November 9, 1941, Jews working in Bakery #3 in the Lodz Ghetto, Poland

Factories were established in the Lodz Ghetto and cheap Jewish labor was exploited for the German war economy. The Jews worked under terrible conditions of hunger and hardship; many collapsed on the job. The Altestenrat (Council of Jewish Elders) believed that the factories were a means of proving Jewish productivity, with the hope that this would save Jewish lives. 

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