Transport from Zgierz, Lodz, Lodz, Poland to Glowno, Ghetto, Poland on 27/12/1939

At the outbreak of World War II, some 4,800 Jews lived in Zgierz (Łódź, Litzmannstadt County), in the Wartheland (also Warthegau)—located 10 kilometers northwest of Łódź—comprising approximately 15 percent of the town’s population. The Wehrmacht marched into Zgierz on September 7, 1939. Within a few days, the German authorities had organized slave labor, plundered the Jewish inhabitants and their businesses,^[1] defiled their holy sites, tortured, and murdered Jewish men, women, and children.^[2]

Shortly after the occupation, many Jews—predominantly young men—fled the town. Many of them reached Poland’s Soviet-occupied eastern region. However, most of Zgierz’s Jewish inhabitants were chased out by the German authorities. Some sought shelter with their relatives in Łódź; others journeyed further eastwards.^[3] Leon Merrick recalled in an interview the day—it may have been December 24 or 26, 1939^[4]—when the Jews of Zgierz understood that everyone must leave town:

“A rumour was going around that all Jews have to report [at] the market square. And we came to the market square, we were debating if we should bring my younger brother or not because we did not know if we were allowed to go back home. So after we were there at the market place for a couple of hours or so, the whole city, it was full…it didn't take long to fill it up, so one of the ethnic Germans came out of the mayor's office, and he told us that this city has to be free of Jews in three days' time. So people went all over the place.”^[5]...