Deportation from Łódź to Auschwitz on August, 14, 1944Of about 206,000 Jews who had inhabited the Łódź (Litzmannstadt) ghetto, only 68,516 remained on August 1, 1944—40,023 females and 28,493 males, including 4,635 children. By the end of August, the ghetto had been liquidated and almost the entire remaining population had been send to their death in Auschwitz-Birkenau.
Despite extensive research, it is impossible to cite full and accurate transport dates for this phase of the massive deportations, which may indeed have spilled over into September. Nazi Germany’s looming defeat and the concomitant chaos during the final months of the ghetto’s existence impacted powerfully on the records kept by both the Germans and the Jews.
According to a report dated August 13, 1944, Hans Biebow, chief of the Gettoverwaltung (German administration of the ghetto) was heard via a wiretap telling Franz Seifert that the deportation of the saddle-makers workshop (Sattlerbetrieb) was planned for the next day, August 14, at 10:45 A.M. ...