Lodz Ghetto Essay Research Paper LODZ GHETTOLodz

Lodz Ghetto Essay, Research Paper

LODZ GHETTO

Lodz Ghetto, the second largest ghetto in Europe, and was often referred to as the gargetto. It

was considered the central ghetto in the Wartheland, Poland area. Lodz was unique in one aspect. The Jews

of the Lodz Ghetto were “privilaged” to see the Jewish nation crumble before them. From Lodz they found

out about many of their fellow Jews being killed in the concentration camps and others being killed right in

thier own homes. They were one of the last ghettos still standing. The Jews were told that these reports

were false, and they believed that at the end of the long train rides was a life of happiness.

Before the German invasion, there was at least 25,000 Jews in Lodz Ghetto. The rest of the

population was occupied by 90,000 Germans. This was the largest amount of Germans outside of Germany.

The Jews of Lodz were the ones who were responsible for the city’s development. Lodz was second in size

to Warsaw, the capital of Poland. Textile factories employed thousands of workers and clothed much of

Eastern Europe. Lodz had over twelve hundred businesses. This is why the ghetto lasted for four years. The

Germans needed the Jews’ productivity and therefore didn’t destroy the Jews in it for awhile.

On February 8th, 1940, the leader of the SS brigade in Lodz issued an order establishing the

Ghetto. At that time, there were about 200,000 Jews in Lodz. Between February 8th and April 30th all

non-Jews living in Baluty, the area were the ghetto was to be established, were ordered to move out while

the Jews from other parts of Lodz were ordered to move in. The Jews were not allowed to take anything

in with them. The ghetto was closed and surrounded by a wall that was six feet high and over ten miles

long. 9 The only outsiders who were permitted to enter and exit the ghetto were German guards and

officials. The Jews of the ghetto knew little of the Nazis’ plan for them. They planned to go about their

daily lives normally. The Germans realized that it would be very hard to evacuate so many Jews at once

and so, they established the ghetto for the Jews of Lodz. The Germans made the Jews work for the German

industry. Lodz’s Gettoverwaltung ( German administration ) was the supreme boss of all of the ghetto’s

industrial export. It gave orders for work and was the only group permitted to accept the finished products

of the ghetto. The Nazis agreed to this and then went right back to pulling Jews off the streets and then

pulled them from their homes. They killed them if they refused.

The Nazis lied to the Jews and told them that they were being moved to better conditions, only to

later kill them on death marches and in concentration camps. They offered a better life outside of the ghetto,

on Polish farms or at work camps in Germany. They cut off the ghetto from the rest of the world. The

Jews were separated under threat of death. Even before the ghetto was set up, the Nazis made a demand

for 25,000 people. But a group of the Lodz Jews were able to bring that number down to 5,000. About a

year after the ghetto was sealed, the deportations really began. Volunteering was tried, but failed. The Nazis

then seized the 57 mentally ill people of the ghetto. Anyone who was outspoken about their views would be

the next one to be deported. When Jews began to be trasported into Lodz, the Germans demanded 1,00 Jews

to be deported everyday to keep the ghetto from becoming too “overcrowded”.

The Jews of the ghetto tried to keep ther cool. There were Orthodox Jews who would not eat

non-kosher food. Hundreds of people kept hidden radios and passed news along even if it was usually met

with death.It was through these radios that they heard of the mass executions of the Jews of Cracow, Lublin

and Warsaw. They heard of the deportations of their families who lived in other cities and who were killed

in Kolo, Chelmno and other places. They listened to these radio brodcasts all the time in hopes of bing set

free. Right before the ghetto was to be liquidated, a traitor led the Gestapo to the secret radios. One of

the owners of a radio, Nathan Widavsky, who was part of the Zionist underground, committed suicide by

painful poisoning. He was afraid that he might choke under the pressure of the Nazis and reveal the names

of other radio owners.

The Jews did not believe the stories that they were told. They believed that the Germans would

spare Lodz and its inhabitants-otherwise why would the Germans be pouring Jews into Lodz ? In the fall of

1941, about eighteen thousand Jews arrived in Lodz from nearby towns. In April 1942, the final deportations

began. First the unemployed and poor were ordered to sign up for “work”, and they did not realize that they

were signing for death.. Germans enterd the ghetto and grabbed all of the elderly, young and weak who hadn’t

complied with the order.Those final weeks, 15,000 people were deported. The population of the ghetto had

dropped to about 70,000.

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