Lodz Ghetto
Germany invaded Poland on 31 August 1939. Using blitzkrieg tactics, Poland fell within three weeks. Lodz, located in central Poland, held the second largest Jewish community in Europe, second only to Warsaw. When the Nazis attacked, Poles and Jews worked frantically to dig ditches to defend their city. Only seven days after the attack on Poland began, Lodz was occupied. Within four days of Lodz's occupation, Jews became targets for beatings, robberies, seizure of property, and forced labor.
On February 8, 1940, the 22nd of Shevat, the order to establish the Lodz ghetto was announced. Jews from throughout the city were ordered to move into the sectioned off area, only bringing what they could hurriedly pack within just a few minutes. The Jews were packed tightly within the confines of the ghetto with an average of 3.5 people per room. In April a fence went up surrounding the ghetto residents. On April 30, the 22nd of Nisan, the ghetto was ordered closed and on May 1, 1940, merely eight months after the German invasion, the Lodz ghetto was officially sealed.
In early December 1941, the Chelmno death camp had been made operational. The Nazis now began the execution of their final solution in Lodz. On December 10, 1941 there was a new proclamation. The Nazis wanted 20,000 Jews deported out of the ghetto. Rumkowski, the Jewish leader of the Ghetto, talked them down to 10,000. Lists were put together by ghetto officials.
Beginning on January 6, 1942, more summons for deportations were issued. Approximately one thousand people per day left on the trains to the Chelmno death camp. By January 19, 1942, 10,003 people had been deported to their deaths From February 22 to April 2, 1942, 34,073 more people were transported to their deaths at Chelmno. In the mont of September 1942, everyone unable to work was deported. This included the sick, the old, and the children. Many parents refused to send their children to the transport area so the Gestapo entered the ghetto and viciously searched and removed the deportees. On June 10, 1944, Himmler gave the order that the Lodz ghetto would be liquidated. By August 1944, the last Jews were sent to the Auschwitz death camp.
After August 1944, only a few remaining workers were retained to finish the job of confiscating materials and valuables out of the ghetto. And when they finished, it was planned that they too would also be killed. Five months later, on January 19, 1945, the Soviets liberated the Lodz ghetto. Of the 230,000 Lodz Jews plus the 25,000 people transported in, only 877 remained.
We choose as our main key word Lodz Ghetto. We will look for it as two words. With expected number of ELSs set to 40, the probability that a text from the ELS random placement text population would produce a table as small in area as that produced by the Torah text is 273/1,000.
Next we checked for Deportation. Then we checked for dates. First we checked the date the 22nd of Shevat, the date the order to establish the Lodz ghetto was announced. Then we checked for the date 22nd of Nisan, the date of the first deportations. Finally, we checked for the date 19th of Sivan, the date of the liquidation of the Lodz Ghetto. We also checked for Lodz Ghetto against Holocaust.
As in the study for the Warsaw Ghetto, we also used for key words לודזגטו and גטולודז. However, גטולודז had no ELSs so there were no experiments possible. The table below summarizes our findings.
| גרוש | כב שבז | כב ניסן | השואה | יט סיון | Expected Number |
P-value | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| לודז גטו | 597.5/1,000 | 458.5/1,000 | 270/1,000 | 226.5/1,000 | 33/1,000 | 40 | 133.5/1,000 |
| לודזגטו | 35/1,000 | 500/1,000 | 720/1,000 | 302.5/1,000 | 976.5/1,000 | 40 | 288.5/1,000 |
