The ghetto postal service stopped working at the beginning of 1942. However, from March 9, the authorities permitted ghetto inhabitants to send some 1,000 postcards to friends and family containing details regarding the senders’ health. This was probably intended to calm the atmosphere in the ghetto following the resumption of the deportations.[1]
Those deported from the ghetto In March 1942 were mainly Polish Jews, in particular persons charged with various minor offences (such as stealing bread) and individuals who relied or had recently relied on welfare support.[2] According to The Chronicle of the Łódź Ghetto this led to a decline in thievery and other minor offences in the ghetto: "The fear of transport prevented people from committing abuses and crimes."[3]
In addition, the Chronicle reports that there was an increase in the death rate in March 1942, a result of the long and bitter winter, severe hunger, and the resumption of deportations. The suicide rate amongst the ghetto residents also increased. The Chronicle: "The universal mood of depression and panic that reigned in March as a result of the resettlement action provided fertile soil for acts of desperation."[4] Almost every other day Polish Jews committed suicide. So too Jews previously deported from Western Europe to the Łódź ghetto chose to take their own lives. Among those who committed suicide was a fifty-seven-year-old man, J.Sch. (b. 1885), originally from Frankfurt am Main, who died in the ghetto hospital I after taking poison. The motive for his desperate act, reported by the Ordnungsdienst (Jewish ghetto police), was unclear.[5]...