Page 142 - Centrum Dialogu im. Marka Edelmana. Centrum Dialogu im. Marka Edelmana. Drzewa Pamięci. 10 opowieści z łódzkiego getta

DRZEWKA_SKLAD_3_Layout 1 19/11/14 14:09 Page 140

HISTORY OF THE

LITZMANNSTADT

GHETTO

1940–1944

O n February 8, 1940, the 'Lodzscher Zeitung' daily newspaper
published a directive from Johann Schafer, the German po-
lice president, about the creation of a separate housing dis-
trict for Jews in the Stare Miasto and Bałuty districts. On
February 12, 1940, a mass resettlement action began: Jews
had to move to the ghetto, whereas Poles and Germans were
moved out of that area to other parts of the city. At that time, Łódź was incorpo-
rated into the Reich and was part of the Warthegau region. On April 11, 1940 it
was renamed Litzmannstadt to honour the German general, Karl Litzmann
(1850-1936) who rendered great service to Germany during WWI as a com-
mander of the German army in the so-called battle of Łódź in 1914.
On April 30, 1940, the ghetto was closed and strictly isolated from the rest of
the city. Initially, 160,000 Jews from Łódź were incarcerated there. In the autumn
of 1941, the Nazis brought 20,000 people to the ghetto. They were Jews from Eu-
rope (including Vienna, Berlin, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Luxembourg and Prague)
and another 20,000 from the liquidated ghettoes in nearby towns (including
Zduńska Wola, Sieradz, Pabianice, Ozorków and Włocławek). Additionally, two
other camps were located within the ghetto boundaries: a camp for Gypsies, where
the Nazis imprisoned over 5,000 Roma and Sinti from Burgenland at the end of
1941 and beginning of 1942, and a camp for Polish children, which operated from
December 1942 till the end of the war.
As early as January 1942, the deportations to Chełmno nad Nerem (Kulmhof)
began. By the autumn of 1942, the Nazis had deported and murdered over 70,000
people there. No one survived. The ghetto was turned into a large labour camp.

140