NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Lodz Ghetto

The Łódź Ghetto was the second-largest ghetto (after the Warsaw Ghetto) established for Jews in Nazi-occupied Poland. Situated in the town of Łódź and originally intended as a temporary gathering point for Jews, the ghetto was transformed into a major industrial center, providing much needed supplies for Nazi Germany and especially for the German Army. Because of its remarkable productivity, the ghetto managed to survive until August 1944, when the remaining population was transported to Auschwitz. It was the last ghetto in Poland to be liquidated. A ghetto is an area where people from a specific ethnic background or united in a given culture or religion live as a group, voluntarily or involuntarily, in milder or stricter seclusion. ... The Warsaw Ghetto was the largest of the Jewish ghettos established by Nazi Germany in Poland during the Holocaust in World War II. In the three years of its existence, starvation, disease and relocations to concentration camps dropped the population of the ghetto from an estimated 380,000 to 70... The Nazi party used a right-facing swastika as their symbol and the red and black colors were said to represent Blut und Boden (blood and soil). ... Łódź (pronunciation: ) is the second-largest city (population 776,297 in 2004) of Poland, located in the centre of the country. ... Nazi Germany, or the Third Reich, commonly refers to Germany in the years 1933–1945, when it was under the firm control of the totalitarian and fascist ideology of the Nazi Party, with the Führer Adolf Hitler as dictator. ... Wehrmacht was the name of the armed forces of Germany from 1935 to 1945. ... 1944 was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ... Auschwitz, in English, commonly refers to the Auschwitz concentration camp complex built near the town of Oświęcim, by Nazi Germany during World War II. Rarely, it may refer to the Polish town of Oświęcim (called by the Germans Auschwitz) itself. ...

Contents

1 Establishment of the Ghetto

2 Chaim Rumkowski and the Jewish Council

3 The First Deportation

4 The End of the Łódź Ghetto

5 Resistance in the Łódź Ghetto

6 External links

7 Further reading

Establishment of the Ghetto

When German forces occupied Łódź in September 1939, the city had a population of 672,000 people, over one-third of them (233,000) Jews. Łódź was annexed directly to the Warthegau region of the Reich and renamed Litzmannstadt. As such, the city was to undergo a process of Aryanization: the Jewish population was to be expelled to the Generalgouvernement and the Polish population was to be reduced significantly and transformed into a slave labor force. Łódź (pronunciation: ) is the second-largest city (population 776,297 in 2004) of Poland, located in the centre of the country. ... 1939 was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... Reichsgau Wartheland (initially Reichsgau Posen) was the name given by Nazis to the territory of Greater Poland which was occupied, annexed and directly incorporated into the German Reich after defeating the Polish army in 1939 (as opposed to the General Government, GG). ... Nazi Germany, or the Third Reich, commonly refers to Germany in the years 1933–1945, when it was under the firm control of the totalitarian and fascist ideology of the Nazi Party, with the Führer Adolf Hitler as dictator. ... Aryan is an English word derived from the Vedic Sanskrit and Avestan term arya, meaning noble or lord. In the 19th century, the term was often used to refer to what we now call the Proto-Indo-Europeans. ... The General Government (in full General government for the occupied Polish areas, in German Generalgouvernement für die besetzten polnischen Gebiete) was the name given by Germany to the governing authority in Poland after its occupation by the Wehrmacht in September and October 1939. ... The word slave has at least two meanings: People who are owned by others, and live to serve them without pay. ...

First mention of the establishment of a ghetto appears in an order dated 10 December 1939, which spoke of a temporary gathering point for local Jews to ease the deportation process. By 1 October 1940, the deportation was to have been completed, and the city was to have been Judenrein (free of Jews). December 10 is the 344th day (345th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1939 was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... October 1 is the 274th day of the year (275th in Leap years). ... 1940 was a leap year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ...

This set in motion a long series of anti-Jewish measures (as well as anti-Polish measures), by which Jews were stripped of their businesses and possessions, and forced to wear the yellow badge. Since the invasion, many Jews, particularly the intellectual and political leadership, fled to the area of the General government or eastward to Soviet-occupied Poland. On 8 February 1940, Jewish residence was limited to specific streets in the Old City of Łódź and the adjacent Batuny Quarter, the areas that would later become the ghetto. A Nazi-sponsored pogrom on 1 March in which many Jews were killed, expediated the relocation, and over the next two months, wooden and wire fences were erected around the area to cut it off from the rest of the city. Jews were formally sealed into the ghetto on 1 May of that year. an example of the type of yellow badge or star, Jews were forced to wear during the Nazi occupation of Europe, 1933-1945 A mandatory mark or a piece of cloth of specific geometric shape, worn on the outer garment in order to distinguish a person of certain religion or... Soviet Union - Wikipedia /**/ @import /skins/monobook/IE50Fixes. ... February 8 is the 39th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1940 was a leap year starting on Monday (link will take you to calendar). ... The Nazi party used a right-facing swastika as their symbol and the red and black colors were said to represent Blut und Boden (blood and soil). ... The Russian word pogrom (погром) refers to a massive violent attack on people with simultaneous destruction of their environment (homes, businesses, religious centers). ... March 1 is the 60th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (61st in leap years). ... May 1 is the 121st day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (122nd in leap years). ...

German and Jewish police guard an entrance to the Łódź Ghetto

Because so many Jews had fled the city, the population of the ghetto upon its creation was 164,000. Over the coming years, Jews from Central Europe and as far away as Luxembourg were deported to the ghetto, and there was also a small Romany population that was resettled there (see: Porajmos). Historical lands and provinces in Central Europe Central Europe is the region of Europe between Eastern Europe and Western Europe. ... The Roma people (pronounced rahma, singular Rom, sometimes Rroma, and Rrom) along with the closely related Sinti people are commonly known as Gypsies in English, and as Tsigany in most of Europe. ... Gypsy arrivals in the Belzec death camp await instructions The Porajmos (also Porrajmos) literally Devouring, is a term coined by the Roma (Gypsy) people to describe attempts by the Nazi regime to exterminate most of the Roma peoples of Europe. ...

To ensure that there was no contact between the Jewish and non-Jewish population of the city, two German police units were designated to patrol the perimeter of the ghetto. Within the ghetto itself, a Jewish police force was created to ensure that no Jews attempted to escape. Any Jews caught outside the ghetto could, by law, be shot on sight. On 10 May orders went into effect prohibiting any commercial contact between Jews and non-Jews in Łódź under similarly severe penalties. May 10 is the 130th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (131st in leap years). ...

In other ghettos throughout Poland, a thriving underground economy based on the smuggling of food and manufactured goods managed to emerge between the ghetto and the outside world. In Łódź, however, this was practically impossible, and Jews were entirely dependent on the German authorities for food, medicine, and other vital supplies. To further exacerbate the situation, the only legal currency in the ghetto was a specially created ghetto currency. Faced with starvation, Jews eagerly traded their remaining possessions and currency for this scrip, thereby abetting the process by which they were dispossessed of their few remaining belongings. These lollipops, above, were found to contain heroin when inspected by the DEA. Smuggling is illegal transport, in particular across a border. ...

Chaim Rumkowski and the Jewish Council

Chaim Rumkowski delivering a speech in the ghetto

To organize the local population and maintain order, the German authorities established a Jewish Council, or Judenrat. The Judenälteste, or leader of the Judenrat, Chaim Rumkowski, is still considered one of the most controversial figures in the history of the Holocaust. Known mockingly as "King Chaim," he was granted unprecedented powers by the Nazi government, which authorized him to "take all necessary measures" to maintain order in the ghetto. Judenrat, German for Jewish council, were administrative bodies the Germans required Jews to form in each ghetto in General Government (Nazi-occupied colony in the central part of Poland). ... Categories: Stub | Jewish Polish history ... This article deals with the Nazi Holocaust. ...

Although he was directly responsible to Nazi official Hans Biebow, within the ghetto Rumkowski adopted an autocratic style of leadership to transform the ghetto into an enormous industrial complex, manufacturing goods on behalf of Germany. Convinced that Jewish productivity would ensure survival, he forced the population to work 12-hour days in abysmal conditions, producing garments, wood and metalwork, and electrical equipment for the German military. By 1943, some 95 percent of the adult population was employed in 117 ressorts or workshops, which Rumkowski once boasted to the mayor of Łódź, were a "gold mine." In fact, it was because of this productivity that the Łódź Ghetto managed to survive long after all the other Polish ghettos were liquidated. 1943 is a common year starting on Friday. ...

Under Rumkowski's leadership, a modicum of equality was established among all the Jews living in the ghetto. Food was distributed equally to everyone, and surprisingly, educational and cultural activities, often underground, flourished. Still, conditions were harsh and the population was entirely dependent on the German authorities. Starvation was rampant and disease widespread. This fueled dissatisfaction with Rumkowski, and even led to a series of strikes in the factories. In most instances, Rumkowski relied on the Jewish police force to quell the discontented workers, but in one instance, the German police were asked to intervene. Strikes usually erupted over the reduction of food rations.

A young girl assists in the paper factory

Disease was also a major feature of ghetto life with which the Judenrat had to contend. Medical supplies were severely limited, and the ghetto was severely overcrowded. The entire population of 164,000 people was forced into an area of just 4 sq. kilometers, of which just 2.4 kilometers were developed and inhabitable. Furthermore, fuel supplies were severely, and people burned whatever they could to survive the harsh Polish winter. Some 18,000 people in the ghetto are believed to have died during a famine in 1942, and altogether, about 43,500 people died in the ghetto from starvation and disease.

The First Deportation

Overcrowding in the ghetto was exacerbated by the deportation there of some forty thousand from the surrounding areas, as well as Germany, Luxembourg, and the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, particularly from Terezín. On 20 December 1941, Rumkowski announced that twenty thousand Jews would be deported from the ghetto, selected by the Judenrat from among criminals, people who refused to work, and people who took advantage of the refugees arriving in the ghetto. An Evacuation Committee was set up to help in selecting the initial group of deportees. The Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia (in German: Reichsprotektorat Böhmen und Mähren, in Czech: Protektorát Čechy a Morava) was a German protectorate that arose in central parts of Bohemia and Moravia on March 15, 1939 when Germany invaded the western part of former Czechoslovakia, the former Austrian provinces Bohemia and... Location of the concentration camp in the Czech Republic Concentration camp Theresienstadt was concentration camp set up by Gestapo in fortress and garrison city Terezín (today Czech Republic, German name Theresienstadt). ... December 20 is the 354th day of the year (355th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1941 was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ...

Ghetto residents boarding the trains to Chelmno

It is uncertain who first realized that the deportees were being sent to Chelmno, the first of the Operation Reinhard death camps, where they were killed with carbon monoxide fumes in gas vans (gas chambers had not yet been built). By 15 May 1942, an estimated 55,000 people had been deported. The harshest blow was yet to come. The title given to this article is incorrect due to technical limitations. ... Operation Reinhard (Aktion Reinhard or Einsatz Reinhard) was the code name given to the Nazi plan to murder Polish Jews in the former General Gouvernement and the Bialystok area. ... A death camp is a concentration camp which has been deliberately set up in order to kill those imprisoned there; such camps are not intended as punishment for criminal actions, rather, they are intended to facilitate genocide. ... Carbon monoxide, chemical formula CO, is a colourless, odourless, flammable and highly toxic gas. ... Gas chamber at San Quentin State Prison A gas chamber is a means of execution whereby a poisonous gas is introduced into a hermetically sealed chamber. ... May 15 is the 135th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (136th in leap years). ... 1942 was a common year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar). ...

By September, Rumkowski and the Jews of Łódź had learned that deportation meant death. They had witnessed the German raid on a children's hospital, when all the patients were rounded up and put into trucks (some actually thrown from windows), never to be seen again. A new German order demanded that 15,000 more Jews be handed over for deportation, and a debate raged in the ghetto over who should be handed over. After considering the options, Rumkowski was more convinced than ever that the only chance for survival lay in remaining productive for the Reich. He therefore addressed the parents of Łódź:

"A grievous blow has struck the ghetto. They are asking us to give up the best we possess - the children and the elderly. I was unworthy of having a child of my own, so I gave the best years of my life to children. I've lived and breathed with children, I never imagined I would be forced to deliver this sacrifice to the altar with my own hands. In my old age, I must stretch out my hands and beg: Brothers and sisters! Hand them over to me! Fathers and mothers: Give me your children!

Children being marched to the trains that will take them to their death

Despite their horror, parents realized that this sacrifice could potentially ensure the survival of, at least, some of the remaining Jews.

This decision would have damned Rumkowski in history books, but for the next year and a half, it seemed that he had succeeded in his objective of saving at least part of the ghetto's population. Deportations stopped after the surrender of the children, and in 1944, the Łódź Ghetto, with 70,000 inhabitants, had the largest concentration of Jews in Eastern Europe. Admittedly, the ghetto had been transformed into one large labor camp, where survival depended solely on the ability to work. Schools and hospitals were shut down, and new factories, including armament factories, were established. On the other hand, Soviet troops were just sixty miles away and advancing rapidly and it seemed that the survivors would have been saved. Then suddenly, the Soviets stopped their advance. 1944 was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ...

The End of the Łódź Ghetto

The ultimate fate of the Łódź Ghetto was debated among the highest ranking Nazis as early as 1943. Heinrich Himmler called for the final liquidation of the ghetto, with a handful of workers relocated to a concentration camp outside Lublin, while Armaments Minister Albert Speer advocated the ghetto's continued existence as a source of cheap labour, especially necessary now that the tide of the war was turning against Germany. 1943 is a common year starting on Friday. ... Heinrich Himmler (October 7, 1900 – May 23, 1945) was the commander of the German Schutzstaffel and one of the most powerful men in Nazi Germany. ... For the son of Albert Speer, also an architect, see Albert Speer (the younger) Albert Speer Albert Speer ( March 19, 1905 – September 1, 1981), sometimes called the first architect of the Third Reich, was Hitlers chief architect in Nazi Germany and became in 1942 minister of armament in Hitler...

In the summer of 1944, it was finally decided to commence with the gradual liquidation of the remaining population. From June 23 to July 14, about 7,000 Jews were deported to Chelmno, where they were killed. As the front approached, however, it was decided to transport the remaining Jews, including Rumkowski, to Auschwitz. By late August, the ghetto was eliminated. Some 900 people managed to hide among the ruins, where they survived until the Soviet army liberated Łódź. Altogether, just 10,000 of the 204,000 Jews who passed through the Łódź Ghetto survived the war. June 23 is the 174th day of the year (175th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 191 days remaining. ... July 14 is the 195th day (196th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 170 days remaining. ...

Resistance in the Łódź Ghetto

The peculiar situation of the Łódź Ghetto prevented any manifestations of armed resistance, which have become synonymous with the final days of the Warsaw Ghetto, Vilna Ghetto, Bialystok Ghetto, and other ghettos in Nazi-occupied Poland. Rumkowski's overbearing autocracy, the failure of attempts to smuggle food--and consequently, arms--into the ghetto, and the conviction that productivity would ensure survival precluded any attempts at armed revolt. The Warsaw Ghetto was the largest of the Jewish ghettos established by Nazi Germany in Poland during the Holocaust in World War II. In the three years of its existence, starvation, disease and relocations to concentration camps dropped the population of the ghetto from an estimated 380,000 to 70...

Nevertheless, Swiss sociologist Werner Rings identified four distinct forms of resistance that civilian populations engaged in throughout Nazi-occupied Europe, with offensive resistance constituting the final form of resistance. The other three categories: symbolic, polemic, and defensive, can all be found in the ghetto, and there are even indications of offensive resistance in terms of sabotage. World map showing location of Europe A satellite composite image of Europe Europe is geologically and geographically a peninsula, forming the westernmost part of Eurasia. ... This article is about Sabotage sabotage can also refer to: an early Black Sabbath album (Sabotage), the Alfred Hitchcock films (Sabotage or Saboteur), a Beastie Boys song, or a type of shock site. ...

Symbolic resistance is evident in the rich cultural and religious life that was maintained in the ghetto throughout the early years. Initially, there were 47 schools and day care facilities in the ghetto, which continued to operate despite the harshest conditions. When the school buildings were converted to living space to house the 20,000 Jewish transported to the ghetto from Central Europe, alternatives frameworks were established, particularly for younger children whose mothers were forced to work. In addition to educating the young, schools attempted to ensure that children received proper nourishment despite the meager rations they were allotted. After the schools were shut down in 1941, Many of the ressorts continued to maintain illegal daycare centers for children whose mothers were working.

Political organizations also continued to exist in the ghetto, and even engaged in strikes when rations were cut. In one instance, a strike got so out of hand that the German police were called upon to suppress it. At the same time, there was also a rich cultural life, including active theaters, concerts, and banned religious gatherings, all of which countered official attempts at dehumanization. Much information about cultural activities can be found in the ghetto archive, organized by the Judenrat to document day-to-day life in the ghetto.

Photographs such as this served to record the horrors of ghetto life for posterity

The archive can also be considered a form of polemic resistance, intended to record life in the ghetto for future generations. It is because of this archive, and especially the photographers who worked in the ghetto, that we have a real sense of what life in the ghetto was like. Unlike many other images from that period, some of the photographs taken in the ghetto are in color, enhancing the already vivid portrait of ghetto life. As one diarist wrote: "We must observe and protect everything with a critical eye, draw sketches of everything that occurs ..." so that they would be remembered. The archivists also began creating a ghetto encyclopedia and even a lexicon of the local slang that emerged to describe their daily lives. 1913 advertisement for Encyclopædia Britannica. ... A lexicon is a list of words together with additional word-specific information, i. ... Slang is the non-standard use of words in a language of a particular social group, and sometimes the creation of new words or importation of words from another language. ...

Although it was illegal, the Jewish population even maintained several radios with which they were able to keep abreast of events in the outside world. At first, the radio could only receive German news broadcasts, which is why it is codenamed "Liar" in many of the diaries from that period. Among the news bulletins spread around the ghetto was the Allied invasion of Normandy on the day it occurred. Mont Saint Michel is a historic pilgrimage site and a symbol of Normandy Normandy is a former country (a Duchy) situated in northern France occupying the lower Seine area (upper or Haute-Normandie) and the region to the west (lower or Basse-Normandie) as far as the Cotentin Peninsula. ...

Defensive resistance in the ghetto includes avoiding the final transports and helping others to do the same. Some 900 Jews managed to survive in the ghetto from the final liquidation until the Soviets finally liberated the city. Yet even before the final deportation, members of youth movements shared meager rations with friends who refused to report for deportation, allowing them to survive even after they were no longer entitled to food rations.

Since work was essential to the ghetto's survival, it seems inevitable that sabotage was common. In the latter years, leftist workers adopted the slogan P.P. (pracuj powoli, or "go slow") to hinder their work on behalf of the Wehrmacht. When a bunker with Jews hiding in it was discovered, one of the people assaulted Hans Biebow, Rumkowski's direct superior in the Nazi administration. Wehrmacht was the name of the armed forces of Germany from 1935 to 1945. ...

There is evidence in diaries that some form of armed resistance was discussed in the final days of the ghetto, but it never materialized as it did in other ghettos, because of the aforementioned considerations.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has more media related to:

Lodz Ghetto

Overview of the ghetto's history (http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/lodztoc.html)
Full text of Rumkowski's "Give Me Your Children" speech (http://www.datasync.com/~davidg59/rumkowsk.html)

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