Transport from Zychlin, Ghetto, Poland to Lodz, Ghetto, Poland on 24/06/1942

The first Jews to be deported from Żychlin were several hundred young Jewish men who were sent to forced labor camps in the vicinity of Poznań between August 1941 and the end of December. At the same time, some sixty Jewish women were sent to field labor outside Żychlin. By March 1942, the population of the ghetto had swelled to 3,200, due to the arrival of Jewish refugees and expellees from neighboring villages. The bulk of the deportations occurred on March 2 and 3, 1942, when the ghetto was liquidated. Around two hundred Jews were murdered on the spot and the rest were deported via Krośniewice (Kroßwitz) to the Chełmno (Kulmhof) extermination camp where they were murdered in mobile gas chambers on trucks. At least three Jewish men were ordered to stay in Żychlin. Although the purpose is not stated, it is fair to assume that these men were tasked with the job given those who remained after ghettos has been liquidated: cleaning out the properties of the Jews who had been deported and sorting and wrapping confiscated belongings. These were subsequently sold or auctioned to Germans and Poles or sometimes moved to the German administration of the Łódź ghetto, which claimed to be the legal inheritor of the Jewish valuables. The Gestapo was in charge of the proceedings. The profits were then sent to a special account, “Sonderkonto 12300,” at the Stadtsparkasse Litzmannstadt bank; the funds were aimed, inter alia, at covering deportation costs....