After Germany invaded Poland in 1939, the Nazi regime forced Jewish people out of their homes and into sealed, confined neighborhoods called ghettos. The Lodz Ghetto, established in early 1940 in the Polish city of Lodz, became one of the largest ghettos in all of occupied Europe. It remained in operation until its liquidation in 1944.
Before the war, Lodz had a thriving Jewish community. Jewish residents were deeply woven into the city’s culture, trade, and industry. That changed quickly once German forces occupied the city and began enforcing anti-Jewish policies.
Jews from Lodz and the surrounding region were forced into a cramped section of the city covering just about 1.5 square miles. The area was sealed off with barbed wire and walls. Tens of thousands of people were packed into a space never meant to hold them.
The Germans set up a Jewish administrative body inside the ghetto called the Judenrat, or Jewish Council. This council was responsible for carrying out German orders, including organizing housing, distributing food, managing sanitation, and assigning forced labor.
Chaim Rumkowski was appointed by the Germans to lead the Judenrat. He was a deeply controversial figure. Rumkowski believed that making the ghetto economically useful to the Germans — through labor and production — was the best way to keep residents alive. He organized factories and workshops inside the ghetto walls.
Residents of the ghetto labored long hours in these workshops, producing goods for the German war effort. Food rations were dangerously small. Hunger was a constant presence, and malnutrition weakened people throughout the ghetto.
Overcrowding made sanitation extremely difficult. Disease spread through the tightly packed streets and shared housing. Despite the efforts of the Judenrat to maintain some order, conditions inside the ghetto steadily worsened as the years went on.
