The Holocaust was the period from 1939 until 1944, during which the total physical and spiritual decimation of European Jewry that had existed for hundreds of years took place. The most affected place was Poland, the heart of world Jewry with 3,000,000 Jews. In Lodz, before the war there were 233,000 Jews, which was one third of the city population. There were synagogues, yeshivot(Rabbinical seminaries) trade and culture. The Jews were forced into a ghetto on 8 February 1940 and remained there until 1944. Even in the ghetto, Jewish life was vibrant with 45 primary schools, 2 high schools, one vocational school, 5 pharmacies, and 7 hospitals.
As the Germans exerted greater control over the ghetto, conditions deteriorated, to in… Read More »