The Marek Edelman Dialogue Center in Łódź

Litzmannstadt Ghetto route- Remembrance Sites.

The Litzmannstadt Ghetto area has undergone many changes since the fall of the war as far as buildings and streets are layout are concerned. The Jewish district, left uninhabited after the 1944 deportations, was devastated by invaders and looters looking for hidden treasures. After the war many old buildings were demoliished and new housing estates were built. A few streets disappeared and a few had their names changed. Despite the numerous changes after 65 years we can still find many traces of the life and martydrom of the district's inhabitants.

There are buildings remaining from that time which include are the 1940-1944 headquarters, labour departments, schools, hospitals, Western Jews' collective bodies, German administration and ghetto's police authorities.

In order to commemorate the tragic historical sites in the Litzmannstadt Ghetto ruote has been established. It includes 38 buildings marked by the City Monuments Conservator.

1. Bałucki Market (Baluter Ring)

There were German branches of the ghetto's management-Gettoverwaltung as well as Jewish administration authorities: Central Secretariat and Central Bureau of Labour Registration. It also served as a place of trans-shipment of food and raw materials into the ghetto and production from the ghetto.

2. 7 Ceglana Street

Site of the main storehouse and sorting station for belongings left behind by Jews deported from ghettos liquidated in Warthegau.

3. 7 Ciesielska Street

Site of the bank for purchasing jewellery, valuable articles and clothing.

4. 14 Czarneckiego Street

It used to be a building complex of Central Jail for Jews convicted by the ghetto's justice's administration. It also served as an assembly place for those being sent to the death camps.

5. 75 Drewnowska Street

Hospital number 2 liquidated in September 1942 and then departament of knitwear.

6. 13 Franciszkańska Street

Site of a school until October 1941. It then became the quarters for deportees from Prague  (Collective "Prague II"). Beginning in mid-May 1942, it was the linens and garments factory.

7. 27 Franciszkańska Street

Site of Jewish Police Station 1, the Summary Court (Schnellgericht), and school board. Between January 16 and April 2, 1942, Office of the Deportation Commission, responsible for preparing lists of the ghetto inmates dispatched to the death camp at  Kulmhof am Ner (Chełmno-Upon-Ner).

8. 29 Franciszkańska Street

Site of an elementary school, beginning in October 1941, quarters for deportees from Prague (Collective "Prague IV"). As of mid-May 1942, it was the Tailor Workshop, where courses in tailoring for the young were conducted.

9. 30/33 Franciszkańska Street

From October 17 until November 27, 1941, quarter for deportees from Hamburg (Collective "Hamburg")

10. 20/22 Gnieźnieńska Street

Location of the Jewish Prosecutor's Office, the Court, and Office of Investigations.

11. 10 Jakuba Street

Until May 1940, assembly point for people brought into the ghetto. After October 1941, quarters for deportees from Vienna and Prague (Collectives "Vienna II" and "Prague IV"). After May 1942, the Tailor Departament, and the Central Depot for Supplies.

12. 8 Kościelna Street

"The Red House" (Rotes Haus) - location of the Criminal Police (Kripo) Station. Site where submitted to torture, maimed, and usually murdered.

13. 3 Krawiecka Street

Kulturhaus Community Center for concerts, revues, children's theater, special ghetto events and M. Ch. Rumkowski's speeches.

14. 1 Limanowskiego Street

Site of Gestapo Post and the 6th Schupo District Station which exercised political and police control over the ghetto.

15. 1 Lutomierska Street

Headquarters of Ordungsdienst (OD) - The Jewish Police in Litzmannstadt Ghetto.

16. 13 Lutomierska Street

Site of the "Fire Brigade's Square" in the countryyard of this building. The Eldest of Jews M. Ch. Rumkowski delivered public speeches at this location.

17. 1 Łagiewnicka Street

 Jojne Pilcer Square– A Jewish marketplace. This building housed a soup kitchen for Litzmannstadt Ghetto doctors.

18. 25 Łagiewnicka Street

Site of the Chamber of Commerce and Central Committee for the trades until October 1942. Beginning in November 1942, the Ghetto Administrative Council and the Health Departament. The main ghetto clock was situated here.

19. 34/36 Łagiewnicka Street

Site of hospital number 1, the Health Departament, until mid-September 1942. In then became the Tailor Workshop, after the liquidation of the ghetto, a transitional camp for ghetto inmates selected for factory work in German.

20. 55 Marynarska Street

Photo studio of Mendel Grosman - a renowned photographer of daily life in the ghetto.

21. 25 Młynarska Street

Quarters for deportees from Hamburg (Collective "Hamburg") beginning in May 1942, the Linens Factory.

22. 32 Młynarska Street

Site of the main community soup kitchen and the central matzo depot. Beginning in May 1942, the Medical Commission for Deportations.

23. 119 Okopowa Street

Orphanage, assembly site for deportees.

24. 1/3 Organizacji WiN (former Dworska)

Site of the Office of Appeals and Charges, the Personnel Division, the Central Accounting Office and the Social Securyty Section.

25. 74 Organizacji WiN (former Dworska)

Site of the home for the aged and the shelter for the homeless beginning in November 1942, a hospital for people with contagious diseases. Jewish children, along with inhabitants of the camp for Polish Youth at Przemysłowa Street, were treated here in 1943 and 1944.

26. 1 Kościelny Square

Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary's church. 1941-1944 on the orders of the German authorities-warehouse and sorting plant of stolen Jewish property.

27. 4 Kościelny Square

Site of Registration Office, General Ghetto Registry, Statistics Section and Archive, the Rabbinical College, and the Ghetto Post Office. "The Chronicle of the Lodz Ghetto" was written and compiled here by personel of the Statistics Division.

28. Piastowski Square (former Tanfaniego)

"Market Square (Bazarplatz)- site of public executions of ghetto inmates.

29. 8 Rybna Street

Site of the Accommodations Departament, the Food Rationing Departament, the New Arrivals Department, and the Deportations Commission. Here the Commission prepared lists of Jews from other parts of Europe for transfer to the detah camp at Kulmhof am Ner (Chełmno-Upon-Ner).

30. 15 Rybna Street

Site of an elementary school. Beginning in October 1941, quarters for deportees from Düsseldorf (Collective „Düsseldorf”). In May 1942, it was turned into the Houseshoes Workshop.

31. 7 Szklana Street

Assembly point for peoplesent to death camps during the deportation phase.

32. 11 Urzędnicza Street

Seat of Berlin displaced people ("Berlin III") from May 1942 brushes and brooms factory. Until May 1940 assembly point for settled in Litzmannstadt Ghetto, from October 1941 seat of Departament and Central Raw Maretials Repository.

33. 10 Wojska Polskiego Street

Site of the Litzmannstadt Ghetto printing house and a signboard workshop.

34. 84 Wojska Polskiego Street

At this site, German authorities established a camp for Gypsies (Zigeunerlager) in the area boarded by Sulzfelder Str. (Wojska Polskiego), Kondradstr. (Głowackiego), Kriminalstr. (Starosikawską) i  Blechgasse (obrońców Westerplatte) Streets. 

Of the 5000 Roma men, women and children deported from Austria and incrarcerated here between November 5, 1941 and January 12, 1942, over 600 died from diseases or were murdered in the camp; The remaining were gassed in the death camp at Kulmhof am Ner (Chełmno-Upon-Ner) during the week of January 5 to 12, 1942.

35. 88/92 Wojska Polskiego Street

Sites of the straw shoes workshop.

36. 70 Zgierska Street

Quarters for deportees from Frankfurt (Collective "Frankfurt"). After May 1942, the Clothing Departament for distribution of used garments in the ghetto.

37. Jewish Cemetery

„Ghetto Field” - holds the graves of 43 527 ghetto victims during the years 1940 to 1944. Many victims were executed or brutally slain; others died from disease or starvation.

38. Memorial Radegast

The freight railway station (Verladebahnhof Getto-Radegast), occasionally referred to as "The loading platform at Marysin", served as the depot for deliveries of food, fuel and raw materials for industrial production, and for shipping out goods manufactured in the ghetto. In 1941 and 1942, the Radegast Station was the destination point for about 20 000 Jews from other parts of Europe, another 20 000 Jews from liquidated ghettos in the region, and over 5000 Gypsies from Austria (Burgenland). This was also the so-called "Umschlagplatz" death depot for 150 000 Jews sent to death camps at Chełmno-Upon-Ner and Auschwitz Birkenau.

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