In July 1942, when Adam Czerniakow committed suicide, Lichtenbaum replaced
him as head of the Judenrat. A document
in the Ringleblum Archive describes his as an “unworthy creature, an ill-tempered ruffian incapable of handling the job”. Berman claimed that he was one of the members of the Judenrat the Jews hated most, “a stranger
to the Jewish people and to Jewish culture”.
He was also a JFO's enemy. However, some people saw him in a completely different way, describing him as a man with the highest ethics and full of good intentions, responsible for
a job far too difficult for him. When the Germans asked him to convince the Jewish workers to willingly leave the Ghetto for Poniatowa Camp, he replied: “I am not the one who governs the Ghetto; another authority exists here”.
