Transport from Lodz, Ghetto, Poland to Auschwitz Birkenau, Extermination Camp, Poland on 24/08/1944

Of about 206,000 Jews who had inhabited the Łódź (Litzmannstadt) ghetto, only 68,516 remained on August 1, 1944—40,023 women and 28,493 men, including 4,635 children.^[1] By the end of August, the ghetto had been liquidated and almost the entire remaining population had been sent 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 approaching 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.^[2]  Our research indicates that the deportations from the Łódź ghetto to  Auschwitz-Birkenau, as part  of the ghetto’s liquidation, began in the first week of August 1944, on the fourth and fifth of that month.^[3] Rumors about the deportations generated fear and panic among the ghetto’s Jewish inmates,^[4] and many were afraid to report to the designated assembly sites for the transports, while some prepared places to hide. However, concealment was difficult, and the German forces–Gestapo, SCHUPO (Schutzpolizei) and firemen–brutally rooted out individuals and families for deportation.^[5]

On August 22, 1944, Chaim Mordechai Rumkowski, head of the Judenrat in the ghetto, issued an announcement calling for volunteers for the transport “in order to avoid coercive measures.”^[6] On August 24, Rumkowski spoke publicly to the ghetto inhabitants for the last time.^[7] They were to report to the assembly sites at the central prison (12 Czarnieckiego Street/Schneidergasse) or the nearby building at 3 Schneidergasse, he stated. The announcement added that food would be provided at the Radegast station.^[8] The Gestapo threatened those who stay outside the ghetto with the death penalty.^[9]...