Jakub Lejkin

{{Short description|Warsaw Ghetto administrator in 1942}}

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File:Bundesarchiv Bild 101I-134-0792-27, Polen, Ghetto Warschau, Ghettopolizei.jpg

Jakub Lejkin (1906 – 29 October 1942){{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=d7f1QXWDu4gC&q=Jakub+Lejkin&pg=PA162|title=Words to Outlive Us: Eyewitness Accounts from the Warsaw Ghetto|last=Grynberg|first=Michal|date=1 November 2003|publisher=Henry Holt and Company|isbn=9781466804340|language=en}} was a Polish lawyer, deputy commander{{Cite news|url=http://jewishcurrents.org/january-22-the-warsaw-underground/|title=January 22: The Warsaw Ghetto Underground|date=22 January 2012|work=Jewish Currents|access-date=15 February 2018|language=en-US}} subordinate to the Germans at the Warsaw Ghetto. He was the administrator from May to July 1942 (after the temporary arrest by the Gestapo of Józef Szeryński). Lejkin played a leading role in the deportation of local Jews to extermination camps. The Germans nicknamed him “little Napoleon” and adored his brutality.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kPqlpOQRwhsC&q=Jakub+Lejkin+brutality&pg=PA149|title=Two Flags: Return to the Warsaw Ghetto|last=Apfelbaum|first=Marian|date=2007|publisher=Gefen Publishing House Ltd|isbn=9789652293565|language=en}}

His father was a wealthy tradesman. Lejkin graduated from the Polish military school in Jarocin.{{Cite web|url=http://warszawa.getto.pl/index.php?mod=view_record&rid=02011904004446000041&tid=osoby|title=Getto Warszawskie|last=Meteoryt.pl|website=warszawa.getto.pl|language=pl|access-date=27 March 2018|archive-date=27 March 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180327084415/http://warszawa.getto.pl/index.php?mod=view_record&rid=02011904004446000041&tid=osoby|url-status=dead}} Before the war, he worked as a lawyer in Warsaw.

File:Grob Jakuba Lejkina-Grave of Jakub Lejkin.JPG

On 29 October 1942, at 18:10, he died as a result of the execution carried out by the Jewish Combat Organization.{{Cite book|last=Kerenji|first=Emil|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gXDYBAAAQBAJ&q=Jakub+Lejkin&pg=PA173|title=Jewish Responses to Persecution: 1942–1943|date=10 October 2014|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|isbn=9781442236271|language=ar}} Lejkin was shot in broad daylight on Gęsia Street in Warsaw by the Jewish resistance fighter Eliasz Różański.{{Cite book|last=Apfelbaum|first=Marian|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kPqlpOQRwhsC&q=Jakub+Lejkin+brutality&pg=PA149|title=Two Flags: Return to the Warsaw Ghetto|date=2007|publisher=Gefen Publishing House Ltd|isbn=9789652293565|language=en}}{{Cite book|last=Strzembosz|first=Tomasz|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5sxLAQAAIAAJ&q=Eliasz+R%C3%B3%C5%BCa%C5%84ski|title=Akcje zbrojne podziemnej Warszawy 1939-1944|date=1978|publisher=Państwowy Instytut Wydawniczy|isbn=9788306007176|language=pl}} His route was tracked down earlier by other resistance soldiers, Emilia Landau and Israel Gutman. Lejkin was buried in the Warsaw Jewish cemetery.{{Cite web|url=http://cemetery.jewish.org.pl/list/c_1/s_12A/r_1/n_2|title=Wirtualny Cmentarz|website=cemetery.jewish.org.pl|language=pl|access-date=15 February 2018}}