Litzmannstadt: Poland’s Second Jewish City

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The first Jews in Łódź were recorded in the fifteenth century, but a permanent community took shape only in the nineteenth, when Tsar Alexander I in 1820 ordered the founding of an industrial city to serve the textile production of Congress Poland. From eleven settled Jewish families in 1809, the population grew with the city: 100 in 1820, 13,000 in 1860, 100,000 in 1900, 233,000 in 1939 — accounting for thirty-five per cent of the population of Łódź.

Jewish life concentrated in two areas: in the Old Town around Wolborska Street and Plac Wolności, where the Great Synagogue was built (1881-1887, in the Moorish style, the second-largest synagogue in Poland after Tłomackie in Warsaw), and in Bałuty — a working-class district to the north, home to most of the poor Jewish working class. Other synagogues operated as well: Reicher (Rewolucji 1905 Street, the only one to survive), the Alte Schul (Old Synagogue on Wolborska), the Wilker Schul (on Zachodnia) and dozens of Hasidic shtiblach (Ger, Aleksander, Skierniewice).

The defining feature of Łódź Jewry was its deep involvement in the textile industry. The Poznański, Geyer, Silberstein and Heiman families built factory empires — the Poznański Palace (today Manufaktura) with the largest private synagogue in Poland, the Silberstein factory, the Geyer complex (today the Central Museum of Textiles). At the other end of the scale — Łódź’s Jewish women workers were organised by the Bund (its strongest branch in Poland outside Warsaw), Left Poalei Zion and Tarbut. Łódź Yiddish literature had its own school — Yung Vilne had its counterpart in Łódź’s Yung Yidish, with the poets Moshe Broderson and Itzik Manger (during his stays).

Community life: Beit Yaakov (a religious school for girls, the second in the world after Kraków), the Tarbut Hebrew gymnasium, the Mizrachi gymnasium, the Borochov gymnasium (Yiddishist and secular), three dailies (Lodzer Tageblat, Najer Folksblat, Hajnt), the Hakoach sports club and the Avant-garde drama society. Out of Łódź Jewry came Artur Rubinstein (the pianist), Jan Kiepura (opera tenor — Polish father, Jewish mother), the poet Hadassah Rubin and the painter Maurycy Trębacz.

On 8 September 1939 the Germans took Łódź. On 11 April 1940 they annexed it to the Third Reich as part of the Reichsgau Wartheland, renaming the city Litzmannstadt (after General Karl Litzmann, the German commander of the victorious Battle of Łódź in 1914). On 8 February 1940 a decree established a ghetto in Bałuty — 4.13 square kilometres around Łagiewnicka, Brzezińska, Limanowskiego and Drewnowska streets, in one of the poorest districts of the city. By 30 April 1940, 164,000 Łódź Jews had been sealed inside, together with 38,000 from surrounding towns and transports from Western Europe — Vienna, Berlin, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Prague, Luxembourg.

The defining feature of the Litzmannstadt Ghetto: under the leadership of Mordechai Chaim Rumkowski (Eldest of the Jews), the ghetto was turned into a vast factory of slave labour for the German army — uniforms were sewn, ammunition produced, equipment repaired. Rumkowski’s philosophy of "rescue through work" was intended to make the ghetto indispensable to the German war machine and so to protect its residents. In practice the ghetto did outlast every other in Europe (four and a half years, to August 1944), but at the cost of participation in the elimination of those "unfit for work" — in January 1942, deportations to Kulmhof (Chełmno) began with children, the elderly and the sick.

Over four and a half years, of the 233,000 Łódź Jews around 73,000 remained by August 1944. The final liquidation of the ghetto — August 1944 — sent everyone from the Bahnhof Radegast (Marysin station) to Auschwitz-Birkenau. The last transport — 30 August 1944. After liquidation, 800 people were kept in the ghetto as a "clean-up team" — most were shot before the Germans’ flight in January 1945. Of Łódź’s 233,000 Jews, around 12,000 survived the war — mostly in the Soviet Union, and the 877 saved by Raoul Wallenberg and Carl Lutz in Budapest. After liberation on 19 January 1945, around 38,000 survivors gathered in Łódź from various cities, but the emigration waves of 1946-1968 reduced the community to a few hundred.

The memorial route through the Łódź Ghetto and Bałuty takes six to seven hours on foot plus V-Class transfers between sites. Unlike Kazimierz in Kraków or Josefov in Prague, Łódź has no compact "Jewish quarter" to walk — the Litzmannstadt Ghetto covered four square kilometres, and the key memorial sites are scattered across several kilometres. A V-Class with a driver following on foot is the optimal format.

We recommend starting at Radegast Station (Marysin Station, Stalingradu Street) at 10:00. The place from which between January 1942 and August 1944 175,000 Łódź Jews were deported to Kulmhof (Chełmno) and Auschwitz-Birkenau. The memorial of 1999 — a 140-metre Tunnel of Memory inscribed with victims’ names, a concrete obelisk and a fragment of an original railway wagon. Open daily, free of charge, an hour for a considered visit.

From there, ten minutes by V-Class to Survivors’ Park (Park Ocalałych, Wojska Polskiego 83) — a memorial space created in 2004 on the initiative of Łódź survivors. The Survivors’ Tree Avenue — trees planted by surviving families, each with a plaque. The Monument of the Four Synagogues (plinths of the four destroyed main synagogues of Łódź). The Marek Edelman Centre for Dialogue with an exhibition on the ghetto. An hour and a half.

The third stop — the New Jewish Cemetery on Bracka Street 40. Ten minutes by V-Class from Survivors’ Park. The largest surviving Jewish cemetery in Europe, 42 hectares, more than 230,000 graves. Established in 1892. Within the cemetery — the "Getto-Feld" section, where 43,000 Jews who died in the ghetto between 1940 and 1944 are buried, and the mausoleum of the Poznański family (the largest Jewish family tomb in Europe). Two to three hours for a basic visit, more for those looking for specific graves.

The fourth stop — Bałuty itself. Five minutes by V-Class from the cemetery, or fifteen minutes on foot. A walk along the streets of the former ghetto: Łagiewnicka, Brzezińska, Limanowskiego. Plac Kościelny — the historic square of the ghetto. Lutomierska Street — seat of the Judenrat (Rumkowski). The Reicher Synagogue on Rewolucji 1905 Street 28 — the only surviving synagogue in Łódź (pre-war street names were changed after 1945), built in 1900, today the only active synagogue of the Łódź community. Open Monday-Friday 10:00-16:00. An hour.

For meals afterwards — Manufaktura (the complex of Israel Poznański’s former factory, today a shopping gallery with the Andel’s by Vienna House hotel in the Poznański Palace) for lunch, and the Museum of the City of Łódź in the Poznański Palace (Ogrodowa 15) — permanent exhibition on the Jewish-German-Polish bourgeoisie of Łódź in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Contemporary Jewish life in Łódź is small today — the Jewish Religious Community of Łódź has around 200 registered members, but the broader community reaches 600-1,000. One synagogue is active — Reicher at Rewolucji 1905 Street 28, the only one of the four main pre-war synagogues to survive. The Łódź community holds daily Shabbat services, runs Hebrew classes, a seniors’ club and educational programmes in cooperation with the Marek Edelman Centre for Dialogue.

The Marek Edelman Centre for Dialogue, opened in 2010 beside Survivors’ Park, is the central memorial institution of Łódź Jewry. It conducts research on the Łódź Ghetto, archives survivor testimonies and runs conferences, exhibitions and educational programmes for schools. The Festival of Four Cultures (since 2002), held every September, gathers concerts, film screenings and debates on the multicultural pre-war Łódź (Jewish-Polish-German-Russian).

A visit to Łódź’s Litzmannstadt is, above all, a memorial route rather than a sightseeing tour. Most of the sites are monuments, the locations of former synagogues (four of the five main ones were destroyed — the Great Synagogue by the Germans in November 1939, the others during the war), and the lines of the former ghetto. We recommend a historical guide — the Marek Edelman Centre for Dialogue organises themed tours for families and individual guests by prior arrangement (at least a week in advance).

Etiquette: entry to the New Jewish Cemetery on Bracka — men with a head covering (kippah, hat or cap, available at the gate). Admission 10 PLN, closed on Saturdays. Reicher Synagogue — kippah, women in modest dress. The Marek Edelman Centre for Dialogue is open daily 10:00-18:00. Radegast Station is open daily, free of charge.

Kosher cuisine in Łódź — limited. The nearest kosher restaurant is Tel Aviv at JCC Warsaw (135 km). In Łódź, vegetarian and vegan options are available in the centre (Anatewka Kosher Style at Manufaktura — Jewish-inspired cuisine but without kosher certification). For strict observance we recommend meals packed from Warsaw or Kraków.

Mercedes V-Class from Warsaw to Łódź — 1 hour 40 minutes via the A2 motorway, 135 kilometres. From Kraków — 3 hours 20 minutes via the A1, 295 kilometres. From Warsaw we recommend a single-day door-to-door programme (departure 7:30, return 19:00). From Kraków, two days with an overnight in Łódź (Andel’s by Vienna House in the Poznański Palace-Manufaktura, or Doubletree by Hilton) work better.

Local transfers in Łódź by V-Class: Radegast Station - Survivors’ Park ten minutes, Survivors’ Park - Bracka Cemetery ten minutes, Bracka Cemetery - Bałuty/Reicher Synagogue twenty minutes, Reicher Synagogue - Manufaktura/Poznański Palace five minutes. The full loop is about 12 kilometres, one hour of driving in total.

V-Class parking: Manufaktura (3,500-space underground car park, free for three hours), Radegast Station (parking at the memorial), Bracka Cemetery (parking at the gate), Survivors’ Park (parking on Wojska Polskiego). All sites accept a standard V-Class.

Recommended day format from Warsaw: 7:30 departure from your Warsaw hotel, 9:15 arrival in Łódź (Radegast Station), 9:15-10:30 Radegast Station, 10:30-12:00 Survivors’ Park and Centre for Dialogue, 12:00-13:00 lunch (Manufaktura), 13:00-15:30 Bracka Cemetery, 15:30-17:00 Bałuty on foot plus Reicher Synagogue, 17:00-19:00 return to Warsaw. For those tracing family roots — a second day at the archive of the Marek Edelman Centre for Dialogue (Yizkor Books collection, ghetto documents, survivor testimonies).