Transport from Kowal, Wloclawek, Warszawa, Poland to Lodz, Ghetto, Poland on 09/10/1941

By mid-September, 1939, the Włocławek region had been entirely occupied by the Germans. As was the case in Litzmannstadt (Łódź), Leslau (Włocławek) was considered by the Germans to consist of two separate units—“Kreis Leslau Stadt,” the city, and “Kreis Leslau Land,” the county. Before the war, at least 15,042 Jews lived in the county and the city together. After the annexation, many Jews fled or were deported to the General Government (Generalgouvernement, the zone of Nazi-occupied central Poland not formally annexed to the Reich). As a result, the number of Jews in the city dropped significantly to some 3,200 people; approximately 5,000 remained in the Włocławek region overall. According to a census from 1921, some 1,227 Jews lived in Kowal. In 1939, there were approximately 800 Jews in Chodecz, located some 15 kilometers southwest of Kowal. The Jews made up between a third and a half of the population in both of these towns. After the occupation on September 15, the Germans began to demand money from the Jews in the county, threatening some with deportation. On December 11, 1939, the Germans deported Jews from Lubień and Kowal to Szymanów. They also deported almost all of the men from Chodecz to forced labor camps in the Poznań (Posen) region; only 440 remained by 1941. In June 1941, 350 men from Kowal were deported to forced labor camps in the Poznań region. ...