The Lodz Ghetto 1940 - 1944: Topic, pictures and information - Fold3.com

On August 6, 1944, the deportation of 70,000 Jews from Lodz Poland to Auschwitz began. An excerpt from the article:

"The children, the elderly, the sick from the hospitals were loaded into 5-ton trucks which transported the Jews to a railroad station outside Lodz. The actual number deported was lower than the figure quoted in Rumkowski’s speech, 15,681 children and elderly people were deported from the Lodz ghetto.

The victims were loaded onto railroad cars and sent via Kutno to Kolo, from whence they were taken to the death camp at Chelmno, where they were gassed in specially constructed, stationary gas-vans.

The genocide of the Jews from Lodz began on the 16 January 1942 with the first transport of Jews sent to the death camp in Chelmno. The action lasted with breaks until the 15 May 1942.

57064 Jews from the Lodz ghetto, including 10943 Jews from Western Europe were gassed at the Chelmno camp. The Jewish victims were described by the Nazis as “dole-takers”, traders and criminals.

By the autumn of 1942 72,745 people, defined as “dispensable non-working element “ had been exterminated – and thus the ghetto had been transformed into a labour camp.

Deportations to the Chelmno death camp began anew in the middle of June 1944. The liquidation of the ghetto was ordered by Heinrich Himmler supposedly as early as the beginning of May 1944.

Albert Speer who was interested in war production in the ghetto, argued against its destruction. Yet he was not supported by Artur Greiser, and the liquidation went ahead.

Between 23 June 1944 and 14 July 1944, ten transports with 7196 people departed from Lodz to the death camp at Chelmno. Supposedly as a result of Albert Speer’s intervention with Adolf Hitler, the liquidation action was ceased on the 15 July 1944.

When the Warsaw uprising erupted on 1 August 1944 , Chaim Rumkowski was notified about the resumption of the evacuation of the Jewish people to the ‘Altreich’.

The appeals of Rumkowski, and the German authorities for volunteers willing to go the Reich went unheeded – only a few dozen people went to the gathering points.

The German authorities began blocking the streets and organising round-ups – this action lasted 20 days.

On 29 August 1944 the last transport of Jews departed from Lodz to the concentration camp at Auschwitz. Most of the deported were murdered in the gas chambers of Birkenau.

The Lodz ghetto which still numbered over 72,000 inhabitants in August 1944 ceased to exist.

Only a cleaning –commando and a handful of people in hiding numbering 20 –30 people remained. About 600 people were kept for a short time in collection camps at 36 and 63 Lagiewnicka Street. Those people included Aron Jakubowicz and Marek Kligier, with their families, a large group of physicians, engineers, artisans, and employees from Balucki Rynek.

These people were selected by Hans Biebow himself to be sent to labour camps in Konigswustenhausen near Berlin and to factories in Dresden.

Chaim Mordechai Rumkowski and his family were transported to Auschwitz-Birkenau on 28 August 1944 and murdered."