Eclectic Ramblings

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Working in Lodz, Poland at the moment, turns out it is a fascinating place. The scale of the place is so impressive. Most of it was built during the late 1800’s as a result of the textile industry and it must of been very profitable as you can see from the mansions on Piotrkowska street.

Went on a trail around the Litzmannstadt Ghetto on Sunday. It starts in the Baluty district of Lodz. A plaque on the wall reveals the past – a former Gestapo office now used as a shop. White lines on the pavement indicate the boundary of the Ghetto. Inside around 230,000 Jews, former residents of Lodz, were contained. The trail takes you past several other important sites and then on to the Jewish cemetery. This shows the wealth of the Jews before 1939 (huge – house sized tombstones) and the atrocities that followed (large numbers of people are buried here that died in the Ghetto from illness). Then onto the Radegast station, perhaps the most disturbing place. A train and wagon awaits you at the station. You can walk on the wagon to sense something of what it must have been like to have been carted away from Lodz not knowing your grim fate. As the Ghetto was emptied more Jews were shipped in from Germany, Czechoslovakia, Austria and Luxemburg. At the end less than a 1,000 Jews survived.