Wave of Deportation from Lodz(Gypsy Camp), Ghetto, Poland to Chelmno, Extermination Camp, Poland on 19/12/1941

The deportations of Roma from the “Zigeunerlager” (Gypsy camp) in the Łódź ghetto began because of urgent need to prevent the spread of a typhus epidemic.^[1] The highest levels in the Wartheland administration were involved in this decision. On December 5, 1941, Reichsstatthalter Arthur Greiser, the governor of the Wartheland, issued an order to deport all Roma who contracted the disease.^[2] It was executed by Sonderkommando (SK) Lange and by the ghetto branch of the KRIPO Litzmannstadt.^[3]

Although the exact date of the first transport of Roma is not known, our research finds that the deportations began on December 4 or 5, 1941. The existence of these early transports are suggested by several invoices for truck rentals, forwarded by the German ghetto administration (Gettoverwaltung - GV) to the Jewish ghetto administration for defrayal. The second transport wave occurred on December 17 and 18. An exact breakdown for the use of the vehicles involved provides evidence that the Roma were deported to Chełmno extermination camp.

A third deportation wave by truck is substantiated by an item on invoice no. 011628^[4]–“regarding the Gypsy camp”– dated March 24, 1942. It concerns another truck rental and was forwarded by the GV to Rumkowski’s office.^[5] The item refers to the use of a truck bearing license number P-19572.^[6] This vehicle was supplied for December 23 and 24 and was in use during “two days and three hours” during which was driven 80 kilometers. It was likely driven to Chełmno on December 23, stayed overnight and returned on Christmas eve.^[7]...