Quoting Tony Greenstein’s Zionism During the Holocaust: The Weaponisation of Memory in the Service of State and Nation, pages 218–220:
The [Fascists] appointed a Judenrat which consisted overwhelmingly of Zionist functionaries or sympathisers, including Chairman Adam Czerniaków.⁹⁰ It represented, in a distorted form, the class interests of the Jewish bourgeoisie. The Bread Tax ‘had the appearance of exactions from the poor to keep alive the destitute.’⁹¹ The community budget was paid for via indirect taxation, which bore heaviest on the Jewish poor.⁹² There was a saying that ‘The Germans are killing us, and the Community [the Judenrat] is torturing us.’⁹³
The Judenrat prioritised setting up a labour battalion for the [Fascists] as a way of preventing them from seizing the richer Jews. The poorest sections of the populace were forced to undertake labour.⁹⁴ Ghetto diarist Chaim Kaplan described the Judenrat as ‘an abomination in the eyes of the Warsaw community’.⁹⁵ The population saw no difference between the Judenrat and the [Fascists]. The Judenrat ‘supports itself from the misfortunes of the Jews.’⁹⁶ Czerniaków appointed the hated Józef Szeryński as Police Chief, against the opposition of the Bund.⁹⁷
[…]
Zionist historians have sought to rehabilitate Czerniaków, who committed suicide on 24 July 1942, as the [Third Reich] began the deportations. The verdict of the Bund was harsh:
He had no right to act as he did […] since he was the only person in the Ghetto whose voice carried a great deal of authority, it had been his duty to inform the entire population of the real state of affairs, and also to dissolve all public institutions, particularly the Jewish Police.¹⁰⁷
Marek Edelman, the last Commander of ZOB, described how Czerniaków served ‘German rather than Jewish interests.’¹⁰⁸ Zivia Lubetkin, a Zionist and one of only thirty-four fighters to have survived the revolt, said that ‘the Jews who remained alive could not forgive him… why didn’t he warn the Jews of the plans to destroy the Ghetto?’¹⁰⁹
The Warsaw Ghetto resistance first began in opposite camps — the Revisionist Jewish Military Union [ZZW] and the Communists — and spread to the Bund, the Zionist youth groups, and LPZ. Only Agudat Yisrael opposed resistance, although in practice the General Zionists also did.¹¹⁰
The Zionist belief that Jews should forsake involvement in the politics of the countries where they lived, acting instead as a national minority, was disastrous in [Fascist]-occupied Poland, cutting off Jews from non-Jews. That was why the Zionists had to look to the Bund to obtain arms.
Mordechai Anielewicz of Hashomer Hatzair commanded the Jewish resistance, possibly because he had served in a pre-military training camp.¹¹¹ Young Zionists fought alongside the Bund and communists. Anielewicz expressed his regret over the ‘wasted time’ undergoing Zionist educational work.¹¹² Yitzhak Zuckerman told the Council of Kibbutz Ha Meuchad in May 1947 that ‘had the fate of the Jews in 1942 lain in the hands only of the political parties [Zionist], the revolt would never have taken place.’¹¹³
It was despite, not because of, their Zionist politics that the young Zionists participated in the resistance. The Zionist youth organisations had previously spent their time training on Polish farms, whose owners had been deported as [neo]slave labour to [the Third Reich].
(Emphasis added.)
Related: Jacob Gens: the Third Reich’s deadliest Zionist collaborator
Yes and this book titled “Zionist Relations with Nazi Germany” (PDF) by Faris Yahya is relevant, short, easy to read and gives a good overview on the topic.
