81-646: The Łódź Ghetto or Litzmannstadt Ghetto (after the Nazi German name for Łódź ) was a Nazi ghetto established by the German authorities for Polish Jews and Roma following the Invasion of Poland . It was the second-largest ghetto in all of German-occupied Europe after the Warsaw Ghetto . Situated in the city of Łódź, and originally intended as a preliminary step upon a more extensive plan of creating
162-474: A "final solution" which was a euphemism for the murder of Jews. Toward the Endziel and Endloesung there were intermediate goals to be carried out in the short term, and one of these was to concentrate Jews from the countryside into larger cities, thus making certain areas Judenrein ("clean of Jews"). The first ghetto of World War II was established on 8 October 1939 at Piotrków Trybunalski (38 days after
243-502: A children's hospital where all patients were rounded up and put into trucks never to return (some thrown from windows). A new German order demanded that 24,000 Jews be handed over for deportation. A debate raged in the ghetto over who should be given up. Rumkowski sounded more convinced than ever that the only chance for Jewish survival lay in the ability to work productively for the Reich without interference. As Rumkowski believed productivity
324-683: A city outside the walls of the Jewish Quarter were called "Aryan". For example, in Warsaw , the city was divided into Jewish, Polish, and German Quarters. Those living outside the ghetto had to have identification papers proving they were not Jewish (none of their grandparents was a member of the Jewish community), such as a baptism certificate. Such documents were sometimes called "Christian" or "Aryan papers". Poland's Catholic clergy massively forged baptism certificates, which were given to Jews by
405-538: A mass relocation of labour to the Nazi District of Lublin . Max Horn from the Ostindustrie arrived and made an assessment, which was damning. The ghetto was too large in his opinion, badly managed, not profitable, and it had the wrong products. From his perspective the presence of children was unacceptable. The relocation idea was abandoned, but the immediate consequence of his report was an order to reduce
486-533: A series of strikes in the factories. In most instances, Rumkowski relied on the Jewish police to quell the discontented workers, although at least in one instance, the German Order Police was asked to intervene. Strikes usually erupted over the reduction of food rations. Disease was a major feature of ghetto life with which the Judenrat had to contend. Medical supplies were critically limited, and
567-532: A time, only after the purge of the ghetto was completed. Some 89,446 able-bodied prisoners remained. In October, the number of German troops was reduced, as no longer needed. The German Reserve Police Battalion 101 left the ghetto to conduct anti-Jewish operations in Polish towns with direct lines to Treblinka , Bełżec , and Sobibór . Meanwhile, a rare camp for the Christian children between 8 and 14 years of age
648-601: Is still considered one of the most controversial figures in the history of the Holocaust . Known mockingly as "King Chaim", Rumkowski was granted unprecedented powers by the Nazi officials, which authorized him to take all necessary measures to maintain order in the ghetto. Directly responsible to the Nazi Amtsleiter Hans Biebow , Rumkowski adopted an autocratic style of leadership in order to transform
729-588: The Judenfrei province of Warthegau , the ghetto was transformed into a major industrial centre, manufacturing war supplies for Nazi Germany and especially for the Wehrmacht . The number of people incarcerated in it was increased further by the Jews deported from Nazi-controlled territories. On 30 April 1940, when the gates closed on the ghetto, it housed 163,777 residents. Because of its remarkable productivity,
810-564: The Reichsgaue , and then throughout the Generalgouvernement territory. The Nazis had a special hatred of Polish and other eastern Jews. Nazi ideology depicted Jews, Slavs and Roma as inferior race Untermenschen ("subhumans") who threatened the purity of Germany's Aryan Herrenrasse ("master race"), and viewed these people and also political opponents of the Nazi party as parasitic vermin or diseases that endangered
891-577: The Jewish Quarter . There were several distinct types including open ghettos , closed ghettos , work , transit , and destruction ghettos , as defined by the Holocaust historians. In a number of cases, they were the place of Jewish underground resistance against the German occupation, known collectively as the ghetto uprisings . The first anti-Jewish measures were enacted in Germany with
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#1732801659153972-576: 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
1053-563: The Warsaw Ghetto alone to Treblinka over the course of 52 days. In some ghettos, local resistance organizations staged ghetto uprisings . None were successful, and the Jewish populations of the ghettos were almost entirely killed. On June 21, 1943, Heinrich Himmler issued an order to liquidate all ghettos and transfer remaining Jewish inhabitants to concentration camps . A few ghettos were re-designated as concentration camps and existed until 1944. German-occupied Europe German-occupied Europe (or Nazi-occupied Europe ) refers to
1134-406: The Warsaw Ghetto before July 1942. To prevent unauthorised contact between the Jewish and non-Jewish populations, German Order Police battalions were assigned to patrol the perimeter. Within each ghetto, a Jewish Ghetto Police force was created to ensure that no prisoners tried to escape. In general terms, there were three types of ghettos maintained by the Nazi administration. The parts of
1215-658: The governments-in-exile were formed by their citizens in other Allied countries . Some countries occupied by Nazi Germany were officially neutral. Others were former members of the Axis powers that were subsequently occupied by German forces, such as Finland and Hungary. Germany operated thousands of concentration camps in German-occupied Europe. The first camps were established in March 1933 immediately after Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of Germany . Following
1296-539: The invasion of Poland during World War II , the Nazi regime set up ghettos across German-occupied Eastern Europe in order to segregate and confine Jews , and sometimes Romani people , into small sections of towns and cities furthering their exploitation. In German documents, and signage at ghetto entrances, the Nazis usually referred to them as Jüdischer Wohnbezirk or Wohngebiet der Juden , both of which translate as
1377-591: The invasion of Poland , many Jews, particularly the intellectual and political elite, had fled the advancing German army into the Soviet-occupied eastern Poland and to the area of future General Government in the hope of the Polish counter-attack which never came. On 8 February 1940, the Germans ordered the Jewish residence to be limited to specific streets in the Old City and the adjacent Bałuty quarter,
1458-774: The 1934 purge of the SA, the concentration camps were run exclusively by the SS via the Concentration Camps Inspectorate and later the SS Main Economic and Administrative Office. Initially, most prisoners were members of the Communist Party of Germany, but as time went on different groups were arrested, including "habitual criminals", " asocials ", and Jews. After the beginning of World War II , people from German-occupied Europe were imprisoned in
1539-833: The 223,000 Jews in Łódź before the invasion, only 10,000 survived the Holocaust in other places. 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
1620-1069: The French Republic [REDACTED] French Tunisia [REDACTED] Military Administration in Belgium and Northern France [REDACTED] Military Administration in France [REDACTED] Reichskommissariat of Belgium and Northern France [REDACTED] Civil Administration of Luxembourg [REDACTED] Reichskommissariat of Belgium and Northern France [REDACTED] German-occupied territory of Montenegro [REDACTED] Independent State of Croatia [REDACTED] Independent State of Macedonia Provisional Government of Lithuania 23 June 1941 – 5 August 1941 [REDACTED] General Government administration [REDACTED] Reichskommissariat Ostland [REDACTED] Reichskommissariat Ukraine [REDACTED] Government of National Salvation [REDACTED] Military Administration in
1701-422: The Germans. Typical intake, made available, averaged between 700 and 900 calories per day, about half the calories required for survival. People affiliated with Rumkowski received disproportionately larger deliveries of food, medicine, and other rationed necessities. Everywhere else starvation was rampant and diseases like tuberculosis widespread, fueling dissatisfaction with Rumkowski's administration, which led to
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#17328016591531782-444: The Holocaust elsewhere. When German forces occupied Łódź on 8 September 1939, the city had a population of 672,000 people. Over 230,000 of them were Jewish, or 31.1% according to statistics. Nazi Germany annexed Łódź directly to the new Warthegau region and renamed the city Litzmannstadt in honour of a German general, Karl Litzmann , who had led German forces in the area in 1914. The Nazi German authorities intended to "purify"
1863-552: The Jewish and non-Jewish populations of the city, two German Order Police battalions were assigned to patrol the perimeter of the ghetto, including the Reserve Police Battalion 101 from Hamburg. Within the ghetto, the Jewish Police force was created to ensure that no prisoners tried to escape. On 10 May 1940 orders went into effect prohibiting any commercial exchange between Jews and non-Jews in Łódź. By
1944-465: The Jewish day-to-day life in that period can be found in the ghetto archive of Lucjan Dobroszycki from YIVO . The photographers of the statistical department of the Judenrat, besides their official work, illegally took photos of everyday scenes and atrocities. One of them, Henryk Ross , managed to bury the negatives and dig them up after liberation, at 12 Jagielonska Street. Because of this archive,
2025-411: The Jews had fled the city by the time the ghetto was set up, its prisoner population as of 1 May 1940 was 164,000. Over the coming year, Jews from German-occupied Europe as far away as Luxembourg were deported to the ghetto on their way to the extermination camps. A small Romany population was also resettled there. By 1 May 1941, the population of the ghetto was 148,547. To ensure no contact between
2106-402: The Jews of Łódź had realized the fate of the evacuees, because all baggage, clothing, and identification papers of their fellow inmates, were being returned to the ghetto for "processing". The slave workers began to strongly suspect that deportation meant death; even though they had never deduced that the annihilation of Jews was all-encompassing, as was intended. They witnessed the German raid on
2187-493: The Lodz ghetto was liquidated. 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; over 72,000 people defined as "dispensable" were murdered. 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
2268-795: 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
2349-526: The Nazi regime did not acknowledge this; instead, German medical professionals published essays blaming Jewish people's supposed "low cultural level" and "uncleanliness" for the typhoid epidemics. Posters depicting Jews as lice, which transmit from person to person the bacteria that causes epidemic typhus, were publicized, and the respected status of German doctors helped spread the belief that the Jews were responsible for spreading typhus. The German public health officials in occupied Poland were concerned only with
2430-548: The Nazis: in Warsaw this was 1,060 kJ (253 kcal) per Jew, compared to 2,800 kJ (669 kcal) per Pole and 10,930 kJ (2,613 kcal) per German. With the crowded living conditions, starvation diets, and insufficient sanitation (coupled with lack of medical supplies), epidemics of infectious disease became a major feature of ghetto life. In the Łódź Ghetto some 43,800 people died of 'natural' causes, and 76,000 in
2511-623: 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 were deported to Auschwitz. Later on she became known for her effort to save many Jewish children; her sons were sent to stone quarries of Mauthausen . 51°47′35″N 19°27′50″E / 51.79306°N 19.46389°E / 51.79306; 19.46389 Nazi ghetto Beginning with
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2592-409: 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! — Chaim Rumkowski, September 4, 1942 Despite their horror, parents had little choice but to turn over their children for deportation. Some families committed collective suicide to avoid the inevitable. The deportations slowed down, for
2673-486: The areas that would become the ghetto. To expedite the relocation, the Orpo Police launched an assault on 5–7 March 1940, known as "Bloody Thursday", in which 350 Jews were fatally shot in their homes, and outside. 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 within the ghetto walls on 1 May 1940. As nearly 25 percent of
2754-422: The benefit of loved ones. People would trade furniture and clothing to receive food for their family members or themselves. Jewish women invented new ways of cooking in order to make food and supplies last longer. Tuberculosis and other diseases were widespread due to malnutrition . The physical attributes of malnutrition in the Łódź Ghetto led to sunken eyes, swollen abdomens and aged appearances while also stunting
2835-468: 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. More than 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
2916-400: The carriers of infectious diseases. For the week of 16–22 June 1941 (the week Nazi Germany launched Operation Barbarossa ), the Jews reported 206 deaths and two shootings of women near the barbed wire. In other ghettos throughout Poland, thriving underground economies based on smuggling of food and manufactured goods developed between the ghettos and the outside world. In Łódź, however, this
2997-431: The city. All Polish Jews were to be expelled to the Generalgouvernement eventually, while the non-Jewish population of Polish people reduced significantly, and transformed into a slave labour force for Germany . The first known record of an order for the establishment of the ghetto, dated 10 December 1939, came from the new Nazi governor Friedrich Übelhör , who called for the cooperation of major policing bodies in
3078-472: The citywide Theresienstadt concentration camp . Heinrich Himmler visited the ghetto for the first time on 7 June 1941. On 29 July 1941, following an inspection, most patients of the ghetto's psychiatric hospital were taken away never to return. "They understood, for example, why they had been injected with tranquilizers in the night. Injections of scopolamine were used, at the request of the Nazi authorities." Situated 50 kilometres (31 mi) north of Łódź in
3159-450: The concentration camps. About 1.65 million people were registered prisoners in the camps, of whom about a million died during their imprisonment. Most of the fatalities occurred during the second half of World War II, including at least 4.7 million Soviet prisoners who were registered as of January 1945. Following Allied military victories, the camps were gradually liberated in 1944 and 1945, although hundreds of thousands of prisoners died in
3240-400: The confinement and mass transfer of the local Jews. By 1 October 1940, the relocation of the ghetto inmates was to have been completed, and the city's downtown core declared Judenrein (cleansed of its Jewish presence). The German occupiers pressed for the ghetto size to be shrunk beyond all sense in order to have their factories registered outside of it. Łódź was a multicultural mosaic before
3321-577: The death marches. After the expansion of Nazi Germany, people from countries occupied by the Wehrmacht were targeted and detained in concentration camps. In Western Europe, arrests focused on resistance fighters and saboteurs, but in Eastern Europe arrests included mass roundups aimed at the implementation of Nazi population policy and the forced recruitment of workers. This led to a predominance of Eastern Europeans, especially Poles, who made up
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3402-622: The dominant Polish resistance movement, the Home Army ( Armia Krajowa , or AK). Any Pole found by the Germans to be giving any help to a Jew was subject to the death penalty. In 1942, the Nazis began Operation Reinhard , the systematic deportation of Jews to extermination camps . Nazi authorities throughout Europe deported Jews to ghettos in Eastern Europe or most often directly to extermination camps built by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland . Almost 300,000 people were deported from
3483-609: 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
3564-457: The exhaust fumes of moving gas vans . The stationary gas chambers had yet to be built at Operation Reinhard death camps . By 2 April 1942, an additional 34,000 victims were sent there from the ghetto, with 11,000 more by 15 May 1942, and over 15,000 more by mid September, for an estimated total of 55,000 people. The Germans planned that children, the elderly, and anyone deemed "not fit for work" would follow them. In September 1942, Rumkowski and
3645-544: The ghetto from starvation and infectious disease. Overcrowding in the ghetto was exacerbated by the influx of some 40,000 Polish Jews forced out from the surrounding Warthegau areas, as well as by the Holocaust transports of foreign Jews resettled to Łódź from Vienna, Berlin, Cologne, Hamburg and other cities in Nazi Germany , as well as from Luxembourg , and the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia including
3726-445: The ghetto into an industrial base manufacturing war supplies. Convinced that Jewish productivity would ensure survival, he forced the population to work 12-hour days despite abysmal conditions and the lack of calories and protein; producing uniforms, garments, wood and metalwork, and electrical equipment for the German military. By 1943, some 95 percent of the adult population was employed in 117 workshops, which – Rumkowski once boasted to
3807-400: The ghetto managed to survive until August 1944. In the first two years, it absorbed almost 20,000 Jews from liquidated ghettos in nearby Polish towns and villages, as well as 20,000 more from the rest of German-occupied Europe . After the wave of deportations to Chełmno extermination camp beginning in early 1942, and in spite of a stark reversal of fortune, the Germans persisted in eradicating
3888-459: The ghetto was severely overcrowded. The entire population of 164,000 people was forced into an area of 4 square kilometres (1.5 square miles), of which 2.4 square kilometres (0.93 square miles) were developed and habitable. Fuel supplies were severely short, and people burned whatever they could to survive the Polish winter. Some 18,000 people in the ghetto are believed to have died during a famine in 1942, and all together, about 43,800 people died in
3969-459: The ghetto: they transported the remaining population to Auschwitz and Chełmno extermination camps , where most were murdered upon arrival. It was the last ghetto in occupied Poland to be liquidated. A total of 210,000 Jews passed through it; but only 877 remained hidden when the Soviets arrived. About 10,000 Jewish residents of Łódź, who used to live there before the invasion of Poland , survived
4050-431: The ghettos were generally brutal. In Warsaw , the Jews, comprising 30% of the city overall population, were forced to live in 2.4% of the city's area, a density of 7.2 people per room. In the ghetto of Odrzywół , 700 people lived in an area previously occupied by five families, between 12 and 30 to each room. The Jews were not allowed out of the ghetto, so they had to rely on smuggling and the starvation rations supplied by
4131-541: The growth of ghetto children. Since 1940, the ghetto used its own currency, the Lodz Ghetto mark , which had no value outside the ghetto. The use of other currency was prohibited. Administratively, the Łódź ghetto was subject to the City Council. Initially, mayor Karol Marder separated from the provisioning and economy department the branch for the ghetto at Cegielniana street (today Jaracza 11), whose manager
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#17328016591534212-503: The health of German personnel, so they repeatedly urged occupation authorities to isolate Jews further from the rest of the population. German forces regarded the establishment of ghettos as temporary measures, in order to allow higher level Nazis in Berlin to decide how to execute their goal of eradicating Jews from Europe. Nazi officials had an Endziel , an unarticulated final goal that would take time to reach, and also an Endlösung ,
4293-750: The heart of the city, was the largest ghetto in Nazi occupied Europe, with over 400,000 Jews crammed into an area of 3.4 square kilometres ( 1 + 3 ⁄ 8 square miles). The Łódź Ghetto was the second largest, holding about 160,000 people. According to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum archives, there were at least 1,000 such ghettos in German-occupied and annexed Poland and the Soviet Union alone. Ghettos across Eastern Europe varied in their size, scope and living conditions. The conditions in
4374-654: The invasion), with the Tuliszków ghetto established in December 1939. The first large metropolitan ghetto known as the Łódź Ghetto ( Litzmannstadt ) followed them in April 1940, and the Warsaw Ghetto in October. Most Jewish ghettos were established in 1940 and 1941. Subsequently, many ghettos were sealed from the outside, walled off with brickwork, or enclosed with barbed wire. In the case of sealed ghettos, any Jew caught leaving could be shot. The Warsaw Ghetto, located in
4455-421: The lower class Jewish inhabitants relied heavily on the ration card system. Food embezzlement by police forces within the ghetto encouraged hierarchy even amongst Jewish neighbors. Food became a means of control for the German forces and by the Jewish policing administration. Food deprivation often caused strain on family relations but parents, siblings, and spouses would also hold out on their portion of food for
4536-681: The majority of the population of some camps. The ethnicities of captured people were various other groups from other different nationalities were transferred to Auschwitz or sent to local concentration camps. The countries occupied included all, or most, of the following nations or territories: [REDACTED] Bailiwick of Jersey 1 July 1940 – 9 May 1945 (Jersey) [REDACTED] Second Czechoslovak Republic [REDACTED] Third Czechoslovak Republic [REDACTED] German Zone of Protection in Slovakia [REDACTED] Free France [REDACTED] Provisional Government of
4617-476: The maximum, transforming the ghetto into a forced labor camp in hunger for food rations and extreme living conditions. From 1942, Hans Biebow and his deputies Józef Haemmerle and Wilhelm Ribbe demonstrated in the selection and displacement of ghetto inhabitants, and Biebow and his commercial capabilities were quickly appreciated by the dignitaries of the central authorities of the Warta Country. Biebow became
4698-414: The mayor of Łódź – were a "gold mine." It was possibly because of this productivity that the Łódź Ghetto managed to survive long after all the other ghettos in occupied Poland were liquidated. Rumkowski systematically singled out for expulsion his political opponents, or anyone who might have had the capacity to lead a resistance to the Nazis. Conditions were harsh and the population was entirely dependent on
4779-465: The new German decree, those caught outside the ghetto could be shot on sight. The contact with people who lived on the " Aryan " side was also impaired by the fact that Łódż had a 70,000-strong ethnic German minority loyal to the Nazis (the Volksdeutsche ), making it impossible to bring food illegally. To keep outsiders out, rumours were also spread by Hitler's propaganda saying that the Jews were
4860-558: The news that quickly spread around the ghetto was the Allied invasion of Normandy on the day it occurred. Since production was essential to the German war effort, the slowing down of work was also a form of resistance. In the later years, leftist workers adopted the slogan P.P. ( pracuj powoli , or "work slowly") to hinder their own output on behalf of the Wehrmacht . A number of Poles from Łódź were awarded titles of Righteous among
4941-594: The onset of Nazism ; these measures did not include ghettoizing German Jews: such plans were rejected in the post- Kristallnacht period. However, soon after the 1939 German invasion of Poland , the Nazis began to designate areas of larger Polish cities and towns as exclusively Jewish, and within weeks, embarked on a massive programme of uprooting Polish Jews from their homes and businesses through forcible expulsions . Entire Jewish communities were deported into these closed off zones by train from their places of origin systematically, using Order Police battalions , first in
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#17328016591535022-500: The overall health of the Volksgemeinschaft , the German racial community. German doctors and public health officials helped advance these racist fearmongering ideas. The German invasion of Poland (Sept. 1, 1939) and the formation of Jewish ghettos caused hunger and poverty, crowding and unsanitary conditions, which in turn actually created typhus epidemics in occupied Poland. German physicians and public health officials in
5103-473: 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
5184-887: The population, were governed by Germany or their allies and puppet states . It comprised an area of 3,300,000 km (1,300,000 sq mi). Outside of Europe, German forces controlled areas of North Africa , including Egypt , Libya , and Tunisia between 1940 and 1945. German military scientists established the Schatzgraber Weather Station as far north as Alexandra Land in Francis Joseph Land . Manned German weather stations also operated in North America included three in Greenland , Holzauge , Bassgeiger , and Edelweiss. German Kriegsmarine ships also operated in all oceans of
5265-445: The production of war supplies was coordinated by the autonomous German Management Board ( Gettoverwaltung ). The ghetto was transformed into a giant labor camp where survival depended solely on the ability to work. Two small hospitals were set up in 1943, nonetheless hundreds of tormented prisoners died each month. In April 1,000 Jews were transferred to labour camps in Germany . In September 1943 Himmler ordered Greiser to get ready for
5346-550: The real ruler of the ghetto, and Gettoverwaltung officials arrived at a rapid pace – from 24 people in May 1940 to 216 in mid-1942. To organize the local population and maintain order, the German authorities established a Jewish Council commonly called the Judenrat or the Ältestenrat ("Council of Elders") in Łódź. The chairman of the Judenrat appointed by the Nazi administration was Chaim Rumkowski (age 62 in 1939). Even today, he
5427-417: The reality of the ghetto was recorded and preserved. The archivists also began creating a ghetto encyclopedia and a lexicon of the local slang that emerged in their daily lives. The Jewish population maintained several illegal radios with which they kept abreast of events in the outside world. At first, the radio could only receive German broadcast, which is why it was codenamed the "Liar" in the diaries. Among
5508-457: The refugees arriving in the ghetto in order to satisfy their own basic needs. By the end of January 1942 some 10,000 Jews were deported to Chełmno (known as Kulmhof in German). The Chełmno camp set up by SS-Sturmbannführer Herbert Lange , served as a pilot project for the secretive Operation Reinhard , the deadliest phase of the " Final Solution ". In Chełmno, the inmates were murdered with
5589-463: 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 17 August 1944, The Gestapo announced
5670-421: 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. Throughout the early period, the symbolic resistance was evident in the rich cultural and religious life that
5751-603: 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
5832-501: The size of the ghetto. By January 1944, there were around 80,000 Jewish workers still subsisting in Łódź. In February, Himmler brought back Bothmann to reinstate operations at Chełmno. On 28 November 1942, a camp for Polish children was opened. The official name of the camp was "Security Police Litzmannstadt Isolation Camp for Polish Youth" ( German : Polen-Jugendverwahrlager der Sicherheitspolizei in Litzmannstadt ); however,
5913-514: The sovereign countries of Europe which were wholly or partly militarily occupied and civil-occupied, including puppet governments , by the military forces and the government of Nazi Germany at various times between 1939 and 1945, during World War II , administered by the Nazi regime under the dictatorship of Adolf Hitler . The German Wehrmacht occupied European territory: In 1941, around 280 million people in Europe, more than half
5994-486: The town of Chełmno , at Kulmhof , gassing operations began on 8 December 1941. Two weeks later, on 20 December 1941, Rumkowski was ordered by the Germans to announce that 20,000 Jews from the ghetto would be deported to undisclosed camps, based on selection by the Judenrat . An Evacuation Committee was set up to help select the initial group of deportees from among those who were labelled 'criminals': people who refused to or who could not work, and people who took advantage of
6075-460: The war began, with about 8.8% ethnic German residents on top of Austrian, Czech, French, Russian and Swiss business families adding to its vibrant economy. The securing of the ghetto system was preceded by a series of anti-Jewish measures as well as anti-Polish measures meant to inflict terror. The Jews were forced to wear the yellow badge . Their businesses were expropriated by the Gestapo . After
6156-487: The world throughout World War II. Several German-occupied countries initially entered World War II as Allies of the United Kingdom or the Soviet Union . Some were forced to surrender before the outbreak of the war such as Czechoslovakia; others like Poland (invaded on 1 September 1939) were conquered in battle and then occupied . In some cases, the legitimate governments went into exile , in other cases
6237-439: The Łódź Ghetto had an average daily intake of 1,000 to 1,200 calories which led directly to starvation and even to death. The process of purchasing food relied heavily on the quantity and quality of the goods that the ghetto citizens brought from their houses into the ghetto. Previous social class and wealth of ghetto inhabitants often determined the fate of food accessibility. While the wealthy could purchase additional food, many of
6318-428: Was first Johann Moldenhauer, and then a merchant from Bremen , Hans Biebow . From October 1940, the facility was raised to the rank of an independent department of the city council – Gettoverwaltung, reporting to Mayor Werner Ventzki. Initially, the main tasks of the ghetto board were supplying, supplying medicines and settling the ghetto with the city. Soon, however, the inhabitants began to be plundered and exploited to
6399-536: Was necessary for survival, he thought they should give their 13,000 children and their 11,000 elderly. He addressed the parents of Łódź as follows. A grievous blow has struck the ghetto. They [the Germans] 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
6480-462: Was practically impossible due to heavy security. The Jews were entirely dependent on the German authorities for food, medicine and other vital supplies. To exacerbate the situation, the only legal currency in the ghetto was a specially created ghetto currency . Faced with starvation, Jews traded their remaining possessions and savings for this scrip , thereby abetting the process by which they were dispossessed of their remaining belongings. Jews within
6561-537: Was set up adjacent to the ghetto in December 1942, separated only by a high fence made of planks. Some 12,000–13,000 adolescent Poles with parents already dead went through the Kinder-KZ Litzmannstadt according to International Tracing Service . Subjected to a selection process for Germanisation , the 1,600 children performed work closely connected with the industrial output of the ghetto, with help and advice from Jewish instructors. Since late 1942
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