What Was the Lodz Ghetto?

On February 8, 1940, the Nazis ordered the 230,000 Jews of Lodz, Poland, the second largest Jewish community in Europe, into a confined area of only 1.7 square miles (4.3 square kilometers) and on May 1, 1940, the Lodz Ghetto was sealed. The Nazis chose a Jewish man named Mordechai Chaim Rumkowski to lead the ghetto.

Rumkowski had the idea that if the ghetto residents worked then the Nazis would need them; however, the Nazis still started deportations to the Chelmno Death Camp on January 6, 1942.


On June 10, 1944, Heinrich Himmler ordered the Lodz Ghetto liquidated and the remaining residents were taken to either Chelmno or Auschwitz. The Lodz Ghetto was empty by August 1944.

The Persecution Begins

When Adolf Hitler became the Chancellor of Germany in 1933, the world watched with concern and disbelief. The following years revealed persecution of Jews, but the world reveled in the belief that by appeasing Hitler, he and his beliefs would remain within Germany. On September 1, 1939, Hitler shocked the world by attacking Poland. Using blitzkrieg tactics, Poland fell within three weeks.

Lodz, located in central Poland, held the second largest Jewish community in Europe, second only to Warsaw. When the Nazis attacked, Poles and Jews worked frantically to dig ditches to defend their city. Only seven days after the attack on Poland began, Lodz was occupied. Within four days of Lodz's occupation, Jews became targets for beatings, robberies, and seizure of property.

September 14, 1939, only six days after the occupation of Lodz, was Rosh Hashanah, one of the holiest days within the Jewish religion.

For this High Holy day, the Nazis ordered businesses to stay open and the synagogues to be closed. While Warsaw was still fighting off the Germans (Warsaw finally surrendered on September 27), the 230,000 Jews in Lodz were already feeling the beginnings of Nazi persecution.

On November 7, 1939, Lodz was incorporated into the Third Reich and the Nazi's changed its name to Litzmannstadt ("Litzmann's city") - named after a German general who died while attempting to conquer Lodz in World War I.

The next several months were marked by daily round-ups of Jews for forced labor as well as random beatings and killings on the streets. It was easy to distinguish between Pole and Jew because on November 16, 1939 the Nazi's had ordered Jews to wear an armband on their right arm. The armband was the precursor to the yellow Star of David badge, which was soon to follow on December 12, 1939.

Planning the Lodz Ghetto

On December 10, 1939, Friedrich Ubelhor, the governor of the Kalisz-Lodz District, wrote a secret memorandum that set out the premise for a ghetto in Lodz. The Nazis wanted Jews concentrated in ghettos so when they found a solution to the "Jewish problem," whether it be emigration or genocide, it could easily be carried out. Also, enclosing the Jews made it relatively easy to extract the "hidden treasures" that Nazis believed Jews were hiding.

There had already been a couple of ghettos established in other parts of Poland, but the Jewish population had been relatively small and those ghettos had remained open - meaning, the Jews and the surrounding civilians were still able to have contact. Lodz had a Jewish population estimated at 230,000, living throughout the city.

For a ghetto of this scale, real planning was needed. Governor Ubelhor created a team made up of representatives from the major policing bodies and departments. It was decided that the ghetto would be located in the northern section of Lodz where many Jews were already living. The area that this team originally planned only constituted 1.7 square miles (4.3 square kilometers).

To keep non-Jews out of this area before the ghetto could be established, a warning was issued on January 17, 1940 proclaiming the area planned for the ghetto to be rampant with infectious diseases.

The Lodz Ghetto Is Established

On February 8, 1940, the order to establish the Lodz Ghetto was announced. The original plan was to set up the ghetto in one day, in actuality, it took weeks. Jews from throughout the city were ordered to move into the sectioned off area, only bringing what they could hurriedly pack within just a few minutes. The Jews were packed tightly within the confines of the ghetto with an average of 3.5 people per room.

In April a fence went up surrounding the ghetto residents. On April 30, the ghetto was ordered closed and on May 1, 1940, merely eight months after the German invasion, the Lodz ghetto was officially sealed.

The Nazis did not just stop with having the Jews locked up within a small area, they wanted the Jews to pay for their own food, security, sewage removal, and all other expenses incurred by their continuing incarceration. For the Lodz ghetto, the Nazis decided to make one Jew responsible for the entire Jewish population. The Nazis chose Mordechai Chaim Rumkowski.

Rumkowski and His Vision

To organize and implement Nazi policy within the ghetto, the Nazis chose a Jew named Mordechai Chaim Rumkowski. At the time Rumkowski was appointed Juden Alteste (Elder of the Jews), he was 62 years old, with billowy, white hair. He had held various jobs, including insurance agent, velvet factory manager, and director of the Helenowek orphanage before the war began.

No one really knows why the Nazis chose Rumkowski as the Alteste of Lodz. Was it because he seemed like he would help the Nazis achieve their aims by organizing the Jews and their property? Or did he just want them to think this so that he could try to save his people? Rumkowski is shrouded in controversy.

Ultimately, Rumkowski was a firm believer in the autonomy of the ghetto. He started many programs that replaced outside bureaucracy with his own. Rumkowski replaced the German currency with ghetto money that bore his signature - soon referred to as "Rumkies." Rumkowski also created a post office (with a stamp with his image) and a sewage clean up department since the ghetto had no sewage system. But what soon materialized was the problem of acquiring food.

Hunger Leads to a Plan to Work

With 230,000 people confined to a very small area that had no farmland, food quickly became a problem. Since the Nazis insisted on having the ghetto pay for its own upkeep, money was needed. But how could Jews who were locked away from the rest of society and who had been stripped of all valuables make enough money for food and housing? 

Rumkowski believed that if the ghetto was transformed into an extremely useful workforce, then the Jews would be needed by the Nazis. Rumkowski believed that this usefulness would ensure that the Nazis would supply the ghetto with food.

On April 5, 1940, Rumkowski petitioned the Nazi authorities requesting permission for his work plan. He wanted the Nazis to deliver raw materials, have the Jews make the final products, then have the Nazis pay the workers in money and in food. 

On April 30, 1940 Rumkowski's proposal was accepted with one very important change - the workers would only be paid in food. Notice that no one agreed upon how much food, nor how often it was to be supplied.

Rumkowski immediately began setting up factories and all those able and willing to work were found jobs. Most of the factories required workers to be over 14 years old but often very young children and older adults found work in mica splitting factories. Adults worked in factories that produced everything from textiles to munitions. Young girls were even trained to hand stitch the emblems for the uniforms of German soldiers.

For this work, the Nazis delivered food to the ghetto. The food entered the ghetto in bulk and was then confiscated by Rumkowski's officials. Rumkowski had taken over food distribution. With this one act, Rumkowski truly became the absolute ruler of the ghetto, for survival was contingent on food. 

Starving and Suspicions

The quality and quantity of the food delivered to the ghetto was less than minimal, often with large portions being completely spoiled. Ration cards were quickly put into effect for food on June 2, 1940. By December, all provisions were rationed.

The amount of food given to each individual depended upon your work status. Certain factory jobs meant a bit more bread than others. Office workers, however, received the most. An average factory worker received one bowl of soup (mostly water, if you were fortunate you would have a couple of barley beans floating in it), plus the usual rations of one loaf of bread for five days (later the same amount was supposed to last seven days), a small amount of vegetables (sometimes "preserved" beets that were mostly ice), and brown water that was supposed to be coffee. 

This amount of food starved people. As ghetto residents really started feeling hunger, they became increasingly suspicious of Rumkowski and his officials.