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TRACE OF SURVIVAL

AND HOPE

I n August 2004, the Survivors' Park was established in Łódź. In
the Park, there are trees dedicated to those who survived the
war. Each tree represents at least one person, but in fact, it re-
presents one or a few families who are or used to be connected
with Łódź. It is a symbol of life and remembrance, survival and
hope.
Behind each of these trees there is a story of pre-war Łódź, its multi-
cultural history, the history of Łódź merchants, rabbis, shoemakers, tea-
chers, small manufacturers and workers, who, in 1940, had to move to the
district formed for the Jews by the Germans at that time. Each tree tells
a story of this family in the ghetto, the story of the name of Łódź being
changed to the Nazi name of Litzmannstadt, the hunger, death, and of
the deportations to Chełmno nad Nerem and Auschwitz-Birkenau. But it
also tells stories about survival, liberation and life after the war. Some sur-
vivors returned to Poland and stayed forever or for a while, but others
could not, or did not want to come back and started a new life in different
parts of the world. The Survivors' Park tells the story of them all.
On the 10th anniversary of the establishment of the Survivors' Park
in Łódź, we are starting a long-term project: "Trees of Remembrance".
It's motto: "We are eternal trees..." is a line from a poem by Rachmil
Bryks "Do not Despair".
The project begins with ten stories from the Łódź ghetto; the stories
of ten people who have their trees in the Survivors' Park.

Łódź, August 2014

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