Situated in the city of Łódź, and originally intended as a preliminary step upon a more extensive plan of creating the Judenfrei province of Warthegau,[1] the ghetto was transformed into a major industrial centre, manufacturing war supplies for Nazi Germany and especially for the Wehrmacht.

[8] The first known record of an order for the establishment of the ghetto, dated 10 December 1939,[10] came from the new Nazi governor Friedrich Übelhör, who called for the cooperation of major policing bodies in the confinement and mass transfer of the local Jews.

[8] By 1 October 1940, the relocation of the ghetto inmates was to have been completed, and the city's downtown core declared Judenrein (cleansed of its Jewish presence).

[2] Łódź was a multicultural mosaic before the war began, with about 8.8% ethnic German residents on top of Austrian, Czech, French, Russian and Swiss business families adding to its vibrant economy.

[11] On 8 February 1940, the Germans ordered the Jewish residence to be limited to specific streets in the Old City and the adjacent Bałuty quarter, the areas that would become the ghetto.

To expedite the relocation, the Orpo Police launched an assault on 5–7 March 1940, [12] known as "Bloody Thursday", in which 350 Jews were fatally shot in their homes, and outside.

The contact with people who lived on the "Aryan" side was also impaired by the fact that Łódż had a 70,000-strong ethnic German minority loyal to the Nazis (the Volksdeutsche),[4] making it impossible to bring food illegally.

While the wealthy could purchase additional food, many of the lower class Jewish inhabitants relied heavily on the ration card system.

Initially, mayor Karol Marder separated from the provisioning and economy department the branch for the ghetto at Cegielniana street (today Jaracza 11), whose manager was first Johann Moldenhauer, and then a merchant from Bremen, Hans Biebow.

From October 1940, the facility was raised to the rank of an independent department of the city council – Gettoverwaltung, reporting to Mayor Werner Ventzki.

Soon, however, the inhabitants began to be plundered and exploited to the maximum, transforming the ghetto into a forced labor camp in hunger for food rations and extreme living conditions.

Known mockingly as "King Chaim", Rumkowski was granted unprecedented powers by the Nazi officials, which authorized him to take all necessary measures to maintain order in the ghetto.

[20] Directly responsible to the Nazi Amtsleiter Hans Biebow, Rumkowski adopted an autocratic style of leadership in order to transform the ghetto into an industrial base manufacturing war supplies.

[21] Convinced that Jewish productivity would ensure survival, he forced the population to work 12-hour days despite abysmal conditions and the lack of calories and protein;[20] producing uniforms, garments, wood and metalwork, and electrical equipment for the German military.

Everywhere else starvation was rampant and diseases like tuberculosis widespread, fueling dissatisfaction with Rumkowski's administration, which led to a series of strikes in the factories.

[23] Overcrowding in the ghetto was exacerbated by the influx of some 40,000 Polish Jews forced out from the surrounding Warthegau areas, as well as by the Holocaust transports of foreign Jews resettled to Łódź from Vienna, Berlin, Cologne, Hamburg and other cities in Nazi Germany, as well as from Luxembourg, and the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia including the citywide Theresienstadt concentration camp.

"[25] Situated 50 kilometres (31 mi) north of Łódź in the town of Chełmno, at Kulmhof, gassing operations began on 8 December 1941.

Two weeks later, on 20 December 1941, Rumkowski was ordered by the Germans to announce that 20,000 Jews from the ghetto would be deported to undisclosed camps, based on selection by the Judenrat.

The Chełmno camp set up by SS-Sturmbannführer Herbert Lange, served as a pilot project for the secretive Operation Reinhard, the deadliest phase of the "Final Solution".

[5] In September 1942, Rumkowski and the Jews of Łódź had realized the fate of the evacuees, because all baggage, clothing, and identification papers of their fellow inmates, were being returned to the ghetto for "processing".

The slave workers began to strongly suspect that deportation meant death; even though they had never deduced that the annihilation of Jews was all-encompassing, as was intended.

[26] They witnessed the German raid on a children's hospital where all patients were rounded up and put into trucks never to return (some thrown from windows).

[28] The German Reserve Police Battalion 101 left the ghetto to conduct anti-Jewish operations in Polish towns with direct lines to Treblinka, Bełżec, and Sobibór.

[29] Meanwhile, a rare camp for the Christian children between 8 and 14 years of age was set up adjacent to the ghetto in December 1942, separated only by a high fence made of planks.

[30] Subjected to a selection process for Germanisation, the 1,600 children performed work closely connected with the industrial output of the ghetto, with help and advice from Jewish instructors.

[40] As the front approached, German officials decided to deport the remaining Jews to Auschwitz-Birkenau aboard Holocaust trains, including Rumkowski.

[a] Throughout the early period, the symbolic resistance was evident in the rich cultural and religious life that the people maintained in the ghetto.

Later, when the school buildings were converted to new living quarters for some 20,000 inmates brought in from outside occupied Poland, alternatives were established, particularly for younger children whose mothers were forced to work.

At the same time, the rich cultural life included active theatres, concerts, and banned religious gatherings, all of which countered official attempts at dehumanization.

[42] On their and their families initiative, a Survivors' Park adorned with monuments was built in Łódź, measuring 3,660 square metres (39,400 sq ft).