When you hear the name of the town, you get the impression that the entire Jewish history of Poland unfolded there. It is known to be the longest commercial street in Poland, and since its opening in 1892, it has once housed more than 1.5 million people, the largest Jewish population in the world. We have witnessed the burial of over 200,000 Jews, some of whom were buried in cemeteries, and the construction of a new synagogue, synagogue and museum.
Litzmannstadt was the first Jewish ghetto in Poland, which was built by the Germans at the beginning of the Second World War in German-occupied Europe. It was one of the most important Jewish ghettos in Germany and the only one in occupied Europe at the time.
During the invasion of Poland in 1939, the German army conquered the city and renamed it Litzmannstadt. After the occupation of the city by the Soviet army, Lodz, which suffered only minor damage during the war, became the capital of the newly founded Polish People's Republic.
After spending about ten years within the boundaries of the independent Duchy of Warsaw, the city joined the Russian-controlled Polish Kingdom in 1812. After the First World War, Lodz became part of newly independent Poland, and lost its large Russian market.
Polish refugees from all over the country soon replaced them, and Lodz was one of the few ghettos in Poland to which they were deported. In some places, the death camps were left as a refuge for deportees, such as the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp.
The Jewish community was rebuilt and is the second largest in Poland with a population of 1.5 million people, or about one third of the city's population.
Lodz has become Europe's most important textile manufacturing centre, as Andrzej Wajda describes in his book "The Promised Land of the Promised City." At its peak, Lodz was sometimes referred to as the "Manchester of Poland" and was the main centre of textile production. After the tariff barrier between Russia and the Polish Congress was lifted in 1850, a larger market for the manufacture of Lodz products opened up. In the preceding years, the Congress Kingdom of Poland decided to make it a centre for the textile industry and invited foreign weavers and craftsmen to settle there, but Russia refused.
Greiser, it is said, wanted to make Wartheland the "perfect Nazi district" and Lodz a concentration camp for Jews. Many Jews left the city to settle in the territories occupied by the US-SR, and this fact exacerbated the isolation of the ghetto in May 1940, when it was founded. The ghetto was surrounded by Germans living in Poland, whose treatment was no better than that of the Nazis.
He became one of Poland's most prominent entrepreneurs and was part of an industrial empire that employed thousands of workers in its cotton factories. He presented a multinational society in Lodz, where Poles, Jews and Germans lived together, as an alternative to early Polish capitalism, in which the rich exploited the poor. To this day, Lodz is trying to redefine itself by drawing inspiration from its industrial past and becoming an "alternative hub" for Poland.
The emphasis on reinvention, inventiveness and rejection of conventions is how the city will become a truly unique tourist destination in Poland. This guide lists the best accommodation in Lodz in our guide, which will help you discover this picturesque town in central Poland, and also provides a brief overview for visitors visiting this targeted Polish city.
If you have ever been to Poland and want to explore the country beyond the usual Warsaw basics, a visit to Lodz would be a great addition to your trip. If you are looking for a guide to this part of Poland, you should definitely check out our Lonely Planet travel guide. A visit to Lodz in Poland will definitely leave you with a good impression and a better understanding of it.
The city looks like an area of Poland once controlled by Russia and Austria, with parishes of different religions. When you visit Poland, you can read our guide to the best accommodation in Krakow, the most popular city in Poland. You must determine the city where your Polish ancestors lived and the name of the city. Use this page to find out about some great places to stay in Warsaw, some of our best cities to stay in Poland and some great hotels and restaurants in Lodz.
Look at the renovated backyard, from which you have a beautiful view of the city from a hill, with a great view over the river. For more information on the history of Lodz, which was found using Jewish records, see the wiki article Poland's Jewish Records. In Poland there are now more than 100,000 records of Jews, many of which will eventually be digitized in FamilySearch records.