The Lodz ghetto
August 1942 – July 1944
Jack Adler
Early in 1942, Nazi officials come together at Wannsee near Berlin to discuss the “Final Solution,” the complete extermination of the Jews of Europe. Deportations of Jews from throughout Nazi-occupied Europe to killing centers in Poland commence and continue until the end of the war.
Most of the ghettos in the annexed territories of western Poland are liquidated in 1942, their inhabitants either murdered or sent to Lodz, the largest ghetto in the area. In May 1942, liquidation of the Pabianice ghetto is announced. On the day of the transport, the ghetto population assembles on a soccer field where they are separated into Group A and Group B. Jack, his father and his elder sister Ester are in Group B, but their younger sister Pema is in Group A. As one truck after another departs with people from Group A, Jack undertakes a daring rescue.
Transcript
Jack Adler: Oh, I believe about July or August 1942, all the occupants of the ghetto were notified by the German authorities, and again-- and by the Jewish gmina, you know, the association of the Jews-- that 2 o'clock a certain date-- I don't know the exact date-- we have to-- each one is entitled to take along one piece of luggage and-- and wait in front, on a main street, in front of the building where we lived.
And 2 o'clock, hundreds of Germans, Nazis, Wehrmacht, came, and they marched us to that football field owned by that Krusche & Ender I mentioned before, who owned that factory in Pabianice. It was a soccer field. The field was divided by a rope into two halves. And [PAUSES FOR 5 SECONDS] the population of the ghetto was divided into two categories, A and B. A were told, that group of people were told, which consisted of the old, sick, young-- very young, babies and so on-- that the reason they got in A is-- they're going to be in the other half of the field-- is because they will be the first one to leave the transport. After all, they are old, and sick, and young.
B were the more stronger, the able-bodied people-- men and women. And sure enough, for the group A, trucks came within an hour or so after we got into that field, in the football field. And they were loaded into those trucks, the people-- truck after truck after truck. And then they came to-- the Germans came by to the unit B, the other half, because we were the last to be transported out of Pabianice.
And they asked for volunteers to clean up because in A there were many sick people. There were many children-- to clean up the debris left behind. So I volunteered. So they gave me like a baby carriage to pick up stuff and to carry it. They had like a not a dumpster, but a pile of-- where they wanted us to leave that.
And my sister, little sister was still there. At that time she was nine years old. So I put her in this buggy, in this carriage, put papers and whatever I could find on top, and pushed it across. I called for my father, who was on the other side, and pushed her across. And she went with us to the ghetto of Lodz.
And the people who were in A, group A, all of them were taken to Majdanek and Treblinka [read: Chelmno], where they were-- where they all died within hours after they left Pabianice.
"And 2 o'clock, hundreds of Germans, Nazis, Wehrmacht, came, and they marched us to that football field..."
USC Shoah Foundation Visual History Archive, Interview 18433
Along with the other members of Group B, Jack, his two sisters, and their father are transported to the Lodz ghetto, where they will spend the next two years. By September 1942, Lodz—or Litzmannstadt, as it is called by the Nazis—is the only ghetto remaining in this zone. All others have been liquidated and their inhabitants either murdered at the nearby Chelmno killing center (this was the fate of those assigned to Group A in Pabianice) or sent to Lodz.
The Lodz ghetto initially holds approximately 160,000 people when it is established in April 1940, and before its liquidation in August 1944 some 50,000 more will pass through. One of the longest-surviving ghettos, Lodz becomes an industrial center producing materials for the German war effort. The German administration offers private industry access to the ghetto’s slave workforce in exchange for payments, which are intended to fund food and resources for the ghetto. The chairman of the Lodz Jewish Council (Judenrat), Mordechai Chaim Rumkowski, facilitates this system, believing that only productivity will spare the ghetto.
Excerpt from Jack’s memoir, Y? A Holocaust Narrative:
Upon arrival, officials gave us our job assignments. They sent me to a straw factory with my older sister. My job each day was to help in the manufacture of straw shoes Nazi soldiers would wear. The Nazis sent these shoes to the men who were fighting the Soviet Army along the Eastern Front. They used straw because it helped keep the soldiers’ feet warm in the frigid northern temperatures. The work was boring and repetitive. But each day, I went to the factory, did what I was supposed to do, and then returned to my father and sisters in the one room we shared. Days became weeks became months, and the drone of my everyday existence was as much sustenance as bread and soup. [...]
Once again, our general daily ration was a single slice of bread and a bowl of watery soup. The difference came in the timing; they gave us the soup at work. I was just as eager and happy to have my portion each day, but so many people went without. Those who were sick and too weak to work did not eat when they needed it the most. Others forced themselves despite their condition to find a way to work just so they could receive the second half of their daily ration. The Nazis conditioned us like dogs. We worked for food, and only ate if we did the job or task they trained us to do.
The rations and resources made available to the ghetto prisoners in exchange for their labor are insufficient and lead to malnutrition, starvation, and disease under abhorrent living conditions. Tens of thousands of people—an estimated 45,000—died of “natural causes” in the Lodz ghetto.
Unlike Pabianice, the Lodz ghetto is sealed and the Jewish population is completely isolated from the rest of the city. The heavy security makes smuggling impossible, cutting the Jews of Lodz off from access to food and other essentials that elsewhere can be procured on the black market.
German postcard from the Lodz ghetto showing the entrance and a sign forbidding entrance to non-Jews to the ghetto. 1940 – 1941.
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Antonii Marianowicz
Lodz Ghetto, Ghetto Litzmannstadt, was the second-largest ghetto in all of German-occupied Europe [after Warsaw]
Lodz ghetto is separated into three sections, divided by streets that allow city traffic to traverse the ghetto, but not to stop within its borders. Bridges such as the one in the photo to the left allow Jewish inhabitants of the ghetto to move from one section to another for work.
Despite horrible circumstances, the ghetto supports a rich variety of cultural activities. Jack occasionally attends concerts, and there are also theater performances, schools, and newspapers, all of which provide some diversion from the danger and destitution of daily life in the ghetto as well as nourishment for the mind.
Jack Adler's Timeline
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Jack Adler is born in Pabianice, Poland
Yakuv Szlama [or Szlomo] Adler (later: Jack Adler) is born to Cemach and Faiga Adler in Pabianice, a small city on the outskirts of Lodz in western Poland.
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Europe's Jewish population is c. 9.5 million
This number represents 1.7% of the total population of Europe, and accounts for >60% of the world's Jewish population. Most Jews are in eastern Europe: Poland is home to 3.3 million Jews, some 2.5 million Jews live in the USSR, and around 756,000 Jews live in Romania. The Jewish population of the Baltic states of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia numbers c. 255,000. In central Europe, Germany is home to c. 523,000. Some 445,000 Jews live in Hungary, 357,000 in Czechoslovakia, and 191,000 in Austria. There are also large Jewish communities in Great Britain (300,000), France (250,000, and the Netherlands (156,000). Some 60,000 Jews live in Belgium. The Scandinavian countries are home to c. 16,000 Jews. In the South, the Jewish community in Greece numbers c. 73,000. Yugoslavian Jews number c. 68,000, Italy and Bulgaria each have communities of c. 48,000.
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Dachau concentration camp established
Hitler's paramilitary SS (Schutzstaffel) establish the first concentration camp near Dachau for political opponents of the regime. Dachau remains in operation from 1933-1945. Over 200,000 people are imprisoned and estimated 41,500 are murdered during this period.
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Polish Jews number c. 3.3 million
Jews have been living in Poland for 800 years. On the eve of World War II, Polish Jews constitute the largest Jewish community in Europe, accounting for 10% of the country's total population.
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U.S.S.R. and Nazi Germany agree to non-aggression pact
Germany and the Soviet Union negotiate a non-aggression pact. This agreement, often called the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact after its chief negotiators, divides eastern Europe between the Nazi and Soviet powers and results in the partition of Poland.
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Nazi Germany invades Poland, sparking World War II
Nazi forces invade and swiftly defeat Polish forces using the "Blitzkrieg"--a rapid and combined forces attack. Within days, Great Britain and France declare war on Germany, marking the beginning of World War II.
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Nazi forces occupy Lodz and Pabianice, Poland
Invading German troops reach the city of Lodz and nearby Pabianice. They immediately introduce strict measures restricting the freedom of the Jewish population, in particular.
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U.S.S.R. invades Poland
The Soviet military occupies eastern Poland, as secretly agreed with Germany in the non-aggression pact signed by the two countries on August 23, 1939 (Molotov-Ribbentrop pact).
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Concentration of Polish Jews into ghettos ordered
Nazi officials order the concentration of Polish Jews in designated, often enclosed districts in major population centers in preparation for their deportation and murder. Ghettos are established throughout Nazi-occupied Poland.
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Annexation of western Poland
Following the Nazi occupation of Poland, territories in the western part of Poland are annexed to Germany. Danzig-West Prussia and Warthegau are incorporated as new provinces of the Reich; the provinces of East Prussia and Silesia are expanded to incorporate newly gained Polish lands.
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Generalgouvernement established in Nazi-occupied Poland
Nazis establish civilian administration over areas of Poland under German control that are not annexed to the Reich. The "Generalgouvernement" under the autocratic rule of Governor General Hans Frank encompasses four districts: Warsaw, Lublin, Krakow, and Radom.
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Pabianice Ghetto established
Beginning in November 1939, Jews residing in wealthier areas of Pabianice are ordered to leave their homes, which are intended for Germans. In February 1940, the Jewish population is condensed into a designated area of the town. Jews are not permitted to leave the ghetto, the perimeter of which is indicated by signs.
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Germanization of names in incorporated Poland
In areas of Poland under German administration, the names of Polish cities in the newly annexed territories are Germanized. Lodz is therefore also known as "Litzmannstadt."
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Lodz ghetto established
Approximately 164,000 Jews are concentrated in a ghetto in the Polish industrial city of Lodz. They perform forced labor for the Nazi war effort, living under squalid conditions of severe overcrowding and insufficient sanitation, food and water.
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Lodz ghetto sealed
The Lodz ghetto is sealed off from the rest of the city with barbed wire and fencing. Passage by Jews between ghetto and outside world is strictly controlled. Inside the ghetto, residents are forced to work in factories producing goods for the Nazi war effort. Many die of starvation and disease.
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Jews deported from Lodz ghetto to Chelmno
Nazi forces and collaborators begin the deportation of Jews from the Lodz ghetto to the Chelmno killing center, where deportees are gassed in vans. Approximately 65,000 Jews are ultimately deported and murdered.
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Wannsee Conference on the "Final Solution"
Leading Nazi officials convene at Wannsee to plan and implement the “Final Solution of the Jewish Question." At this meeting, operational preparations for the extermination of European Jewry are outlined.
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Deadline for "Final Solution" in occupied Poland
Heinrich Himmler orders that by December 31, 1942 there should be no Jews remaining in the Generalgouvernement, calling for a "total purge" to secure the German Reich.
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Nazi surrender at Stalingrad
After months of bitter fighting, the Soviet army is finally able to surround and trap German forces besieging the city. Of the nearly 250,000 troops that attacked the city in August 1942, some 90,000 surrender to the Soviets. The German defeat in the Battle of Stalingrad marks a turning point in the war; Soviet forces will now advance and push the Axis to retreat.
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First prisoners arrive in Kaufering concentration camp
The first concentration camp at Kaufering is established with the arrival of 1,000 Jewish Hungarian men from Auschwitz. Kaufering will eventually become the largest subcamp complex in the Dachau system, with eleven camps located near Landsberg am Lech in Bavaria. It is also one of the most deadly Nazi labor camps: around half of the c. 30,000 prisoners sent to the Kaufering camps between June 1944 and April 1945 will die there. Prisoners in the Kaufering camps supply labor for the construction of underground aircraft production sites for the German airline industry, which has suffered heavy damage from Allied bombs.
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Liberation of Majdanek
Advancing Soviet troops reach the Majdanek concentration and extermination camp. They find gas chambers and other evidence of genocide. Approximately 2,500 survivors provide details of the camp to their liberators, who document the horrors. Majdanek is the first concentration camp to be liberated by the Allies.
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Liquidation of Lodz ghetto
Nazi forces liquidate the Lodz ghetto and deport between 60,000-75,000 Jews, as well as an unknown number of Roma, to Auschwitz-Birkenau.
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American forces liberate Dachau
American troops reach Dachau and find approximately 32,000 inmates still alive, as well as 30 railroad cars with the corpses of prisoners who died in transport to the camp.
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Unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany's High Command unconditionally surrenders on 7 May to the Allies and 9 May to the Soviets. May 8 is proclaimed "Victory in Europe Day."
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US military opens hearings in Dachau trials
Between November 1945 and August 1948, the United States military holds hearings of camp guards, SS officials, and other personnel from the camps at Dachau, Flossenburg, Mauthausen, Nordhausen, Buchenwald, and Mühldorf. Of the 1,672 individuals tried before a military panel rather than a jury, some 1,400 are convicted. 297 are sentenced to death and nearly the same number to life imprisonment. Jack Adler provides testimony in advance of the trials.
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Truman Directive prioritizes displaced persons for U.S. visas
President Harry S. Truman issues an executive order granting priority to displaced persons (DPs) for visas to enter the U.S. The order is expressly intended to help orphaned children. While it does not expand the restrictive U.S. immigration quotas, it enables some 41,000 DPs from Central and Eastern Europe – many of them Jewish – to enter the country between December 1945-July 1948.
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Attacks on Jewish survivors in Poland
Attackers kill more than 40 Jewish survivors in Kielce, Poland. The attack spurs returning Jews to once again flee. Many find sanctuary in Allied displaced persons (DP) camps.
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Jack Adler sails from Bremen to New York
Sailing on the S.S. Marine Marlin from northern Germany, Jack is one of 928 passengers on one of the first post-war transports of refugees from Europe to the United States. They arrive in New York harbor during the night of December 22 and disembark at Ellis Island the next day.
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Jack Adler leaves New York for Chicago
After nearly a year and a half in New York, Jack learns that he has been placed with a foster family in Chicago and travels by train to meet them.
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Korean War begins
After World War II, Korea is partitioned at the 38th parallel, creating a socialist state under Soviet influence in the North and a Western-style democracy in the South. In June 1950, North Korea invades South Korea, armed by the Soviet Union. Under the banner of fighting the spread of communism, the United States leads a UN coalition in the conflict against North Korea, which is backed by communist Russia and China. An armistice agreement in July 1953 puts an end to the military conflict, but the division of Korea persists until today.
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U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Village of Skokie v. National Socialist Party of America
When a request by the National Socialist Party of America (NSPA) to hold a White Power rally in the Chicago suburb of Skokie, IL, is denied at the insistence of the town’s large Jewish community, which includes many Holocaust survivors, the NSPA files a claim for infringement of their right to free speech under the 2nd Amendment. The NSPA is represented by lawyers from the American Civil Liberties Union, who successfully argue in favor of the universality of free speech under the Constitution, maintaining that the government does not have the authority to selectively suppress voices, no matter how unpopular the opinion.