FEBRUARY 1940

LODZ JEWS ORDERED INTO GHETTO

The Germans order the establishment of a ghetto in the northeastern section of Lodz. Over 150,000 Jews, more than a third of the entire population of Lodz, are forced into a small area of the city. The Jews of Lodz formed, after Warsaw, the second largest Jewish community in prewar Poland. The Lodz ghetto is separated from the rest of the city by barbed-wire fencing. The ghetto area is divided into three parts by the intersection of two major roads, which are excluded from the ghetto. Footbridges are constructed to connect the three segments of the ghetto. Streetcars for the non-Jewish population of Lodz traverse the ghetto but are not permitted to stop within it. Living conditions in the ghetto are horrible. Most of the area does not have running water or a sewer system. Hard labor, overcrowding, and starvation are the dominant features of life.

JANUARY 16, 1942

LODZ JEWS DEPORTED TO CHELMNO KILLING CENTER

Deportations from the Lodz ghetto to the Chelmno killing center begin. German police will carry out roundups in the ghetto. Hundreds of Jews, mainly children, the elderly, and the sick, are killed on the spot during the deportations. By September 1942, over 70,000 Jews and about 5,000 Roma (Gypsies) will have been deported to Chelmno, where they are killed in mobile gas vans (trucks with hermetically sealed compartments that serve as gas chambers).

JUNE 23, 1944

GERMANS RESUME DEPORTATIONS FROM LODZ GHETTO

Between September 1942 and May 1944, there are no major deportations from Lodz. The ghetto resembles a forced-labor camp. In the spring of 1944, the Nazis decide to destroy the Lodz ghetto. By then, Lodz is the last remaining ghetto in Poland, with a population of about 75,000 Jews. On June 23, 1944, the Germans resume deportations from Lodz. About 3,000 Jews are deported to Chelmno and killed. The deportations continue in July and August; most of the remaining ghetto population is deported to the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp. The Lodz ghetto is eliminated.