Transport IV from Lodz, Ghetto, Poland to Chelmno, Extermination Camp, Poland on 19/01/1942

The chronicle of the Łódź ghetto (entry No. 6) noted that, from January 9, 1942 onwards, the Deportation Commission had delivered the first 2,000 deportation orders. The addressees were Jews under arrest in the ghetto prison, and their families; Jews originally from Włocławek and vicinity, who had arrived in the ghetto during October 1941; relatives of those who had been sent to forced labor in Germany; prostitutes; and others. Some ghetto inhabitants volunteered for the transport, due to extreme hunger. It is not clear how much was known about the destination of the deportations in January, which turned out to be the Chełmno extermination camp, some 60 kilometers northwest of the Łódź ghetto. The deportees were ordered to assemble 2-3 days before their deportation at 7 Szklana Street (Trödlergasse), near the central prison of the ghetto; in Marysin, the agricultural area of the ghetto, where many youth and children lived; or in the school at 25 Młynarska Street (Mühlgasse). Whoever assisted deportees in hiding was also threatened with deportation. From the assembly points, the Jews were taken northeast through the ghetto to the Radegast train station....