75: Lodz 2

Lodz Ghetto 2

Camp for Polish Children:

On November 28, 1942, a camp for Polish children was opened. The official name of the camp was Polen-Jugendverwahrlager der Sicherheitspolizei in Litzmannstadt translated means Security Police Litzmannstadt Isolation Camp for Polish Youth, however, the camp was referred to as the Camp on Przemyslowa Street. The camp housed children aged 8–16 who were orphans or accused of criminal activity such as theft.  Over 1,000 children lived there, separated from their parents, working eight hours a day. They were fed starvation rations and had no access to water, heating or bathrooms. They were subjected to torture and beaten by the guards. The camp operated until the Lodz Ghetto was liquidated.

(Bridge connecting the two parts of the Lodz Ghetto)

Liquidation:

In early 1944, the ultimate fate of the Łódź Ghetto was debated among the highest-ranking Nazis. The initial wave of deportations to Chełmno ended in the autumn of 1942 with over 72,000 people defined as "dispensable" already sent to their deaths.  Heinrich Himmler called for the final liquidation of the Ghetto. Between 23 June and 14 July 1944, the first 10 transports of about 7,000 Jews were sent by Arthur Greiser from the Radegast train station to Chełmno. Although the killing centre was partly razed in April 1943, it had resumed gassing operations specifically for this purpose.  Meanwhile, Armaments Minister Albert Speer proposed the Ghetto be continued as a source of cheap labour for the front. On 15 July 1944 the transports paused for two weeks. On 1 August 1944 the Warsaw Uprising erupted, and the fate of the remaining inhabitants of the Łódź Ghetto was sealed. During the last phase of its existence, some 25,000 inmates were murdered at Chełmno, their bodies burned immediately after death. As the front approached, German officials decided to deport the remaining Jews to Auschwitz-Birkenau aboard Holocaust trains, including Rumkowski. On 28 August 1944, Rumkowski's family were gassed along with thousands of others.  On August 17, 1944, The Gestapo announced the exclusion of the following streets from the Ghetto: Wolborska, Nad Łódką, Zgierska, Dolna, Łagiewnicka, Brzezińska, Smugowa and the Old Market Square, Kościelny Square and Bałucki Rynek. The presence of Jews in these areas was punishable by death. A handful of people were left alive in the Ghetto to clean it up.  Others remained in hiding with the Polish rescuers. When the Soviet Army entered Łódź on 19 January 1945, only 877 Jews were still alive, 12 of whom were children. Of the 223,000 Jews in Łódź before the invasion, only 10,000 survived the Holocaust in other places.

Forms of Resistance: 

The peculiar situation of the Łódź Ghetto prevented armed resistance, which occurred within other Ghettos in Nazi-occupied Poland, such as the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, the Białystok Ghetto Uprising, the revolt at the Wilno Ghetto, the Częstochowa Ghetto Uprising, or similar rebellions in other Polish cities. Rumkowski's overbearing autocracy including his periodic crackdowns, and the resulting failure of Jewish attempts to smuggle food – and consequently, arms – into the Ghetto, as well as misleading confidence that productivity would ensure survival, precluded attempts at an armed revolt.  The distinct forms of defiance included instead the symbolic, polemic and defensive resistance.[a] Throughout the early period, the symbolic resistance was evident in the rich cultural and religious life that the people maintained in the Ghetto. Initially, they created 47 schools and daycare facilities which continued to operate despite harsh conditions. Later, when the school buildings were converted to new living quarters for some 20,000 inmates brought in from outside occupied Poland, alternatives were established, particularly for younger children whose mothers were forced to work. Schools tried to provide children with adequate nourishment despite meager rations. After the schools were shut down in 1941, many of the factories continued to maintain illegal daycare centres for children whose mothers were working.  Political organizations also continued to exist, and engaged in strikes when rations were cut. In one such instance, a strike got so violent that the German Orpo police were called upon to suppress it. At the same time, the rich cultural life included active theatres, concerts, and banned religious gatherings, all of which countered official attempts at dehumanization. Much information about the Jewish day-to-day life in that period can be found in the ghetto archive of Lucjan Dobroszycki from YIVO. 

(A street in the Lodz Ghetto)

Escape and Rescue Efforts:

 A number of Poles from Łódź were awarded titles of Righteous among the Nations by Yad Vashem in Jerusalem. On their and their families initiative, a Survivors' Park adorned with monuments was built in Łódź, measuring 3,660 square metres (39,400 sq ft). It was inaugurated in August 2009 by the President of Poland Lech Kaczyński in the presence of prominent dignitaries.  A year later, the Park was awarded a medal for top urban design by the Towarzystwo Urbanistów Polskich.  One of the Poles who helped the Jews in Łódź was a Catholic midwife Stanisława Leszczyńska. She and her family provided food, clothing and fake documents to many Jewish fugitives. Eventually, however, she and her family were arrested by the Germans. She and her daughter was deported to Auschwitz where she became later became known for her effort to save many Jewish babies; her sons were sent to stone quarries of Mauthausen. 

Notable Inmates:

Heda Margolius Kovály (1919–2010), author of an autobiography Under a Cruel Star

Rudolf Margolius (1913–1952), victim of the Slánský trial

Lucjan Dobroszycki (1919–1995), scientist and historian

Mendel Grossman (1913–1945), photographer, died during the Death Marches

Chava Rosenfarb (1923–2011), writer

Oskar Rosenfeld (1884–1944), writer, Ghetto chronicler, killed at Auschwitz

Henryk Ross (1910–1991), photographer who documented conditions in the camp

Mordechai Chaim Rumkowski (1877–1944), Judenälteste ("Elder of the Jews"), head of the Judenrat, killed at Auschwitz

Ruth Minsky Sender (born 1926), author (The Cage, set partly in the ghetto)

Jack Tramiel (1928–2012), founder of Commodore International, owner of Atari

Maurycy Trębacz (1861–1941), painter, died of hunger in the ghetto on 29 January 1941

Rywka Lipszyc (1929–1945?), diarist, deported to Auschwitz in 1944 then to Bergen-Belsen in 1945, presumed to have died September 1945

Georg John (1879–1941), actor from films such as M and The Last Laugh, died November 1941

Salomon Szapiro (aka Dr. Szeffer, 1882–1941), medical doctor and chess master, died in the Ghetto 18 November 1941

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Łódź_Ghetto