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...

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...

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 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,...

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...