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The Lodz Ghetto

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The Lodz Ghetto THETHE LODZ LODZ GHETTOGHETTO Lodz is the second largest city in Poland, known trying to help Jews grapple with the hardships for its textile industry. Before the war, Jews of ghetto existence. The German authorities INTRODUCTION Mordechai Chaim Rumkowski. 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 ghettos (Wehrmacht) 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 Holocaust, 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 Judenrat (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 to was 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 the Holocaust, Selected Sources on the Destruction of the Jews of Germany and Austria, Poland, and the Soviet Union (Jerusalem: Yad Vashem, 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 “Final Solution” all The ghetto continued to exist for two more years.
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