Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- 1940s (Creation)
Level of description
Extent and medium
c 42 frames
Context area
Name of creator
Biographical history
Lodz ghetto or the Ghetto Litzmannstadt was the second-largest ghetto established for Jews and Roma in German-occupied Poland. It was originally intended as a temporary gathering point for Jews but the ghetto became a major industrial centre, providing much needed supplies for Nazi Germany. Because of its remarkable productivity, the ghetto managed to survive until Aug 1944, when the remaining population was transported to Auschwitz. It was the last ghetto in Poland to be liquidated.
Mordechai Chaim Rumkowski, who had run a Jewish orphanage before the war, was appointed 'Elder of the Jews' by the Nazis in 1939. He was a man of extraordinary energy and determination, who turned the ghetto into a hive of industry in the vain hope of securing the survival of most of its inhabitants by making them economically too valuable to the German war effort to be murdered. To achieve this aim, he agreed to the introduction and enforcement of a ruthless system of labour exploitation, a permanent state of hunger for most of his workers, and the creation of an utterly degraded class of Jewish collaborators and slave drivers. Having been responsible for the deportation of thousands of ghetto inmates to their deaths - which earned him the label 'collaborator' - Rumkowski was deported with his family to Auschwitz on 30 August 1944, where they were all murdered.
Repository
Archival history
Comprises at least two separate deposits.
GB 1556 WL 559 1940s collection c 42 frames Lodz Ghetto
Lodz ghetto or the Ghetto Litzmannstadt was the second-largest ghetto established for Jews and Roma in German-occupied Poland. It was originally intended as a temporary gathering point for Jews but the ghetto became a major industrial centre, providing much needed supplies for Nazi Germany. Because of its remarkable productivity, the ghetto managed to survive until Aug 1944, when the remaining population was transported to Auschwitz. It was the last ghetto in Poland to be liquidated.
Mordechai Chaim Rumkowski, who had run a Jewish orphanage before the war, was appointed 'Elder of the Jews' by the Nazis in 1939. He was a man of extraordinary energy and determination, who turned the ghetto into a hive of industry in the vain hope of securing the survival of most of its inhabitants by making them economically too valuable to the German war effort to be murdered. To achieve this aim, he agreed to the introduction and enforcement of a ruthless system of labour exploitation, a permanent state of hunger for most of his workers, and the creation of an utterly degraded class of Jewish collaborators and slave drivers. Having been responsible for the deportation of thousands of ghetto inmates to their deaths - which earned him the label 'collaborator' - Rumkowski was deported with his family to Auschwitz on 30 August 1944, where they were all murdered.
Comprises at least two separate deposits.
Jewish Central Information Office
Microfilm of facsimile documentation from the Lodz ghetto, 1940s, including material on the controversial role of the chairman of the Judenrat, Mordechai Rumkowski, including printed public ghetto announcements in Yiddish and German dealing with such subjects as food rationing, forged ghetto money, saluting Germans, sanitary conditions, the use of electric cookers, and arrangement for the 're-settlement' of ghetto inmates, 1941-1944; fragment of a calendar covering part of the year 1942, the front bears an image of Rumkowski with the ghetto in the background and the month of January opens with the slogans 'work', 'bread', 'care of the sick', 'protection for the children', 'peace in the ghetto'; plan of Lodz ghetto entitled 'plan of Litzmannstadt showing Jewish populated areas' [1940] and school reports from former pupils of the Humanistischen Lyzeum, Lodz.
Not arranged
Open
Copies can be made for personal use. Permission must be sought for publication.
German and Yiddish
Microfilm
Detailed description on the Wiener Library's online catalogue www.wienerlibrary.co.uk.
Entry compiled by Sarah Drewery.
Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.
Mar 2008 Concentration camps Eastern Europe Genocide Holocaust Humanitarian law Jews Lodz Lodz ghetto, Poland Nazism Occupied territories Poland Political doctrines Racial discrimination Racial segregation Religious groups Third Reich Totalitarianism War crimes World wars (events) World War Two (1939-1945) Wars (events)
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Jewish Central Information Office
Content and structure area
Scope and content
Microfilm of facsimile documentation from the Lodz ghetto, 1940s, including material on the controversial role of the chairman of the Judenrat, Mordechai Rumkowski, including printed public ghetto announcements in Yiddish and German dealing with such subjects as food rationing, forged ghetto money, saluting Germans, sanitary conditions, the use of electric cookers, and arrangement for the 're-settlement' of ghetto inmates, 1941-1944; fragment of a calendar covering part of the year 1942, the front bears an image of Rumkowski with the ghetto in the background and the month of January opens with the slogans 'work', 'bread', 'care of the sick', 'protection for the children', 'peace in the ghetto'; plan of Lodz ghetto entitled 'plan of Litzmannstadt showing Jewish populated areas' [1940] and school reports from former pupils of the Humanistischen Lyzeum, Lodz.
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling
Accruals
System of arrangement
Not arranged
Conditions of access and use area
Conditions governing access
Open
Conditions governing reproduction
Copies can be made for personal use. Permission must be sought for publication.
Language of material
- English
Script of material
- Latin
Language and script notes
German and Yiddish
Physical characteristics and technical requirements
Finding aids
Detailed description on the Wiener Library's online catalogue www.wienerlibrary.co.uk.
Allied materials area
Existence and location of originals
Existence and location of copies
Related units of description
Notes area
Alternative identifier(s)
Access points
Subject access points
- Humanitarian law » War crimes » Concentration camps
- Humanitarian law » War crimes » Genocide
- Humanitarian law
- Religious groups » Jews
- Political doctrines » Totalitarianism » Nazism
- Humanitarian law » Occupied territories
- Political doctrines
- Interethnic relations » Ethnic discrimination » Racial segregation
- Religious groups
- Political doctrines » Totalitarianism
- Humanitarian law » War crimes
Place access points
Name access points
Genre access points
Description control area
Description identifier
Institution identifier
Rules and/or conventions used
Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.
Status
Level of detail
Dates of creation revision deletion
Language(s)
- English