Transport from Lodz, Ghetto, Poland to Auschwitz Birkenau, Extermination Camp, Poland on 20/08/1944

Of about the 206,000 Jews who had, prior to August 1, 1944, inhabited the Łódź (Litzmannstadt) Ghetto, on that date only 68,516 remained—40,023 females and 28,493 males, including 4,635 children.^[1] By the end of August, the ghetto had been liquidated, and almost the entire remaining population had been deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau where they were murdered.

Despite the extensive research that has been conducted, it is not always possible 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 approaching defeat and the concomitant chaos during the final months of the ghetto’s existence powerfully impacted 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 listed only 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]

For the first few days after the transports began, the number of Jews who reported for the deportations was relatively small, and the Germans reacted, using various tactics to force the Jews to report for deportation, such as the cessation of food rations and the employment of violence. The Germans constantly shrank the ghetto, closing parts of it and thus forcing the Jews to move to other parts, which in turn also shrank in size. On August 10–11, the ghetto’s western section was evacuated,^[5] and, on August 17–18, another part of the ghetto was torn down.^[6] The Gestapo warned that, after August 19, any Jew found on the streets of those portions of the ghetto that had been liquidated would be killed.^[7]...