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Wielka Szpera 5-12 września 1942 The Great Szpera, 5-12 September 1942

Wielka Szpera
5-12 September 1942

The period of 5-12 September 1942 will leave an indelible memory in the part of the ghetto
population that survives the war. One week! Eight days that seem like an eternity. Today it is
still difficult to understand what it was like. A typhoon that had erased around 15,000 people
from the surface of the ghetto (no one can yet put an exact number on it), and life is once
again flowing in the old riverbed.

Chronicle of the Lodz Ghetto, 1-19 September, 1942
This is how a chronicler of the ghetto wrote about the so-called Great Szpera only a few days after
the tragic events.

Wielka Szpera to czas dramatycznych rozstań i pożegnań, czas smutku i rozpaczy
The Great Szpera is a time of dramatic separations and farewells, a time of sadness and despair
Everything began on 1 September 1942. The Germans deported nearly 2,000 people from the six hospi-
tals in the ghetto. The action was carried out by surprise and caused panic in the ghetto. A rumour
immediately spread that children and older people were to be sent out of the ghetto next. A race
against time began to hide and save everyone’s loved ones.
On the morning of the third anniversary of the outbreak of war, the ghetto was struck like
a bolt from the blue. Early, at 7.00 AM, trucks pulled up in front of the ghetto hospitals on
Łagiewnicka, Wesoła and Drewnowska Streets and began loading the sick onto them. […]
There is no longer any place in the ghetto for the sick or freeloaders. Only those who are able
to work can stay in the ghetto. Those unable to work are destined for the slums.
Józef Zelkowicz, In Those Terrible Days, 1 September 1942

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