Lodz KehilaLinks Home Page

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Jewish Lodz Today
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Memorial to the destroyed Jewish communities of Lodz and its region

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A project to commemorate the Jews of Lodz, by the XIII Liceum Ogolnoksztalcace (13th High School)...a must see. Click here.

New Lodz-Related Sites:

"Traces of the Litzmannstadt Getto" -- Michal Latosinski's site based on a book by Joanna Podolska and other sources, is a virtual guide to Jewish Lodz.

The Peretzniks (Perecowicze): A Film About a Jewish School in Lodz Poland. A clip of this film can be viewed on Steve Lansky's website: "Museum of Family History." Check out his other entries and exhibits about Lodz.

Welcome to the Lodz KehilaLinks home page. This site was created to share information on Jewish Lodz, to guide those researching their roots, and to commemorate the Jewish community that was virtually wiped out in the Shoah. This site contains original articles and hundreds of links to documents, interviews, and photographs on Lodz and surrounding communities. To begin, click on a main topic to the left.

This site is hosted at no charge by JewishGen, Inc. If you find this site of value, your JewishGen-erosity is greatly appreciated.
Remember ... never forget.

A Rage to Live

Lodz KehilaLinks readers are very familiar with the poignant writings of Lodz Ghetto survivor, Victor Breitburg. He was one of the “The Boys” liberated from Theresienstadt, whom Sir Martin Gilbert wrote about in The Boys: Triumph Over Adversity.

Now he tells it all in this important book written with Joseph G. Krygier. For more information click here.

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What's New...

New photos from the inter-war period -- class photos, an unveiling, and three unknown girls. Can you help us identify the people in these photos?

Several recently published books have been added to the Bibliography.

Indexing of the Lodz Work ID Cards issued in January 1943 is complete. To see sample ID cards and learn more about this exciting project, click here.

The 1958 30th Anniversary Journal of the
Independent Lodzer Young Men Society of Paterson, NJ, contains names of officers, lists of other Lodz descendants, many from families that first settled in Paterson, N.J., several photographs, In Memoriam section, and journal ads, which often include businesses with addresses and names.

Article by Dr. Harold Bursztajn about his father Abraham Bursztajn's experiences during the Shoah in Lodz, describing how two physicians, working under the shadow of death with limited resources, were able to comfort and even promote hope and healing, and how his father defied Rumkowski.

Articles about the program and events of the Commemoration of the 60th Anniversary of the Liquidation of the Litzmannstadt Ghetto in Lodz in August 2004, by Roni Seibel Liebowitz, Fay Bussgang, and Andrew Jakubowicz.

Translation of an interview with the mayor of Lodz, concerning the Commemoration of the 60th Anniversary of the Liquidation of the Litzmannstadt Ghetto in Lodz.

JRI-Poland: indices to Lodz Jewish vital records 1826-1905 are now online (click "Search the Database" on the JRI-Poland web site)

Database of Austrian Victims of the Holocaust, including Jews deported from Vienna to the Lodz/Litzmannstadt Ghetto.

Now online! Complete English translation of the Pinkas HaKehilot entry for the city of Lodz, including the history of Jewish Lodz from its beginnings through the World War II, and after.

Facts at a Glance

City of Lodz chartered in 1423
Jewish presence since ca. 1780
Old cemetery, dating from 1811 to 1892, destroyed during World War II
New cemetery, dating from 1892, largest Jewish cemetery in Europe
Lodz Jewish population in 1939: approx. 223,000, 34% of total
Second largest Jewish population in Europe in 1939
Second largest city in Poland
Lodz ghetto, 1940-1944: longest existing Polish ghetto
Deportations: Chelmno, Auschwitz-Birkenau
Survivors of the Lodz ghetto: approximately 5,000-7,000
Textile capital of Eastern Europe
Other Names: Lodzh (in Yiddish); Lodsch (in German); Renamed Litzmannstadt by the Germans, 1939-1945
Nickname: "The Polish Manchester"
Polish Pronunciation: "wootch"

Year	Jewish Population	Per Cent of Total Population
1793	11
1808	58	13.4%
1823	288	36.0%
1856	2,886	11.7%
1897	98,676	31.8%
1921	156,155	34.5%
1931	202,497	33.5%
1939	223,000	34.0%

Facts taken from Jewish Roots in Poland: Pages from the Past and Archival Inventories, 1997, by Miriam Weiner, Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, 1990, Encyclopaedia Judaica and other sources.

Searchable Databases

JewishGen Family Finder - Search by any surname or town
Would you like to connect with others researching Lodz? Click the button to search the JewishGen Family Finder database for everyone researching family from Lodz.
Search the Jewish Records Indexing-Poland (JRI-Poland) database - indices to Lodz Jewish birth, marriage, and death records, 1826-1905, now online. For in-depth information, see A Guide to Researching Jewish Vital Records in the Lodz Archives.
JewishGen Databases - a wide variety of many types of databases.
Yad Vashem - The Central Database of Shoah Victims' Names

Contributors

KEHILALINK COORDINATOR Roni Seibel Liebowitz 2003-present
FOUNDER and FIRST COORDINATOR Shirley Rotbein Flaum 1999-2003
EDITORS AND WRITERS Philip Cola-Lejzerowicz, Shirley Rotbein Flaum, Chaim Freedman, Daniel Kazez, Roni Seibel Liebowitz, and Michael J. Meshenberg
WEB PAGE AND IMAGE EDITORS: Roni Seibel Liebowitz, Jim Stein, Shirley Rotbein Flaum, and Jerry Liebowitz
CONTRIBUTORS OF PHOTOGRAPHS, DOCUMENTS AND RESEARCH Arthur S. Abramson, Alan Adelson, Mary Blumenstein, Victor Breitburg, Jeff Cymbler, Pawel B. Dorman, Jan M. Engel z"l, George Fogelson, Irving Gertel, Aubrey Jacobus, Shmuel Kehati, David Lewin, Roni Seibel Liebowitz, Michael J. Meshenberg, Howard L. Rosen z"l, Petje Schröder, Lionel Sharpe, Harry Stein, Jean-Pierre Stroweis, Lili Susser, Konrad Turowski and Morris Wirth
TRANSLATORS Siegi Izakson, Fritz Neubauer, and Marilyn Schapiro
ADDITIONAL ASSISTANCE John Berman, Stanley Diamond, Daniel Wagner, and Chuck Weinstein

We sincerely appreciate all the volunteers who made this web site possible.

This page revised: August 22, 2015.