After the Germans occupied Lublin, the kehillah (the Jewish community council) was left intact and almost unchanged. Its sphere of activity was expanded to meet the GermansΓÇÖ demands and the Jewish populationΓÇÖs new needs. The kehillah now had to deliver quotas of people for forced labor; hand over valuables, furniture, and other household items; cope with economic strictures imposed on individual Jews and the entire community; and make welfare arrangements for refugees and the needyΓÇöto name only a few examples. On January 25, 1940, the committee was officially recomposed as a 24-member Judenrat, although almost no changes in personnel were made. The Judenrat was headed by Engineer Henryk Bekker, but his deputy, Mark Alten, was the central personality. The Judenrat maintained the policies previously pursued by the committee, but its maneuvering ability diminished as German policy toward the Jews became tougher.
