Born in Warsaw, Adam Czerniakow was a chemical engineer. A municipal councillor for Warsaw, he directed the Central Association of Jewish Craftsmen up to 1929. In the 1930s he became more involved in the interests of the Jewish Community, and was a member of the coucil. Named head of the Judenrat by the Nazis, it proved to be an overwhelming burden for him. He was often sharply criticized. From September 1939 onward, he kept a journal which was found later and published after the war, first in Hebrew, then in many languages, and represents a precious account on life in the Ghetto, on relations of the Jewish authorities with the Germans, and on the positions of the Judenrat's chairman. He did try his very best to ease their burden of the ghetto Jews and took
a particular interest in children. In spite of the exterior signs of power he disposed of -he had one of the few cars in the Ghetto- the Germans humiliated him and even beat him up on several occasions. On 23 July ,1942, refusing to take the responsibility for mass deportations, he committed suicide in his office by swallowing a tablet of cyanide.
