It’s August 2004 and masses of people are walking along the road from the Lodz Cemetery to the railroad station (Radegast) where sixty years ago people from the Lodz Ghetto were taken by force and thrown into cattle cars. A number were transported to forced labor camps and others directly to death camps, where they perished. For some of these people, it was the second time they walked to the Radegast station. Sixty years ago they were part of the 145,000 people weak from malnutrition, dehydration, and riddled with disease who were taken to Auschwitz-Birkenau and Chelmno, where so many of their mothers, fathers, siblings, grandparents, and even children were seen for the last time. Now sixty years later, they return. The city of Lodz and its Mayor Jerzy Kropinicki, with the involvement of President Kwasniewski, invite them to return for a special commemoration of the time the ghetto was liquidated. They come from Israel, USA, Austria, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Great Britain, France, Czech Republic, Austria, Italy, Russia, Brazil, Canada, Argentina, Ecuador, and Australia, places to which these people (or their parents or grandparents) scattered after the war. Two hundred thousand Jews, Sinti, and Roma (Gypsies) were forced by the Nazis to live in and then forced to leave the Lodz Ghetto. And now the people of Lodz are inviting them back to venerate and honor them.

The Commemoration was launched months earlier in October 2003 with the concert "Children of the Lodz Ghetto" and a presentation of the Yad Vashem medals "Righteous among the Nations." Over the next several months, events were held to memorialize the liquidation of the Lodz Ghetto. In January, there was a commemoration of the liquidation of the Roma sub-camp whose inhabitants were deported to the Chelmno death camp. In March, a Jewish Carnival with performances by the Jewish choir Clil and the unveiling of a plaque for the actress Ida Kaminsky took place. Also in March, a series of documentaries about the ghetto were shown, and a plaque honoring Itzhak Katzenelson (1886-1944), poet and co-founder of a Jewish School, was dedicated. In April, the documentaries were reviewed and winners announced. At the end of April, Polish and Israeli youth joined together and encircled the old borders of the Ghetto. An exhibition about everyday life in the ghetto was presented at the Museum of Independence. In May a Havdalah service marking the end of Shabbat was followed by a joint Polish/Israeli concert. Movies, street theater, and Jewish music filled the month of June. Other events and exhibitions such as workshops, educational projects, art shows, musical performances, and informative tours took place over this period of time. Eight months of activities did not only honor people who spent their darkest hours in the Lodz Ghetto, but also recognized and honored their contributions to Lodz. All this led to the ceremonies that took place August 27-30, the anniversary of the last transport from Lodz to Auschwitz.

I was there as a consultant to a documentary about the Ahlem Labor Camp that tells the story of liberator Vernon Tott. The prisoners taken to Ahlem (near Hanover, Germany) were almost all from the Lodz Ghetto. They had been deported to Auschwitz for a brief time and then taken to Ahlem. We traveled with Mr. Tott and a few of the Lodz Ghetto survivors. I was fortunate to spend this time in Lodz, the city my grandparents lived in until they left for NY in the early 1900s. Because of the documentary schedule, I could attend only some of the ceremonies that took place the end of August and so depended upon others to share their views of those I missed.

When I arrived in Lodz on August 25, people were pouring into the city and continued to enter in the days following. Hotel rooms were scarce. Many hotel lobbies had special help and information desks set up about the commemoration. Strangers lingered in the lobbies and started conversations with each other; sharing stories about their families’ or their own detailed experiences living in the Lodz Ghetto as if it were yesterday. "Jewish geography" was rampant as these ex-Lodzers approached each other, sharing names and places with tears in their eyes. Emotions were high but for those who chose to come back, there was great excitement at being welcomed to the city of their youth.

On August 27 we visited the former homes in the Lodz Ghetto of two of the survivors traveling with us. In great detail, Sol Bekermus and Ben Sieradzki recounted stories about their lives in these residences. They recalled the multitude of people pressed into the tiny dwellings. In one courtyard the exact location where atrocities took place was pointed out and the event acted out for us to see sixty years later.

A multimedia concert "Children of the Lodz Ghetto" was presented that same day before Friday night services and again after Shabbat on the 28th. Those who attended stated it was very moving and uplifting, providing hope for the future. I could not attend the concert but joined others for Friday night services held at the single surviving synagogue in Lodz, at 28 Rewolucji 1905 Street. Before the war, it was a private synagogue owned by the Reicher family. Built in the period 1895-1900, it was used as a storehouse for salt during the occupation. Being hidden in a courtyard, away from the view of the street, probably helped it survive. It started being used again as a house of prayer in 1987 after suffering damage from a fire. Tonight this small synagogue was filled to capacity with people from a multitude of countries. Symcha Keller, leader of the present-day Jewish community in Lodz, and Father Stanislaw Muchewicz from the Polish-Catholic Church were in attendance. Although attendees could be heard in the courtyard conversing in several languages, when the service began, all recited and chanted the prayers together in Hebrew. I was not the only one very moved by this experience, as I saw others in the women’s balcony wiping away tears. Services were also held in a synagogue at the Jewish Community Center in Lodz. I was struck by the number of Poles leaning out of their windows in the small courtyard where the once private synagogue stands. Curious and very respectful, they watched and sometimes waved at the people who gathered along the streets and converged in this small courtyard. I wondered what it was like for them – most too young to have been alive during the war – to see all these people, many native-born Lodzers, returning to this city. 

On Shabbat I walked to the Museum of the History of Lodz, at the Poznanski Palace, to see the exhibitions of distinguished Jewish artists and an exhibition of Ghetto photographs discovered after the war. It seemed every institution, theater, and museum this week was dedicated to remembering the history of the Lodz Ghetto and the contribution of the Jewish citizens. There were photo exhibitions of the Lodz Cemetery, of Hasidim from Lelow, and of the Ghetto today; art exhibitions in memory of artists who were exterminated; displays of original texts written by young ghetto inmates; multimedia presentations, and outdoor workshops and games for children presenting the traditions of Purim, Chanukah, and Shavuot.

The walk back to the hotel along Piotrkowska Street revealed the new Lodz. Because Lodz was not destroyed during the war, many of the old and dark buildings from the textile days still remain. By contrast, Piotrkowska Street is a wide, cobblestone promenade starting at Liberty Square at one end with monuments, hotels, restaurants, pubs, outdoor cafes, attractive shops and the Lodz Walk of Fame featuring film- star plaques. Retro trams and bicycle-powered rickshaws are available when one gets tired of walking, or just for the fun of it. After Havdalah services marked the end of Shabbat, a multimedia concert "Children of the Lodz Ghetto" took place. This was dedicated to the children who perished in the Lodz Ghetto, at Chelmno, in Auschwitz-Birkenau, and in other horrific places during the war. As a 100-member children’s choir and a symphony orchestra performed, children read excerpts from diaries found in the ghetto. In the background, old photos of the children of Lodz were displayed on a screen, deeply affecting the survivors, families, and all those watching in the audience.

One of the high points of the commemoration was the memorial service held at the Jewish Cemetery on August 29. After a morning prayer service for ghetto victims held at St Mary’s Assumption Church, which is in an area of the former ghetto, people entered the cemetery. This cemetery was within the ghetto boundaries and is the burial place for many of the Jews who died there. Many of the graves in the southern part of the cemetery are part of the "ghetto field" where unmarked plots remain. Established on Bracka Street in 1892, it is the largest Jewish Cemetery in Europe, containing close to 180,000 matzevot (tombstones). Visitors arrived early to look for their families’ burial sites. For many it was the first time in sixty  years that they said kaddish at their parents’ gravesites. Those who spoke related messages of a more religious nature than a political one. Rabbi Michael Schudrich offered words of comfort. Psalms, prayers, el Mole Rachamin (prayer for the dead) were recited to remember the more than 200,000 Jews from this city who were killed by the Nazis. Cantor Benzion Miller and choir chanted Hebrew prayers to the packed crowd. Guests heard poignant speeches given by Jehuda Widawski, a survivor and member of the Organization of Former Residents of Lodz in Israel, and Eliezer Zyzkind, chairman member of the Organization of Former Residents of Brzeziny in Israel. Speeches were offered in the speakers’ native languages without translation, which was frustrating for many of the listeners. One woman in the audience called out asking why they did not also speak in Yiddish, a language the survivors in attendance could understand. Before closing this ceremony, Lodz Major Kropiwnicki laid a wreath on the podium, and several dignitaries followed by adding flowers, lighting candles, and placing memorial stones.

A few weeks after my second trip to Poland in 2002, it was announced that the "Umschlagplatz" (original train depot, station building, and landings, where Jews of Lodz and elsewhere were taken to be deported to labor/death camps) was "discovered." Since then work has been done to preserve the site. It is to this location, Radegast (Radogoszcz) Station, on this incredibly hot day, that people participated in the one mile memorial march after leaving the cemetery. Families and survivors walked the route along Bracka, Zagajnikowa, and Stalowa streets to the "Umschlagplatz." Imagine the mass of people walking along these streets to the station. For many of the survivors it was the second time they took this walk, only this time they were not starving, sick, weak, cold, or despondent. This time they were being honored by their families, fellow Jews, officials of Poland, and the Polish people. Local Poles watched from the sidelines, frequently waving, and a few could be seen speaking with their guests. For those of us who never saw this place before, the first glimpse was riveting. The train tracks are still there with a few cattle-cars, small windows covered with barbed wire, perched on the tracks next to the depot. On this beautiful, sunny day it was hard to imagine the horrors that took place here. The photos of starving people being herded into the cattle cars at this station, pushed in when no more room existed, in all kinds of weather, wearing scant clothing, are well known. Today on this site, survivors, families, and guests listened to messages presented by Jerzy Kropiwnicki, Mayor of Lodz; Marek Belka, Prime Minister of the republic of Poland; Abraham Zelig, Chairman of the Organization of Former Residents of Lodz in Israel; and many other ambassadors and dignitaries from Israel, Austria, the United States, Germany, European Union, and the Czech Republic. All vowed to remember the past and make every effort possible to see it never happens again. This was followed by a concert of the Arthur Rubinstein Lodz Philharmonic Orchestra at the site.

Later this same afternoon, ceremonies took place at the Poznanski Palace, which houses the City of Lodz History Museum. Polish medals were presented for Polish-Jewish Dialogue to Tova Ben Zvi and Abraham Zelig and to Eugene J. Ribakoff for the 90th year anniversary of the American Joint Distribution Committee. This was followed by the signing of the "Milestones for Peace" – small solid pieces of Jerusalem marble signed by attending world dignitaries as a symbol of peace.

This emotional and event-packed day came to a rousing close with a Gala Concert at the Grand Theater in Lodz. Following speeches by Mayors of Lodz, Tel Aviv, and others, three cantors performed along with the Choir of the Great Jerusalem Synagogue.

Halina Elczewska, a ghetto survivor, initiated an event of planting trees, symbolizing the gift of life, existence, and immortality. This ceremony took place on the morning of August 30, in a newly named Park of Survivors, placed in the neighborhood of the former ghetto (at Wojska Polskiego 83) and covering an area of almost fifteen acres. On that day, 363 survivors planted their trees: birches, oaks, larches, maples, and ashes. Each tree was numbered and registered under the name of the survivor who planted it. Survivors who visit Lodz in the future are invited to continue this ceremony and plant a tree in his or her honor. A monument was dedicated, ribbons cut, and speeches presented by Mayor Kropiwnicki, Halina Elczewska, and Jehuda Widawski.

An event was held also to commemorate the Gypsy Camp where over 5000 Gypsies – Roma and Sinti – were brought in 1941 from Austria and forced to live. This was a camp within the Lodz Ghetto, covering less than half a square mile. Those who did not die in the ghetto were executed at Chelmno.

A Reunion of Survivors was held before noon at the Museum of the History of the City of Lodz in the Poznanski Palace. Representatives from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum participated. For many survivors, it was the first occasion since the end of the war for them to come together and share memories in an "official" setting. "We survived, we outlived, we speak" became the motto of the meeting, also initiated by Halina Elczewska.

Later in the afternoon, a Reunion of the 1968 emigration generation took place. This included a reunion of the former students of Perec Jewish secondary school which closed in 1968.

Mayor Kropinicki, in his April 2004 interview in the online Polish magazine, Gazeta, when asked a question about his former knowledge of the ghetto, after stating he did not know about it, added:

Mayor Kropinicki was the driving force that initiated this Commemoration. The city put a great deal of energy and heart into making amends. They are honoring the victims and remembering those who perished. The younger generation is apologizing for those citizens a generation ago who perpetrated the crimes or let them happen by keeping silent. They are honoring those who hid their Jewish neighbors at great risk to their lives and the lives of their families.

The city of Lodz plans to continue efforts and activities they undertook at the Commemoration. They established "The Project of the Institute of the Jews of Lodz" together with the Mayor; the President of the University of Lodz; Ambassador of Israel in Poland, David Pereg; Professor Wladyslaw Bartoszewski, co-founder of "Zegota"² Symcha Keller, president of the Jewish Community in Lodz; Uri Wizenber from the Organization of Former Residents of Lodz in Israel; and other distinguished representatives of institutions that helped organize the commemoration. They unanimously agreed that this institution is very much needed and will be established as soon as possible. It will be founded as a university center for research, education, and promotion of Jewish history and culture. Talk has already started about pilot educational programs for high school teachers.

Many thanks to Malgorzata Andrzejewska-Psarska, a member of the Organizing Committee of the Commemoration of the 60th Anniversary of the Liquidation of the Litzmannstadt Ghetto, who provided information about events I could not attend, checked names, and shared photographs taken by the City of Lodz. She is also actively involved with The Institute of the Jews of Lodz, and she and the Committee recently visited Israel to plan the project.