Author Description

The Łódź ghetto chronicle was compiled by the staff of the Archives Department of the Judenrat. At first it was written only in Polish; from January 1943 it was written only in German. Pp. 63-218 present the chronicle of the last two months of the ghetto, June-July 1944. By that time, the situation in the ghetto had seriously deteroriated. The chroniclers noted worsening moods, starvation, and cases of death. They also inadvertently provide us with an insight into the perfidious camouflage tactics of the Nazis. The last entry is dated 30 July; in August the ghetto was liquidated. 70,000 Jews were deported to Chełmno and Auschwitz. The introduction (pp. 7-42), by Sascha Feuchert, presents a history of the Łódź ghetto and describes the functioning of the Statistics Section and the Archives of the Judenrat. An essay by Jörg Riecke (pp. 43-53) deals with the language and style of the text of the chronicle. Pp. 233-256 contain photographs.