Lodz Streets Database

Contents

• Introduction
• Source of the Database
• Geographic Area Included in the Database
• Data Included in the Database
• Explanation of Fields in the Database
• Abbreviations
• Special Notes for Lodz Ghetto Researchers, with link to alphabetical list of streets in the Lodz Ghetto

Introduction

The Lodz Streets Database includes the name of all streets in the city of Lodz over the past approximately 100 years. During this time period, most names were changed at least once and some were changed up to five times. This database is intended as an aid in tracing streets in Lodz or the Lodz ghetto where your family members once lived.

Perhaps you have discovered that your family's business, listed in the 1929 Polish Business Directory, was located on "Aleksandrowska Street." A search of Lodz Streets Database will indicate that "Aleksandrowska Street" is now known as "Limanowskiego Street." Or, perhaps you are tracing a family member who was incarcerated in the Lodz ghetto between 1940 and 1944, and have found they lived on "Baluter Ring." A search of the database will tell you that street is now known as "Rynek Balucki."

Source of the Database

The Lodz Streets Database was created by comparing six maps of the city of Lodz:

• a 1913 Polish reprint of a Russian map
• an original 1925 Polish map
• a reprint of a 1933 Polish map
• an original German map, dated approximately 1940
• an original 1987 Polish map
• an original 1999 Polish map

The database therefore spans about 100 years, from approximately 1900 to the present.

Geographic Area Included in the Database

Streets in the following districts of Lodz are included in the database. Streets located in suburbs built after World War II are not included in the database. The reason being there was no Jewish population in these areas.

The vast majority of the pre-war Jewish population of Lodz lived in either the Sródmiescie District or the Baluty District (including the Doly and Zubardz Districts). Streets incorporated into the Lodz ghetto were entirely located in the Baluty district.

Data Included in the Database

The database includes more than 560 Lodz streets and the changes in their names at six points in time: 1913 (before World War I), 1925, 1933, 1939 (including the Lodz ghetto), 1945 (after World War II), and 1990 (after the fall of Communism). After the Lodz ghetto was established in 1940, some German street names were changed into other German names. Both names are included in the database. As parts of the former Lodz ghetto area were rebuilt after World War II, those changes were included in the database. If the street no longer exists or did not exist before 1925 or 1939, it is noted in the database.

Explanation of Fields in the Database

The Lodz Streets Database was created by noted Lodz researcher Petje Schröder. Ms. Schröder extracted and compared information from the six maps, then entered the data into a database format. The database will be updated with any future changes, as they occur.

Abbreviations

*Liberation: As the liberation by the Russians introduced another period of occupation and dictatorship, only communistic Poles have ever celebrated these days.

Special Notes for Lodz Ghetto Researchers

As an additional aid to researchers, an alphabetical list of streets in the Lodz ghetto, with abbreviations, is provided. This is particularly valuable for those who have obtained street names from the register of the 200,000 Lodz ghetto inhabitants, Lodz-Names: List of the Ghetto Inhabitants, 1940-1944, published jointly by Yad Vashem and the Organization of Former Residents of Lodz in Israel in 1994. Most of these German street names are abbreviated. Therefore, if you have obtained a street name from this resource, you must first locate the unabbreviated German street name in the alphabetical list of streets in the Lodz ghetto before conducting a search in the Lodz Streets Database.

Further information about Jewish Lodz, including maps of the city and surrounding area, may be obtained from the Lodz ShtetLinks web site. Questions may be directed to the Lodz Area Research Group Mailing List.

 

Shirley Rotbein Flaum and Petje Schröder

August 16, 2001