Of about 206,000 Jews who had inhabited the Łódź (Litzmannstadt) ghetto, only 68,516 remained on August 1, 1944—40,023 women and 28,493 men, including 4,635 children.^[1] By the end of August, the ghetto had been liquidated and almost the entire remaining population had been sent to their death in Auschwitz-Birkenau.

Despite extensive research, it is impossible to cite full and accurate transport dates for this phase of the massive deportations, which may indeed have spilled over into September. Nazi Germany’s looming defeat and the concomitant chaos during the final months of the ghetto’s existence impacted powerfully on the records kept by both the Germans and the Jews.^[2] Even though the Judenrat’s statistical department kept records until August 21, the first deportations that month, which began more than two weeks earlier, were only listed retroactively, in the records for August 18-21. Deportations were listed for August 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, and 13, comprising a total of 12,400 souls.^[3] However, our research indicates that the first two transports that month left the ghetto as early as August 4 and 5, and it is unclear whether the statistical department listed different dates by mistake or intentionally.^[4]

An announcement (Bekanntmachung) of August 9, 1944, ordered that: “All inhabitants of the western part of the ghetto must move into the eastern part. […] The inhabitants and workers there must all move over into the eastern part of the ghetto. From Thursday, the 10th of August 1944, no food at all may be given out in the western part of the ghetto.”^[5]

According to the testimony of M. Margulies, on the night of August 9 new announcements appeared on the ghetto’s walls, ordering the immediate closure of all the work departments and the cessation of work–signaling the final liquidation of the ghetto, if anyone still harbored any illusions on that score. Second, the announcement ordered the immediate evacuation of the western side of the ghetto, along the lines of its division by Zgierska (Hohensteinerstrasse) and Limanowskiego (Alexanderhofstrasse) Streets into  western and  eastern sections. The evacuation order generated tremendous panic. The inhabitants of the western side escaped to the "other side." As this mass flight proceeded, the German police entered the ghetto and seized the disoriented and shocked inhabitants. Those caught in the street were taken directly to the train, with no luggage and without family members. With this turn of events, the inhabitants of the western side, instead of moving to the other side, began plundering the abandoned cooperatives and bakeries. Looting also occurred  on the other side. The Gestapo and the SS now entered the ghetto area and, not being satisfied with the street roundups, also took people from their homes, with the help of the Jewish police.^[6]

Jakub Poznański wrote in his diary about the events of August 10, 1944:

“I got up at 5 A.M. and, hearing sounds of movement through the window, I went outside to find out what they were.  It turned out that our street is preparing for the Aktion, and people are running away with their backpacks. On the other hand, people from the other side [of the ghetto] are coming to this side. Since we had decided to hide in the workshop [ressort], I took some of our things there already at 5 A.M. I found quite a few people already hiding there: Koplowicz and Perelman….I announced the arrival of my family, i.e.  my wife and daughter. I went back home, took some more things and carried them to the ressort. I did 4-5 rounds like that. At 7 A.M. we received the news that the Aktion had begun and that  a roundup was underway on the odd-numbered side of Wschodnia Street. Luckily my family was already in the ressort. For a long while we saw no signs of an Aktion, but people coming over from the other side were caught and taken to waiting  tramcars and taken to the Radegast [train] station, where we heard that they were immediately loaded onto railway cars. We heard that those who were caught in the street were deported in conditions worse than those for cattle. The Aktion stopped at around 1PM when they [the Germans] ordered a break; after lunch,  at 3 P.M. , they resumed the Aktion, on our side. They took [people from] the block: the even side of Zawiszy Street, Franciszkanska, Dworska, Lagiewnicka. Many people were taken. The Aktion ended at 5 PM -6 PM. The people who had hidden in their holes during the Aktion–even on other streets and not just those where the Aktion took place–slowly emerge. Some cooperative shops were opened, cabbage was distributed in the squares, etc., the ghetto came back to life. This is how Thursday passed. Tired from the sleepless night, from the whole day's events, we were happy when, at 9 PM -10 PM, we could lie down to sleep. We arranged our sleeping place in the work hall from benches, on which we put bundles of large bags, that would serve as our mattresses.”^[7]

On August 10-11 the ghetto’s west side was evacuated and further distribution of  food rations there was forbidden. Some of the inhabitants escaped to the east side in an effort to hide, others were caught and deported.^[8] On August 11–according to a note of the Judenrat’s statistical department delivered three days later to Müller, an official in the Gettoverwaltung (German administration of the ghetto)–2,700 people were deported.^[9] Hans Biebow, chief of the Gettoverwaltung, was heard via a wiretap that evening telling his deputy, Erich Czarnulla,  that 2,710 Jews had been deported. This result, he added, was only achievable if pressure was exerted (on the Jews). Biebow said he would begin at 6:00 A.M.^[10] – referring to the roundups.

Menashe Wasercug, who lived on the ghetto’s west side,^[11] wrote in his diary on August 14^[12]:

“It was terrible last Thursday and Friday [August 10–11]. It is hard to describe. We have learned that within 12 hours we must leave the area on the other side of the bridge, where I also had been. There was a terrible tumult. I almost fell apart…. living in deathly fear. Because we want to go on living. And when you leave the ghetto there are question marks. In a good case 60–70 persons are packed into one train car. Then it is sealed, and there is no water, no place to sit.”

An anonymous young girl in the ghetto who kept a diary described the events of August 10:

“In the morning we get up, get dressed. Mom went back home to bring some more things. After a few minutes she came back, new announcements: the ressorts have been liquidated. Everyone from the other side of the city has to move to our side. From today, it is forbidden even to give out food rations on the other side. SCHUPO [Schutzpolizei - uniformed regular police] are in the ghetto. They surround the buildings, tear people out of apartments. They break every door that is locked…The Aktion began today at 8 A.M. They came to our street at 9 A.M., screaming, “Everyone o down.” We put the backpacks and bags on and we stood and waited … Oh, what terrible hours these were. The Germans are knocking, and we do nothing, we are quiet and our hearts are pounding. They tore the doors down in all the neighbors’ apartments. They searched trees to see if people are hiding on them. They shout, they order us to go out. The Jewish police are looting everything. They take whatever they see and whatever they can carry. We stood like that from 9 till 12, without moving. My dear God, who knows what will happen to us. There are thefts everywhere.”^[13]  

 According to records of the Judenrat’s statistical department,  the transport of August 10, 1944, carried  2,500 Jews, among them 175  children.^[14] The exact route taken by the  transport train that day, from the Łódź ghetto to the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp, is not known. However, a note written during a deportation from the Łódź ghetto a few days later mentioned places such as Kłobuck (Klobutzko) and Chorzów (Królewska Chuta), indicating that the route covered at least 270 kilometers.^[15]

Upon arrival at the ramp of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp, men and women were usually separated, and each group underwent a “selection” process. About 48,000 of the 67,000 deportees from Łódź to Auschwitz-Birkenau  were sent directly from the train to the gas chambers; the rest, some 19,000, were taken to the Auschwitz camp  or its sub-camps for forced labor.^[16]

We  know of only one survivor of the August 10, 1944, transport, named Angie. In her testimony, Angie writes that she and those who remained  of her family were transported to Auschwitz on that day. From there she was deported with a group of young women to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp; then she was incarcerated in the Salzwedel labor camp which was liberated by the U.S. Army on April 11, 1945.^[17]

Of all the Jews who passed through the Łódź ghetto, only 7,000 to 10,000 survived the Holocaust.^[18]