By the end of September, 1939, the Germans had occupied Łęczyca County, annexing it to the German Reich under the name Landkreis Lentschütz on November 20. The county’s total population numbered some 126,000 people, of whom between 9,631 and 14,300 were Jews—numbers which varied with the refugees’ movement. In the village of Gostków, part of the municipality of Wartkowice, there were only twelve Jews at the time.
On September 5, 1940, two families—ten Jews altogether—were deported from Gostków some 40 kilometers southeast to an assembly site in Łódź (Litzmannstadt).
A letter dated September 6,...
Wehrmacht troops entered Łódz on September 8, 1939. About 70,000 Jews of the Jewish population escaped prior to the German occupation, but 162,000 Jews still remained in the city. On November 9, 1939, Lodz and its surroundings were annexed to the Reich and integrated into the newly established province Reichsgau Posen. The annexation process was finalized on November 20, after the new border to the neighboring Generalgouvernement (General Government) had been determined.
On January 29, 1940 the province was officially renamed Reichsgau Wartheland after its main river, the Warthe, The Germans...
Wehrmacht troops entered Łódz on September 8, 1939. About 70,000 members of the Jewish population had escaped prior to the German occupation, but 162,000 Jews still remained in the city. On November 9, 1939, Łódź and its surroundings were annexed to the Reich and integrated into the newly established province of Reichsgau Posen. The annexation process was finalized on November 20, after the new border with the neighboring Generalgouvernement (General Government, the zone of Nazi-occupied central Poland not formally annexed to the Reich) had been clarified. The province was officially renamed Reichsgau Wartheland...
At the outbreak of World War II, some 4,800 Jews lived in Zgierz (Łódź, Litzmannstadt County), in the Wartheland (also Warthegau)—located 10 kilometers northwest of Łódź—comprising approximately 15 percent of the town’s population. The Wehrmacht marched into Zgierz on September 7, 1939. Within a few days, the German authorities had organized slave labor, plundered the Jewish inhabitants and their businesses,[1] defiled their holy sites, tortured, and murdered Jewish men, women, and children.
In 1939, the town of Aleksandrów Łódzki (German: Alexandrow) had approximately 4,000 Jews, comprising one third of the population. Immediately following the occupation of the city, the Germans began to mistreat and murder the Jews. They destroyed the synagogue and abused the Jews, abducting them for forced labor and shooting over thirty. On November 11, 1939, many Poles and Jews were arrested and sent to the Radogoszcz prison near Łódź. On December 27, 1939, almost all of the city’s remaining Jews—some 3,000—were deported to Głowno in the General Government (Generalgouvernement, the zone...
The first deportations of Jews from Słupca (Grenzhausen), a small town in Konin County, with a Jewish population of 1,426 prior to the German occupation, to the Generalgouvernement took place in February 1940 when two transports departed to Niepołomice (Niepolomitz), Bochnia and Tarnów (Salzberg, Tarnau) in the voivodeship of Kraków (Krakau).
In July 1940, a decree was issued that Słupca had to be "Judenrein." Thus, German police together with Hilfpolizei (Hipo – auxiliary police), which consisted of Volksdeutches, entered Słupca's Jewish homes and ordered the Jews to assemble in the market square that...
Within five days—from December 12 to 16, 1939—a massive deportation wave left Łódź, bound for the General Government (Generalgouvernement, the zone of Nazi-occupied central Poland not formally annexed to the Reich), to the districts of Kraków and Lublin. On December 12, two trains, Psn 4135 and Psn 4137, took Jews to Kraków (Krakau); on December 13, Psn 4139 left for Krosno and Psn 4141 for Dębica; on December 14, Psn 4169 travelled to Rzeszów (Reichshof) and Psn 4171 left for Jasło; on December 15, Psn 4191 traveled to Lublin; and on December 16, 4201 departed for Lublin...
In 1939, the town of Aleksandrów Łódzki (German: Alexandrow) had 4,000 Jews, comprising one third of the population. Many of these Jews belonged to a fervent hassidic sect under the leadership of Rabbi Icchak Danzinger, whose resided in the town. Immediately following the occupation of the city on September 7, 1939, the Germans began to mistreat and murder the Jews. They destroyed the synagogue, abducted Jews for forced labor, and subjected them to physical abuse, killing over thirty people. The Germans appointed a Judenrat (Jewish council), imposed a daily curfew, and, from November 1, 1939,...
By the end of September, 1939, the Germans had occupied Łęczyca County, annexing it to the German Reich under the name Landkreis Lentschütz on November 20. The county’s total population numbered some 126,000 people, of whom between 9,631 and 14,300 were Jews—numbers which varied with the refugees’ movement.
Following the occupation, the Germans mistreated the Jews, blackmailed them, and sent them to forced labor. In the course of establishing ghettos all over occupied Poland in the months before April 1940, the Germans erected the county’s first ghetto in Piątek (German: Piontek) and then in Poddębice...
On November 12, 1943, a Friday, the Chronicle of the Łódź Ghetto recorded the arrival of four persons from Dobra on that day. These Jews may have been among those who hid themselves until after the liquidation of the Kowale Pańskie ghetto. There is no further information about them.