Łódź Ghetto

The Łódź Ghetto (German: Ghetto Litzmannstadt) was a World War II ghetto established for Polish Jews and Roma following the 1939 invasion of Poland. It was the second-largest ghetto in all of German-occupied Europe after the Warsaw Ghetto. Situated in the city of Łódź, and originally intended as a preliminary step upon a more extensive plan of creating the Judenfrei province of Warthegau, the ghetto was transformed into a major industrial centre, manufacturing much needed war supplies for Nazi Germany and especially for the German Army. The number of people incarcerated in it was augmented further by the Jews deported from the Reich territories.

Because of its remarkable productivity, the ghetto managed to survive until August 1944. In the first two years, it absorbed almost 20,000 Jews from liquidated ghettos in nearby Polish towns and villages, as well as 20,000 more from the rest of German-occupied Europe. After the wave of deportations to Chełmno death camp beginning in early 1942, and in spite of a stark reversal of fortune, the Germans persisted in eradicating the ghetto: they transported the remaining population to Auschwitz and Chełmno extermination camps, where most died upon arrival. It was the last ghetto in occupied Poland to be liquidated. A total of 204,000 Jews passed through it; but only 800 remained hidden when the Soviets arrived. About 10,000 Jewish residents of Łódź, who used to live there before the invasion of Poland, survived the Holocaust elsewhere.

Ghetto

A ghetto is a part of a city in which members of a minority group live, especially because of social, legal, or economic pressure. The term was originally used in Venice to describe the part of the city to which Jews were restricted and segregated.

Etymology

The English word ghetto comes from the Jewish area of Venice, the Venetian Ghetto in Cannaregio. However, there is no agreement among etymologists about the origins of the Venetian language term. The Oxford University Press etymologist Anatoly Liberman considers that all the proposed etymologies for the Venetian name are wrong, and suggests a possible connection with German Gasse, Swedish Gata, Gothic Gatwo, meaning street. Among the theories that Liberman rejects are the following: getto (foundry), as ge- and ghe- have very different pronunciations in Italy, and the area would logically have been called "getti", foundries, in the plural; borghetto, diminutive of borgo, meaning little town, a nonspecific term; and the Hebrew word get, a divorce document, with no connection to "a place of forced separation".

Łódź

Łódź (Polish pronunciation: [wut͡ɕ] [WU-tsh]; Yiddish: לאדזש‎, Lodzh; English pronunciation: /luːdʒ/, [LU-dsh] /lɒdz/[LO-dz] or /wʊtʃ/ [WOO-tsh]) is the third-largest city in Poland. Located in the central part of the country, it had a population of 742,387 in December 2009. It is the capital of Łódź Voivodeship, and is approximately 135 kilometres (84 mi) south-west of Warsaw. The city's coat of arms is an example of canting: depicting a boat. It alludes to the city's name which translates literally as "boat."

An important industrial centre, the city, dubbed the Polish Manchester, has been famous for its textile industry, however, after years of prosperity during the socialist era, the city experienced decline after the fall of communism throughout Central and Eastern Europe. In recent years, Łódź was seemingly forgotten by the government, investors, and travelers in favor for other cities, such as Kraków, Warsaw or Wrocław.

History

Łódź first appears in the written record in a 1332 document giving the village of Łodzia to the bishops of Włocławek. In 1423 King Władysław II Jagiełło officially granted city rights to the village of Łódź. From then until the 18th century the town remained a small settlement on a trade route between the provinces of Masovia and Silesia. In the 16th century the town had fewer than 800 inhabitants, mostly working on the surrounding grain farms.

List of Holocaust memorials and museums

A number of organizations, museums and monuments are intended to serve as memorials to the Holocaust and its millions of victims. They include:

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United States

Coordinates: 40°N 100°W / 40°N 100°W / 40; -100

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