Lodz Ghetto Deportations and Statistics
Contents
*Note: "Warthegau" (or
"Wartheland") refers to the section
of Poland annexed by the Reich during World War II, and included the entire
Poznan province, most of the Lodz province, five Pomeranian districts, and one
county of the Warsaw province; see map.
Table A: Liquidation of Jewish Population in the Lodz Ghetto,
1942-1944 [1]
| Date |
Number of Victims |
Place of Deportation / Extermination |
| 16-29 January 1942 |
10,003 |
Death camp in Chelmno |
| 22 February -2 April 1942 |
34,073 |
Death camp in Chelmno |
| 4-15 May 1942 |
10,914 |
Death camp in Chelmno |
| 3-12 September 1942 |
15,681 |
Death camp in Chelmno |
| 23 June - 14 July 1944 |
7,196 |
Death camp in Chelmno |
| 9-29 August 1944 |
65 - 67,000* |
Auschwitz-Birkenau |
| August 1944 |
500 |
Sachsenhausen-Oranienburg
and Ravensbrück |
| Total |
143,000-145,000**
|
|
| *About 72,000 persons were transported to
Auschwitz at that time. From that number approximately 5,000 to 7,000 survived, most
due to interruption of their incarceration in Nazi camps by liberating
armies; according to some estimates, up to 15,000 Lodz Jews survived
the Holocaust.
**Several thousand Jews from the Lodz ghetto died or
were murdered in various labor camps. |
Table B: Number of Deceased in the Lodz
Ghetto, 1940-1944 [1]
| Year |
Number of People in the Ghetto |
Deaths in the Ghetto |
| 1940 |
160,320 |
8,475 (41 shot) |
| 1941 |
145,992 |
11,456 (52 shot) |
| 1942 |
103,034 |
18,046 (43 shot) |
| 1943 |
84,226 |
4,573 (27 shot) |
| 1944 (until August) |
72,551 |
2,778 (17 shot) |
| Total |
|
approx. 43,000* |
| *This number represents the
approximate number of burials in the Ghetto Field at the Lodz cemetery |
Table C: Towns in the Warthegau from which Jews were deported
into the Lodz Ghetto (German name in
parentheses) [3]
| Belchatow |
Kozminek |
Sieradz (Schieratz) |
| Brzesc Kujawski |
Kutno |
Sompolno |
| Brzeziny (Löwenstadt, Loewenstadt) |
Lask |
Sulmierzyce |
| Chelmno (Kulm, Kulmhof) |
Leczyca |
Turek |
| Chodecz |
Lodz (Litzmannstadt) |
Warta |
| Dobra |
Lubraniec |
Widawa |
| Glowno |
Ozorkow |
Wielun (Welungen) |
| Kalisz (Kalisch) |
Pabianice |
Wieruszow |
| Klodawa |
Poddebice |
Wloclawek (Leslau, Alt Lesle) |
| Kolo |
Poznan (Posen) |
Zdunska Wola |
| Kowal |
Praszka |
Zelow |
| |
|
Zgierz |
Table D: Jews Deported to the Lodz Ghetto from Western Europe in
1941 [3]
| Country |
Point of Origin |
Date of Arrival |
Number of Deportees |
| Austria |
Vienna |
16 October - 3 November |
4,999* |
| Germany |
Berlin |
18 October - 2 November |
(?) 4,055 |
| Germany |
Emden |
25 October (arrived with one of the Berlin
transports) |
122 |
| Germany |
Frankfurt am Main |
22 October |
1,186 |
| Germany |
Cologne |
23 October |
2,014 |
| Germany |
Hamburg |
26 October |
1,063 |
| Germany |
Düsseldorf |
26 October |
(?) 1,005 |
| Czechoslovakia |
Prague |
19 October |
4,999** |
| Luxembourg |
Luxembourg
|
18 October |
512 |
| Total |
|
|
approx. 19,722 |
| *Only 34 Jews deported from
Vienna to Lodz were still alive when the Nazi concentrations camps were
liberated. See also the searchable Database
of Austrian Victims of the Holocaust (includes
Viennese Jews deported to the Lodz/Litzmannstadt Ghetto)
**Of this number, approximately
276 Czech Jews survived the Lodz ghetto and Nazi concentration camps.
|
Table E: Timeline of Deaths and Deportations
in the Lodz Ghetto [1],
[2]
| Date |
Action |
| October 18, 1939 |
100 Jews (intellectuals) driven out of
Lodz's
Astoria cafe; most murdered. [3] |
| November 9,
1939 |
German terror
against Jews and Poles escalates after Lodz annexed to the Reich on
November 9; several thousand Jews and Poles arrested. |
| November 11, 1939 |
Jewish Kehillah premises surrounded; nearly
all members arrested and sent to the Radogoszcz
camp/prison [4]; of 30 members, 6 were released, the rest
were tortured and shot in the Lagiewniki Woods. |
| December 12, 1939 |
By this date, 71,000 Lodz Jews had been expelled or
migrated to the Soviet Union and General Gouvernement (Krakow, and
other cities) in the first
months of Nazi occupation. In Lodz, over 10,000 Jews, including
most of the Jewish intelligentsia, were deported in December 1939. For
weeks the deportees were kept at assembly points, and had to supply
their own means of subsistence, though they had been deprived of all
their valuables. |
| March 1, 1940 |
"Bloody Thursday"; several Jews
slain as the Nazis drive the Jewish population of Lodz into the
designated ghetto area. |
| June 12, 1940 |
Statistics by this date: 160,320 Jews are enclosed
in the ghetto, of which 153,840 were former inhabitants of Lodz and 6,471
were from other
parts of the Warthegau due to war migration. |
| September 26 -
October 9, 1941 |
3,082 Jews from Wloclawek (Leslau) and
vicinity are deported to the Lodz ghetto. [5] |
| October 17 - November 4, 1941 |
19,722 Jews are deported to the Lodz ghetto
from Austria, Czechoslovakia,
Luxembourg, and Germany (see Table D). |
| November 5-9, 1941 |
5,007 Roma (Gypsies) are deported to the Gypsy
camp within the Lodz ghetto from the Austrian-Hungarian border
(Burgenland). |
| December 7, 1941 - August 28, 1942 |
A total of 17,826 Jews from provincial ghettos in the
Warthegau are deported to the Lodz ghetto: Wloclawek, Glowno, Ozorkow,
Strykow, Lask, Pabianice, Wielun, Sieradz, Zdunska Wola (this number
includes those deported from May to August 23, 1942; see
below). |
| January 16, 1942 - May 15, 1942 |
Large-scale genocide begins: 57,064 Jews
from the Lodz ghetto (including 10,943 from Western Europe) are deported to
the death camp at Chelmno (see Table A). |
| January 16, 1942 |
Gypsy camp in the Lodz ghetto liquidated
and inhabitants deported to death camp at Chelmno. |
| February 21, 1942 |
A public execution by hanging occurs (Max Hertz of
Cologne). |
| May - August 23, 1942 |
14,440 "selected" Jews
are deported
to the ghetto from liquidated ghettos in Wloclawek, Glowno, Ozorkow,
Strykow, Lask, Pabianice, Wielun, Sieradz, Zdunska Wola. |
| September 3-12, 1942 |
15,681 children (age 10 and under) and
elderly (over age 65) are deported to the death camp at Chelmno. |
| September 7, 1942 |
Public execution occurs: 17 Jews deported to the
Lodz ghetto from Pabianice in August, 1942. |
| October 1942 - May 1944 |
No major deportations from the Lodz ghetto. |
| June 23-July 14, 1944 |
Deportations to death camp at Chelmno
resumed: 10 transports with 7,196 people. |
| July 15, 1944 |
Deportations to the death damp at Chelmno halted. |
| July 31, 1944 |
Beginning of the liquidation of the Lodz ghetto; the
Judenrat is disbanded and the Chronicle being written in the ghetto
ends. |
| August 7-9, 1944 |
Round-up begun for final liquidation of the Lodz
ghetto; beginning of deportations to Auschwitz. |
| August 23, 1944 |
Last transport from Lodz ghetto to
Auschwitz; 700 Jews remain in the ghetto as a clean-up detail and 200
avoid deportation by hiding in the ghetto. |
| January 20, 1945 |
877 Jewish survivors in the ghetto are liberated by the Russian army. |
|
In total, more than 200,000 Jews from the
Warthegau and Western Europe passed through the Lodz ghetto.
|
1. Baranowski, Julian. The Lodz
Ghetto, 1940-1944; Lodzkie Getto, 1940-1944; Vademecum. Lodz: Archiwum
Panstwowe w Lodzi & Bilbo, 1999.
2. Encyclopedia of the Holocaust,
1990.
3. Dobroszycki, Lucjan, ed. The
Chronicle of the Lodz Ghetto, 1941-1944. New Haven: Yale University
Press, 1984.
4. Wiesenthal, Simon. Every Day
Remembrance Day: A Chronicle of Jewish Martyrdom. New York: Henry Holt
& Co., 1987.
5. Jewish
History of Poland: Holocaust Period, from Heritage Films
6. Yad Vashem Timeline of the Holocaust.
- Compiled by Shirley Rotbein Flaum
|
