Transport from Lodz, Ghetto, Poland to Auschwitz Birkenau, Extermination Camp, Poland on 27/08/1944

On Sunday, August 27, 1944, a deportation with likely thousands of Jews left the Radegast (Radogoszcz) train station of the Łódź Ghetto, heading towards Auschwitz-Birkenau. From a population of almost 69,000 at the beginning of August 1944, only a few were left in the shrunken ghetto, hoping that the Red Army would arrive soon and liberate the city.

Some Jews attempted to hide and a few volunteered for the transport. For many, it was important to stay together. So, for example, on August 6, forty couples married due to rumors that married persons wouldn’t be separated. One such couple was deported on August 27: Hania (Harcsztark) Goldfeder-Mayer (b. March 17, 1922, in Łódź) and Janek Goldfeder.^[1]

A KRIPO (Criminal Police) report dated September 27, 1944, falsely stated August 27 as the last deportation day. This “Evakuierung” (evacuation, a Nazi euphemism for deportation) “went on time and smoothly (terminsgemäß und reibungslos).” The Jews “took possession of […] vegetables. […through] the use of firearm [we] could stop the continuation of this criminal offence. Other Jews hid themselves in vacant houses escaping so in order to prevent apprehension. The majority of them could be tracked down and arrested through patrol searches.”^[2] Some of the Jews who tried to hide, members of a religious group, were denounced and caught.^[3] Others who tried to hide failed and were discovered.^[4]...