Henryk Ross was a photographer in the statistics department of the Judenrat in the Łódź ghetto. Alongside his official work, he secretly documented the lives of the Jews in the ghetto. He hid the film rolls in a box that he buried within the ghetto, and retrieved them after the liberation. He presented several of the photographs he had taken in the ghetto in the course of his testimony at the Eichmann Trial.
Holocaust survivor Krysia Stopnicki, one of the few Jewish children born in the Łódź ghetto, got to hold a cherished possession that once belonged to her mother.
Spotlight
February 1941
9 November 1941
February 1942
September 1942
December 1943
15 August 1944
August 1944
November 1946
Educational Materials
Maintaining a “Normal” Way of Life in an Abnormal World
From the Online Exhibitions
On 30 August 1944, a deportation train left the Łódź ghetto bound for Auschwitz-Birkenau. Among the passengers were head of the Judenrat in Łódź, Mordechai Rumkowski, his family and some of the ghetto's senior personnel. This was the last transport from Łódź to Auschwitz. Avraham Benkel and his 14-year-old son were also on the train.
Łódź Ghetto
Street entertainers, who wrote new lyrics to Yiddish folksongs that reflected the events taking place around them, performed the songs in the Łódź ghetto. The songs describe the events and daily life of the ghetto during its first year of existence.
In the Łódź ghetto, a rabbinical committee under the Judenrat coordinated marriages. The Germans disbanded it in September 1942, halting formal Jewish weddings. In October, Judenrat chairman Mordechai Rumkowski started to officiate at the weddings himself.
Initially, communal prayers were permitted inside the Łódź ghetto, and many Jews flocked to the synagogues as havens of prayer and spiritual sustenance as well as venues for social interaction. In light of this, new houses of prayer and learning were opened.
From the Yad Vashem Art Collection
Josef Kowner
Jozef Kowner
Zvi Hirsch Szylis
Sara Gliksman-Fajtlowicz
Maurycy Trębacz
From the Yad Vashem Artifacts Collection
Digital Collections
Featured Stories about Righteous Among the Nations from the Łódź Area
As a businessman, Howil used to travel from Kraków to Łódź or Częstochowa and back, and used these occasions to smuggle Jews out of Łódź
In saving the lives of Jews during the Holocaust, Brauner acted selflessly out of loyalty toward his employer, for whom he was prepared to risk his life. In addition, Brauner also helped other Jewish fugitives.
Genowefa Szymańska lived in Łódź during World War II. She risked her life to save her former employer Israel Goldblum and his family, as well as other Jews, during the Holocaust.
Before the war, Zofia Libich worked for the Ostern family in Łódź. She was a faithful employee, devoted to little Hana Ostern. She risked her life over and over in an effort to save the family, and was arrested and imprisoned as a result of her actions.
Upon the occupation of Łódź, the Lerczyńskis came to the help of Chaim Putersznyt and 13-year-old Ruchla Frymer, their neighbors and friends. Risking his life, Lerczyński was guided by humanitarian considerations and a true friendship that triumphed over adversity.
Online Store
Editor: Michal Unger
Guy Miron (Editor-in-Chief), Shlomit Shulhani (Co-editor)
Heniek Fogel | Editor: Helene Sinnreich
Josef Zelkowicz | Edited by Michal Unger
DVD, Ages 15+ Subtitles in English
Educational kit, ages 15+ Language: English
