Wave of Deportation from Ozorkow, Ghetto, Poland to Lodz, Ghetto, Poland on 21/05/1942

At the beginning of World War II, German troops occupied the western Polish district of  Łęczyca, initially part of the General Government )Generalgouvernement, the zone of Nazi-occupied central Poland not formally annexed to the Reich). Fierce battles over Ozorków took place in September 1939 and the city was conquered on September 5 or 7, 1939; many residents were shot and killed in the process. The Germans burned down the synagogue and Beit Midrash (Jewish house of study) on the subsequent days. Following the occupation, the Germans began to hunt for Jews and sent them to hard labor—among other things, burying the many bodies around the city.

On November 20, 1939, the district was annexed to the German Reich under the Landkreis (district) of Lentschütz, which later became part of the Landkreis of Kalisz (and from 1941 part of the district of Litzmannstadt). The seat of the German District Office was the city of Ozorków, which was renamed Brunnstadt.

In 1939, Ozorków had approximately 15,000 inhabitants, including just over 5,000 Jews. Jews from other towns—among them Kalisz and Zgierz—arrived in Ozorków soon after the occupation. The Germans ordered that a Judenrat be set up; Shimon Barczinski, a Zionist activist from the pre-war years, was appointed as chairman. At the end of 1939, the Jews were evacuated from the main streets of the town and from the nicest homes. They were ordered to move to alleyways that were assigned to them, and were not permitted to take any belongings. By the summer of 1941, an open ghetto had been established, which contained about half of the Jews in Ozorków; the others continued to live elsewhere in the town....