DOKUMENTY I MATERIALY DO DZIEJOW OKUPACJI NIEMIECKIEJ W POLSCE TOM III GETTO LODZKIE. Documents and Materials on the History of the German Occupation in Poland, Volume III: Lodz Ghetto. Prepared by A. Eisenbach, published by the Central Historical Commission, Lodz. Warsaw – Lodz – Krakow – 1946 – First Edition. Polish.
“Immediately upon the entry of German forces into Lodz, an unwritten death sentence was imposed on the Jewish community” – the first detailed report on Nazi crimes in the Lodz Ghetto. Includes a folded map of the Lodz Ghetto.
“The documents we publish in this volume provide a general picture of the political and economic destruction of the Jewish population in Lodz by the German authorities, meticulously planned and executed with unprecedented treachery and cynicism. The martyrdom of millions of Jews, including hundreds of thousands in Lodz, obliges us to expose the entire historical truth of those dark and tragic years of German occupation” (from the editor’s introduction).
On January 18, 1946, the first anniversary of the liberation of Lodz, an assembly was held by the Association of Friends of the Central Jewish Historical Commission in Lodz, attended by a group of Jews from Lodz who survived death. At this meeting, the chairman of the association, Dr. Szykier, and other board members informed the survivors of Lodz of the intention to commemorate the memory of the Jews murdered in Lodz through joint efforts. A committee chaired by A. Eisenbach was appointed to systematically collect and publish all documents related to the Lodz Ghetto during the war years. After gathering numerous materials, they were published for the first time in the volume before us.
Lodz is the only city where a complete German archive concerning the Jews during the Nazi occupation was found. The documents revealed here for the first time prove the systematic manner in which the Germans executed their diabolical plans to exterminate the Jews.
The documents published here include orders from the German authorities to the Jewish population of Lodz even before the establishment of the ghetto – demands for labor quotas, orders for marking Jewish factories and shops, such as the famous order from November 14, 1939, published in the Lodz newspaper: “I hereby order that all shops in the city of Lodz immediately display a sign in their windows at eye level indicating whether the owner is German, Polish, or Jewish. The signs’ format is determined by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Lodz. Violations will be severely punished. Lodz, November 11, 1939, City Commissioner of Lodz.” Subsequently, documents setting regulations with the establishment of the ghetto – the obligation for all Jews to wear yellow patches on their chest and arm, and more. These documents also include Nazi actions to establish the Jewish Council of Elders in the ghetto, documents concerning the ghetto’s establishment: secret circulars on the ghetto’s establishment project, the regulation of the Chief of Police from February 8, 1940, execution orders, and plans for the resettlement of the Jewish population to the ghetto. Also included are documents with draconian instructions on the complete separation of the ghetto from the rest of the city and the establishment of special units of the criminal police (Kripo) in the ghetto, secret financial reports, and statistical summaries, documents shedding light on the ghetto’s role as the largest labor camp in Poland integrated into the Reich, and many more. The Lodz Ghetto was the only large ghetto that was hermetically sealed and completely isolated from the outside world. Attempts to communicate with the outside world mostly failed. Between 1942-1945, there was terrible starvation in the ghetto. The suffering endured by the Jews in the ghetto is extensively detailed in the documents in this report, from the Nazi side, documenting the daily life in the ghetto, the orders, and instructions given by the Nazis in managing the ghetto as they progressively tightened their measures against the Jews. Most of the ghetto’s Jews were transferred to the Chelmno camp, and few survived. At the beginning of the report, there is a general background on the organizational status of Lodz Jews and their condition in the 19th and 20th centuries until the outbreak of World War II.
The documents presented here are published in their original language (mostly German). The report includes a folded map of the Lodz Ghetto.
302 pages. Slightly brownish paper. Good condition.
