Transport VIII from Lodz, Ghetto, Poland to Chelmno, Extermination Camp, Poland on 23/01/1942

The eights transport from Łódź to Chełmno — with 701 Jews — left the ghetto on Friday, January 23, 1942. The ghetto mailmen delivered summonses to the deportees requiring them to report a few days earlier to one of the three assembly sites: 7 Szklana Street (Trödlergasse) near the main prison, Marysin area and the school building at 25 Młynarska Street (Mühlgasse). Deportees whose homes were far from the assembly sites had to cross one of the two bridges above Zgierska Street (Hohensteiner Strasse) — a passage that was physically very hard for a starving population in the snow and the cold of January, when temperatures dropped to -18 °C. When the deportees entered these assembly sites, their bread and food rations were confiscated after which they received their usual food ration in the ghetto from the Judenrat (about 900 calories a day), necessary clothes and wooden clogs. Each deportee was given half a loaf of bread and sausage as provisions for the journey. On January 23, 1942 — the day of the deportation — Salomon Frank, who lived in the ghetto, wrote in his diary: "It has become clear today that 50 of those who received summonses have died of a heart attack. They could not bear the agony of having to leave their home in such a harsh winter. Some of them had a heart attack when they were already dressed to go, and with their packs on their back […] now the scene is horrific. Anyone would shudder at the thought of how the miserable Jews were deported. No pen has been created that could describe this."...