THETHE LODZ LODZ GHETTOGHETTO

Lodz is the second largest in , known trying to help grapple with the hardships for its textile industry. Before the war, Jews of existence. The German authorities INTRODUCTION Mordechai . Before the war, played an influential role in this industry. Lodz created this tension on purpose, hoping the Rumkowski had been a junior member of the Jewish Thewas Lodz occupied ghetto was by one the ofGerman the first army () to be anger and the frustration of the local Jewish community administration in Lodz. Like many other established.in September It became 1939. a deadly As part place. of western It was built Poland, in population would be spent on Jewish leaders Jewish leaders during the , Rumkowski found a neglectedLodz was part annexed of the city, to surrounded the Reich, by and a hostile named and not the German authorities. population,Litzmannstadt and tightly for thesealed. German The ghetto general was who isolated had andconquered controlled, themaking city smugglingin World foodWar impossible. I. The Nazis Somereserved 43,000 Jews,this 21%part of ofthe Polandghetto population, for settlement died fromby starvation Germans, and most disease. of Thewhom struggle had for lived survival for wasgenerations a daily, uphill in battle. the Baltic countries. By the end of 1939, tens of thousands of Jews and Poles had been deported from the area, and Germans L4 HISTORY Lodzwere is the settled second there. largest However, city in Poland, for administrative known for its textileand logistical industry. Itreasons, was occupied population by the German transfers armywere (Wehrmacht) halted at thein September beginning 1939 of 1940. and soon after annexed (made a part of Germany). Lodz was renamed Earlier than most Jewish communities in Litzmannstadt for the German general who had Mordechai Chaim Chaim Rumkowski, Rumkowski, Chief Chief of the ofJudenrat the (center), Poland, the Jews of Lodz suffered from (center),among Jewish among policemen, Jewish Lodz, policemen, Poland. Yad Lodz,Vashem Poland.Photo conquered the city in WWI. The Nazis reserved this part exceptionally brutal persecution, eviction from YadArchive Vashem (36CO9) Photo Archive (36CO9) of Polandtheir homes, for settlement and deportation. by Germans, As most early of whomas May had1940, lived forthe generations ghetto was in established, the Baltic countries. and 164,000 By the Ithimself appears in an that impossible Rumkowski position betweenoften displayed obeying endJews of 1939, were tens incarcerated of thousands in of it.Jews The and Lodz Poles ghettohad delusionsGerman orders of grandeur and trying and to his help behavior Jews cope bordered with the beenwas deported one of from the thefirst area, ghettos and Germans to be established were settled onhardships dictatorial of ghetto since existence. he perceived The German himself authorities to be there.and However, it became population the second transfers largest were ghetto halted in at the the thecreated only this one tension who oncould purpose, successfully hoping the navigate anger and beginningoccupied of 1940Polish for logisticalterritories. and The other Lodz reasons. ghetto the frustrationLodz Jewish of thecommunity local Jewish through population troubled would be was completely sealed off and detached from times.spent on Although Jewish leaders he believed and not thethat German he could authorities. be Earlierthe thanoutside most world. Jewish Since communities many of in the Poland, residents the savior of the ghetto, in the end, he too was the ofJews Lodz of Lodz were suffered of German from exceptionally origin and identified murdered along with most of Lodz Jewry. brutalwith persecution, Germany evictionand the from Nazis, their Jews homes, there and faced BY THE END OF 1942, SOME deportation.a hostile The environment. ghetto was established The hostility in May of their 204,800 PEOPLE HAD PASSED 1940neighbors and 164,000 and Jews the were strict imprisoned closure of there. the Theghetto By the end of 1942, some Lodzmade ghetto it becamealmost impossiblethe second largest to smuggle ghetto food in the into THROUGH THE LODZ GHETTO. the ghetto, which compelled the Jews to live on occupied Polish territories. It was completely sealed off 204,800 people had passed the meager ration of food allotted to them by and detached from the outside world. The ghetto was A number of factors made it very difficult to survive the Germans. surrounded by a hostile environment since many of the in thethrough Lodz ghetto. theThere wasLodz a large ghetto. number of Jews residentsThe Judenrat of Lodz were in Lodzof German was originled by and Mordechai identified in an overcrowded area – on average, 8-10 people lived withChaim Germany Rumkowski. and the Nazis. Before This the hostility, war, Rumkowski the strict Thein each large room. number This, along of Jewswith malnutrition,in the ghetto, led theto closurehad ofbeen the ghetto, a junior and themember death penalty of the for anyoneJewish totalthe spread isolation of epidemics, in a hostile such as environment, typhus. Most of the the caughtcommunity trying to administrationleave, made it almost in Lodz. impossible Like many to stricthouses supervision were old and imposed run-down by and the were Germans, not connected the smuggleother in Jewish food. The leaders Jews of Lodzduring were the therefore Holocaust, forced acuteto a sewage hunger, system. and Fewerthe difficulties than 2% were in connectedobtaining to to liveRumkowski on the meager found ration himself of food inallotted an impossible to them by thecooking most gas. basic Hunger resources was severe necessary and it towas live difficult made to the positionGermans. between obeying German orders and itobtain very the difficult most basic to survive resources in necessarythe Lodz to ghetto. live. About one fifth of the population died of starvation, disease, The Judenrat (Jewish Council) in Lodz was led by and these miserable conditions. 108 Lesson 4: The Ghettos echoesandreflections.org THE GHETTOS © Echoes & Reflections Partnership 1 “SALVATION THROUGH LABOR” them from being deported to death. Over 7,000 Rumkowski thought that the only way to keep people managed to continue studying at their place of work. alive in the ghetto was to open factories and workshops (Ressorts) in which even young children would work. He Ghetto inhabitants were required to stand in line for reasoned that the German authorities would consider hours on end to receive their family’s food rations. the Jews valuable and allow them to live. His hope Bread and other food were distributed only once every was they would live long enough to be liberated. This few days and families were forced to make do until policy came to be known as “salvation through labor.” the next food distribution. Most of the children who Over 100 factories were established in the ghetto, the were not working were too busy lining up at the soup majority producing textiles. Jews forced to work in kitchens and on the bread lines to attend school. These these factories and workshops suffered harsh physical children carried around a pot just in case some food conditions, and the demands to produce set numbers was being given out somewhere. Joseph Zelkowicz, of goods were beyond the workers’ abilities. Workers a journalist who wrote about life in the Lodz Ghetto, received a portion of soup each day and a slice of bread. called the soup pot “the symbol of the ghetto.”

In the first years of the ghetto’s existence, the Judenrat The Jews struggled to preserve some of their previous ran an education system for 15,000 children from ways of life and to create meaning in the hopeless preschool to high school. This ended in October 1941. ghetto reality. There were some cultural and religious Children were enrolled in the workshops to protect activities, often felt to be no more than a sad reminder of what life had been.

EXCERPTS FROM RUMKOWSKI’S SPEECH OF SEPTEMBER 4, 1942:

[...] The ghetto has been struck a hard blow. They demand what is most dear to it - children and old people […] I never imagined that my own hands would be forced to make this sacrifice on the altar. In my old age, I am forced to stretch out my hands and to beg: “Brothers and sisters, give them to me! - Fathers and mothers, give me your children...” (Bitter weeping shakes the assembled public) [...]

There are many people in this ghetto who suffer from tuberculosis, whose days or perhaps weeks are numbered. I do not know, perhaps this is a satanic plan, and perhaps not, but I cannot stop myself from proposing it: “Give me these sick people, and perhaps it will be possible to save the healthy in their place.” I know how precious each one of the sick is in his home, and particularly among Jews. But at a time of such decrees, one must weigh up and measure who should be saved, who can be saved and who may be saved. Common sense requires us to know that those must be saved who can be saved and who have a chance of being saved and not those whom there is no chance to save in any case [....]

Reprinted with permission from Yitzhak Arad, Yisrael Gutman, and Abraham Margaliot (eds.), Documents on , Selected Sources on the Destruction of the Jews of Germany and Austria, Poland, and the Soviet Union (: , 1981), 283–284. All rights reserved.

THE GHETTOS © Echoes & Reflections Partnership 2 In 1942, the first Aktion against the Jews of Rumkowski’s idea—which was shared by Lodz took place. Rumkowski adhered to his other Judenrat heads—of work as a means of concept of work as a means of survival, and— survival, turned out to be erroneous. Within presented with the dilemma of who to deport- the circumstances of the “” all The ghetto continued to exist for two more years. Work EXTERMINATIONmade the fatal decision to deport children under Jews were targeted for murder, and the speech In Januarythe age 1942, of ten, deportations as well as began the sick from and Lodz the to theold, quotedwas the focalabove point manifests of ghetto how life. impossible The populace it waswas Chelmnobecause murder they site,did wherenot work. the Jews He were convened killed by the todesperately fathom this hungry reality and at food the couldtime andbe obtained how tragic only meansentire of gasghetto vans. inBetween an open January field and and May addressed 1942, thethrough dilemmas work. of the Judenrate really were. 54,900them. Jews The and Aktion5,000 Sinti associated and Roma, with who thishad beenevent temporarilycame to internedbe known in Lodz,as the were “Children’s killed – about Aktion one ” thirdor of Sperre the ghetto (from population. the German word for curfew), and is an extreme manifestation of the dilemmas In Septemberleaders of 1942,Judenrate an Aktion faced. (action) against the Jews of Lodz took place. As head of the Judenrat, RumkowskiDuring wasthe forcedChildren’s to prepare Aktion, lists ofapproximately candidates for 20,000deportation. very In youngthe face Jewishof this terriblechildren, dilemma, elderly, and sick were deported over a number of days. he followed his concept of work as salvation. Included among them was Dawid Sierakowiak’s Rumkowski made the fatal decision to deport children mother (see Excerpts from The Diary of Dawid underSierakowiak, the age of ten, September as well as the5, 1942).sick and They the old, were because they did not work. He gathered the entire L4 taken to the Chelmno Children CelebratingCelebrating Purim in inthe the Ghetto, Ghetto, Lodz, Lodz, Poland. Poland. Yad ghettowhere in an they open were field murdered and addressed in gas them. vans. Excerpts YadVashem Vashem Photo Photo Archive Archive (4062/194) (4062/194) from his speech are below. This Aktion came to be In the summer of 1944, an unknown Jew knownThe as ghetto the “Children’s continued Aktion to ”exist or Sperre for (fromtwo more wasThe Lodzsent Ghetto from wasthe theLodz last ghetto remaining to Auschwitz. ghetto the years,German and word work for lock)was andthe isfocal an extreme point ofexample ghetto Uponin Poland, his liquidatedarrival at inthe August camp, 1944. he entrustedMost of the his of thelife. dilemmas The populace leaders wasof Judenraete desperately faced. hungry In the and diary,remaining which inhabitants he carried were on transported his last journey, to Auschwitz, to onefood excruciating could beweek obtained of the Children’s only through Aktion, work. awhere member the majority of the wasSonderkommando, murdered, Rumkowski Zalman approximatelyThe Lodz ghetto 20,000 wasJewish the children, last remaining elderly, ghetto Loewenthal.among them. Loewenthal hid the diary, but andin sick Poland, were deported. and it was Included only liquidated among them in wasAugust also felt a historical obligation to add some Dawid1944. Sierakowiak’s Most of the mother remaining (see Excerpts inhabitants from The were ofRumkowski’s his own ideacomments of rescue in through the margins. labor — which The Diarytransported of Dawid Sierakowiak to Auschwitz,, September where 5, the1942). majority They writerwas shared of the by otherdiary Judenratblamed headsRumkowski — did not for succeed the werewas taken murdered, to Chelmno Rumkowskiand murdered. among them. catastrophein the ghettos. that With had the befallen “Final Solution,” the Jews all of Jews Lodz, During the four years of its existence, Jews in andwere Loewenthalultimately targeted added for in murder, his own no handmatter that how the Lodz ghetto attempted, despite the severe the accusatory finger should be pointed at the By the end of 1942 almost half of the Jews interned in productive they were. Jews who survived at various hardships, to preserve some of their previous Germans—they were the ones who were truly Lodz had been murdered in Chelmno. At this stage, camps as laborers only did so because the machinery ways of life and imbue their daily lives in the responsible for the murder of the Jews. All three forced labor was no longer just a means to fight of murder did not catch up to them before the end of arbitrary and hopeless ghetto reality with of these individuals, the writer of the diary, hunger;meaning. it had become a temporary means of avoiding Zalmanthe war. TheLoewenthal, speech quoted and above Mordechai shows how Chaim impossible deportations. The ghetto became mainly a labor camp. Rumkowski,it was to grasp perishedthis reality in at Auschwitz. the time and how tragic the dilemmas of the Judenraete really were.

About Photos From left to right: Jews rounded up in the ghetto, ABOUTapparently PHOTOS prior to Fromdeportatio left to right:n, Lodz, Jews Polandrounded (4062/448); Jews pushing a up“Scheisskommando” in the ghetto, apparently cart, prior to deportation,Lodz, Poland (4062/153).Lodz, Poland Yad Vashem Photo Archive (4062/448); Jews pushing a “Scheisskommando” cart, Lodz, Poland (4062/153). Yad Vashem Photo Archive 110 Lesson 4: The Ghettos echoesandreflections.org

THE GHETTOS © Echoes & Reflections Partnership 3