Prior to 1942 Łódź’s Jewish population stood at around 223,000 people - approximately a third of the town’s inhabitants. The advent of war saw the second largest ghetto in Europe established in the town, incarcerating roughly 200,000 Jews from all corners of the Reich (including a fenced off compound for gypsies). The Nazi high commission quickly appointed Mordechai Chaim Rumkowski, the director of a local orphanage, as head of the Jewish Council. A character of controversy, Rumkowski set about his new position with a zeal unmatched by all but a handful of ghetto governors. The selfstyled King of Jews became a maniacal figure, seizing control of food distribution, and issuing both currency and stamps bearing his image. Working hand-in-hand with the Nazis he saw the only way for his people to survive was by creating an indispensable, tireless workforce for the Germans. His most notorious moment came on September 4, 1944, when he addressed the Jews of the ghetto to “give me your children.” In an effort to save the fit from being transported to death camps, Rumkowski beseeched families to hand over their own children so as to keep the Nazis happy. Rumkowski himself was deported to Auschwitz at the tail end of 1944, following the liquidation of his ‘kingdom’. According to legend he died on his first day; thrown alive into an oven by other inmates. Of the original figure, arou nd 7,000 inhabitants of the Łódź ghetto survived to see the end of the war. For an in-depth account of the ghetto the website www.shtetlinks.jewishgen.org/lodz/ is a marvellously thorough resource, and check out our pages dedicated to the Litzmannstadt Ghetto. For in-depth information, books, leaflets, and tours then visit the Jewish Community found on ul. Pomorska 18 (C-2), tel, 42 633 51 56.