, Stromiec, Wierzbica, and Wolanów to ghettos in larger Jewish population centers.

Under Diament's leadership, the Judenrat operated the Jewish Hospital, an orphanage, and the Bekerman Old Age and Disabled Home. It supported the poor by distributing food and clothing. In October 1940, the council attempted to revive Jewish education in the city. From 1941, the Judenrat's role was limited to administrative functions, including in the Radom Ghetto, established in April 1941.

The Judenrat also served as a tool for German control over the Jewish population, collecting statistics and maintaining records, which facilitated further contributions, restrictions, and repressions. This led to postwar accusations by surviving Jews of collaboration and bribery against the Radom Judenrat and its chairman. On 1 December 1942, when an order was issued to forcibly deport 2,000 Jews from Radom, the Judenrat was tasked with compiling the deportation list. Some council members proposed targeting the poorest residents. Although the Council of Elders passed a resolution prohibiting poverty-based selection, Diament requested data from the Jewish Social Self-Help Organization on aid recipients. The deportation committee's lists included 271 poor families registered with the Jewish Social Self-Help Organization, causing a crisis in aid efforts as remaining Jews feared using Jewish Social Self-Help Organization services and sought, sometimes through bribes, to be removed from its records. Amid the scandal, Diament attempted to resign as social welfare advisor but his resignation was not accepted. He was also criticized for negligence and an extravagant lifestyle. Emanuel Ringelblum, in his Chronicle of the Warsaw Ghetto, citing third-party accounts, noted that in November 1941, while Diament was at a summer resort in Otwock, the Judenrat facilitated a Gestapo execution of 30 Jews from Baranavichy in Radom.

Death On 28 April 1942, Diament, his deputy Arnold Meryn, and other council members were arrested on charges of economic abuses and detained in Radom's prison. On 21 July 1942, they were sent to the Auschwitz concentration camp, where they perished.