Page 8 - Centrum Dialogu im. Marka Edelmana w Łodzi. Litzmannstadt Getto. Ślady.

introduction

the exhibition „litzmannstadt ghetto. traces” is a part of the commemo-
ration of the 75th anniversary of the deportation of Jews from Western
europe to the Łódź ghetto. the commemoration events are organised by
the marek edelman dialogue center and will take place in Łódź in late
october 2016. the exhibition consists of two parts. the first part – „Jews
from the reich and protectorate in Łódź ghetto (1941–1944)” tells the
story of 20,000 Jewish residents of several large european cities, including
Vienna, prague, Berlin, luxembourg, resettled to litzmannstadt (as Łódź
was called at that time) by the germans in the autumn of 1941. many of
them lost their lives in the ghetto and were buried at the Jewish cemetery;
several thousand were murdered in kulmhof am ner (chełmno nad nerem),
auschwitz-Birkenau and other concentration camps, to which they were
deported from Łódź. only a few survived the war. the exhibition recalls
subsequent stages of nazi repressions against the Jews in europe before
the outbreak of World War ii and the essential facts from the period prior
to deportations from the reich and protectorate. it shows how european
Jews were received, under what conditions they were to live in the ghetto
and what their eventual fate was.
the second part of the exhibition – „»We are the eternal trees...« 10 stories
from the Łódź ghetto” – is a subsequent part of the „trees of remembrance”
project. it presents biographies of ten survivors of the holocaust, whose tre-
es are planted in the Survivors’ park. their post-war fates provide evidence
that despite their tragic experiences and the deaths of their close relatives
they managed to overcome the trauma and created beautiful and good
lives. the exhibition features Jadwiga and arnold mostowicz and Juta and
zvi Bergman – married couples whose love began in the time of the Shoah.
others, like lolek and rachela grynfeld, were united by mutual post-war
experiences. there are also the stories of Bronisława rotsztatówna, a violin
player who became a concertmaster of the Łódź philharmonic hall after the
war, a singer tova Ben-zvi, doctor Salomea kape and roman kent, a busi-
nessman and social activist.
the exhibition „litzmannstadt ghetto. traces” has been financed by the
ministry of culture and national heritage.

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