Transport from Aleksandrow, Lodz, Lodz, Poland to Lodz, Ghetto, Poland on 20/09/1941

In 1939, the town of Aleksandrów Łódzki (German: Alexandrow) had approximately 4,000 Jews, comprising one third of the population. Immediately following the occupation of the city, the Germans began to mistreat and murder the Jews. They destroyed the synagogue and abused the Jews, abducting them for forced labor and shooting over thirty. On November 11, 1939, many Poles and Jews were arrested and sent to the Radogoszcz prison near Łódź. On December 27, 1939, almost all of the city’s remaining Jews—some 3,000—were deported to Głowno in the General Government (Generalgouvernement, the zone of Nazi-occupied central Poland not formally annexed to the Reich). After the expulsion, the Germans confiscated Jewish property, taking whatever they could use and burning the rest.^[1]

The Nazi newspaper Deutsche Lodzer Zeitung declared the city to be "free of Jews" on December 30, 1939; nonetheless, almost two years later, on September 20, 1942, a small transport with thirteen Jews left the city for the Łódź ghetto.^[2] A list of the transport’s deportees was recorded by the Łódź ghetto’s Junderat. The list, which has been preserved, includes the names of the thirteen deportees who arrived in the ghetto, with their birth dates and places of birth; their origin is written as “Aleksandrow.” The names of the deportees on the list confirm that they originated from Aleksandrów Łódzki and not Aleksandrów Kujawski. ^[3]

The oldest among the arrivals from Aleksandrów Łódzki was Malka Colla, who was born on March 14, 1879; the youngest, Chana Studenberg, was born on January 12, 1939. The Colla family, which consisted of three people, was assigned to live with Ella Segan (b. June 4, 1919) in an apartment in the ghetto. The Studenberg family—four children and their parents—were sent to live with Czarna Studenberg (b. 1867); it is very likely that they were related.^[4] Other deportees from Aleksandrów Łódzki included the Mendlowicz family: Fiszel (b. August 15, 1906) and Sara Ryfka (b. March 15, 1902) and their daughter Hanna (b. March 16, 1935) Mendlowicz. ^[5]...