Page 45 - Centrum Dialogu im. Marka Edelmana w Łodzi. Jesteśmy drzewami wiecznymi.

Archiwum Państwowe w Łodzi
State Archive in Łódź

“Wielka szpera”, which was carried out in September 1942, ended a certain
stage in the history of the ghetto. After the deportation, the “closed district”
was to become a large labour camp reserved exclusively for those employ-
ed in production or administration. There was a significant decrease in the
independence of the Eldest of the Jews, whose position was weakened in
favour of Dawid Gertler, the Head of the Special Unit of the Order Service,
and Aron Jakubowicz, the Head of all Departments, who were favoured by
the Germans. Cultural life and the health service which had been developed
were liquidated, and Biebow began to interfere personally with the work of
factories operating in the ghetto. The Germanization of all noticeboards and
signs became a meaningful symbol. Instead of the Eldest of the Jews, the Ghetto
Management was named as the owner of the departments. In the photos: the
youth employed in the departments at work.

Department, home, meals, reading, night with bedbugs and cockroaches,
and so on ad infinitum, accompanied by a constant and progressive loss of
strength, and decline in physical and mental fitness

– Dawid Sierakowiak –

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