Alternate names: Łódź [Pol], Lodzh, לאדזש [Yid], Lodsch [Ger], Litzmannstadt [Ger, 1940-45], Lodž [Cz, Slov], Lodz', Лoдзь [Rus]. 51°45' N, 19°28' E . 49 Yizkors (see JewishGen). ShtetLink. JOWBR burial list: Jewish Cemetery.
1900 Jewish population: 99,000. Łódź is the third-largest city in Poland. Located in the central part of the country, it had a 2007 population of 753,192. The capital of Łódź Voivodeship 135 km (84 mi) SW of Warsaw. The city's coat of arms is an example of canting, depicting a boat that alludes to the city's name "boat". By the end of World War II, Łódź had lost approximately 420,000 of its pre-war inhabitants: 300,000 Polish Jews and approximately 120,000 other Poles. Cemetery website. At the outbreak of WWII, this melting pot and a city of rapid industrial development primarily in textiles in the 19th century was 55% Poles, 10% Germans, and 34.7% Jews with a small percentage of Russians. The Jewish population settled in the 18th century, although in 1793 eleven Jews lived in the city. On the eve of WWII, over 231,000 Jews lived in a highly polarized society with a large proportion of the intelligensia (culture of Poland and science) and many living in poverty. Textiles in Lodz about 1900 was the economic power baser. Most Jewish factory owners except for Israel Poznanski belonged to smaller factories with limited production capacity. Of 928 factories operating in the early 20th century, 585 were held by Jews, but produced only 37% of the total industrial output. The Jewish community also had supremacy in medicine (doctors, pharmacist, dentists), clothing, food, and trade. Social polarization within the Jews was reflected their residence. Łódź "poverty area" was Old Town off commercial streets of downtown dominated by low standards of living, a closed community in language and lifestyle. In 1940, the Nazis established a ghetto in the old part of city in Bałuty district, a small area for approximately 200,000 people. Beginning in 1942, regular transports went to death camps included Chelmno nad Nerem. Lodz ghetto's very controversial figure, Chaim Rumkowski, performed for the German authorities as they desired. Almost the entire Jewish population of Lodz was destroyed. After the end of WWII, Lodz became the center of the resurgence of Jewish life in Poland. Lodz attracted approximately 30,000 Jewish survivors in 1945-1946, former resident of Lodz or not. The famous school, I. Perec Jewish Theater, was established. Immigration followed pogroms in 1946 and subsequent immigration in 1956 and 1968 left just a few hundred Jews. [June 2009]
Lodz Jews also used the cemetery at Sochaczew, Strykow, and Lutomiersk. "Lodz Chevrah Kaddishah in the 19th Century, and Beginnings of the Jewish Community." Photos in "A photographic essay of abandoned Jewish cemeteries in Europe" by Ruth Gruber [September 2002]
Old Lodz Postcard Gallery, a compilation of 48 old postcards photos of Lodz, issued between the years 1900 and 1920 [January 2001] photo. synagogue photo. [August 2005] photos. Lodz Jewish history. Lodz Jewish cemetery website. [May 2009]
Foundation Monumentum Iudaicum Lodzense - Lodz Jews Heritage Foundation. Photo. Jewish Lodz Cemetery website with maps, photos, etc. [September 2010]
Marek Szukalak, member of the board of the Lodz Jews Heritage Foundation in Poland, anonounced a new website for the Lodz Jewish cemetery. The names of those buried there are now searchable by surname as well as by section. First read the introduction to the website by clicking on "About Cemetery." The Ghetto field is also described here. Search by surname or section by clicking on the "Plan of Cemetery" tab. Select either "by Person" or "by Quarter" located on the upper right side of the Cemetery plan page. [December 2010]
Ghetto Cemetery aka Ghetto Field: In 1994, in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the annihilation of the Lodz ghetto, Jehuda Widawski from Israel and Buchman from Berlin had several thousand gravestones placed on graves of those who died in the ghetto, the so-alternate name: Ghetto Field. The pre-burial house built in 1898 by the Konstadt family was restored by the Family Nissenbaum Foundation. Conservation work was finished. Source: U.S. Commission for the Preservation of America's Heritage Abroad. [date?]
Lodz Ghetto Cemetery burial list. [January 2010]
Old Cemetery (Ulica Wesola): The first Jewish cemetery in Lodz was established in 1811 between the markets and ulic Bazarową, Limanowskiego, Zachodnią and Rybną. The last burial in that old cemetery took place in 1922. Buried here were merchant Abraham Kalman Poznanski Prussak, the first industrialist, who brought mechanized looms from England. During WWII, the Germans devastated the cemetery. Gravestones were used for paving streets. A 2004 obelisk memorializes the existence of this cemetery. Survived the cemetery gate, which moved into the new cemetery. website. [June 2009] UPDATE: For names found on wooden boards at the purification room of Lodz Old Cemetery. Link to data in Excel. [May 2004] Site searchable in English, Hebrew, and Polish. [February 2007]
Lodz Chevra Kadisha Indexing Project: "The Old Cemetery was established in 1811 and closed in 1892-3, at which time the larger new cemetery was established. However, burials continued to take place until 1922. ... As a result of the great influx of workers to Lodz in the 19th century, records include not only individuals who were born and lived in Lodz proper, but also those with roots in many surrounding and some distant Polish villages and towns, some of which today are in Lithuania and Belarus. Some of the records in the Hebrew and Polish lists may coincide with data already in the JRI-Poland database and will provide additional valuable information for anyone researching their family in this region. The Lodz Chevra Kadisha records include the more than 5,400 entries listed in "Stary Cmentarz Zydowski w Lodzi" (The Old Cemetery of Lodz), published by the Jewish Community of Lodz in 1938. For a complete description of the contents of this book, see "The Old Cemetery in Lodz" by Chaim Freedman, website. [date?]
LODZ I: US Commission No. POCE000268 - Ulica Wesola Cemetery
Located in region Lodzkie at 51º46 19º28. Cemetery location is Ulica Wesola. Present town population is over 100,000 with 100-1000 Jews.
- Town: Urzad Miasta, ul. Piotrkowska 104
- Regional: Wojewodzki Konserwator Zabytkow, 90-926 Lodz, ul. Piotrkowska 104.
The earliest known Jewish community was 1809. 1921 Jewish population was 156,000. Buried in the unlandmarked Orthodox, Conservative and Progressive/Reform cemetery include Rabbi Chaskiel Naumberg, zm. 1856, Rabbi Mojzesz Lipszyc, zm. 1874, and Industrialist Mr. Samuel Jechenkiel Zalcman. The date of the last known burial was around 1900. The isolated urban flat land has no sign. Reached by turning directly off a public road, access is open to all with no wall or gate. Approximate size of cemetery is.6 ha. (Developed area). There are no gravestones in the cemetery or known mass graves. The municipality owns property used for apartment houses. Properties adjacent are residential. Rarely, private visitors stop. The cemetery was vandalized in WW II. There is no maintenance. No threats.
Pawel Fijalkowski, 96-500 Sochaczew, ul. Ziemowita 11, Tel. 227-91 completed survey on Sept. 22, 1991. Documentation: Stary cmentarz Zydowski Wlodzi, Dziejei Zabytki, Red. J.S2PER, Lodz 1938
UPDATE: "Stary Cmentarz Zydowski w Lodzi" (The Old Cemetery of Lodz), published by the Jewish Community of Lodz in 1938 Is available in Israel at the National Library at The Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Book No. S2° 85 A4405 and At Yad-Vashem Library in Jerusalem. [February 2007]
UPDATE: http://www.jewishlodzcemetery.org/cmentarzHE.html [March 2007]
New Cemetery ( Ulica Bracka Cemetery): The New Jewish Cemetery on Bracka between the ulica Bracką, Zagajnikową, Zmienną, and Inflancką opened in 1892. Planned in 1888 because the old cemetery was full, location and purchase of new land delayed its opening. On August 5, 1892 guberniya authorities agreed to the location that was approved on September 4 by the Governor-General. First burials took place in early 1893, even before completion of roads and buildings, which took place in 1893-1896. April 1898 was the opening of the monumental mortuary house donated by Nina Konsztadt, widow of Herman, designed by Adolf Zeligson. The cemetery survived WW One without much damage even with horses grazing in the military cemetery. Artillery marks still can be seen. WWII was different. German occupation authorities cut all the trees for fuel and banned brick graves, allowing only low bars and cement. Mass executions also occurred in this cemetery. The post-war period was devastation of cemetery services, land lost from the southwestern extension of the road, acts of vandalism, and theft of gravestones. In 1980, the cemetery was landmarked. In 1984, the Social Welfare Committee of the Jewish Cemetery in Lodz was set up. Since then, regular cleaning and maintenance throughout the cemetery is ongoing in this, the largest European Jewish cemetery. The elongated irregular polygon with an the internal wall to the east of the main gate and buildings and the western side's burials leave the cemetery further divided into separate sections for women and men, cholera victims, children, and charity. As in most large cemeteries, more than just traditional matzevot are found. Various forms of highly sophisticated tombs in ancient style, eclectic, and Art Nouveau styles, graves from the 19th and 20th centuries are stonework of both local and foreign establishments among them Andrea Salviatiego Company (e.g, the Poznanski Mausoleum)http://www.jewishlodzcemetery.org/EN/CemeteryPlan/Default.aspx. Building blocks were not always local stone such as the Marcus Silberstein tomb built with specially imported Italian marble and imported Czech, Hungarian and Swedish stone. Regular gravestones were semi-finished products in bulk awaiting defined text, symbols, and ornaments. Sepulchral art in this Lodz cemetery is very rich and complex. Themes include Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance, and, above all, Baroque and ancient influences in rich artistic form and delicacy of execution in family tombs, mausoleums, obelisks, sarcophagi, and the various ohel gravestones. Buried here are Lodz industrialists like Barciński, Jarociński, Katsenberg, Kohn, Prussak, Rosenblatt, Silberstein, and Stiller. The most outstanding of all is Israel Kalmanowicz Poznanski (1833-1900), multimillionaire, philanthropist, and one of the three Lodz "cotton kings". Built at the same time as the Zeligson mausoleum in 1902, the design for Israel and his wife Leon, is round, built of gray granite crowned with a mosaic dome decorated with Venetian Anthony Salviatiego consisting of two million pieces of ornamental glass. The inscription on the mausoleum reads: "And it is time for the death of Israel. He was the beauty of Israel and did good in Israel." website. website. website. video. Also buried here are
- Eljasz Chaim Majzel (1821-1912), rabbi of Lodz
- Seweryn Sterling (1864-1932), physician, popularizer of hygiene and health education, creator of Lodz school to prevent tuberculosis
- Wladyslaw Pinkus (1850-1929), physician, internist, and pediatrician, founder and long-time director of the Lodz ambulance
- Herman Konstadt (Konsztadt) (1835-1895), industrialist, financier, philanthropist
- Moses Elijah Halpern (- 1921); legislators elected to the Sejm RP
- Adela and Izydor Tuwimow; parents Juliana Tuwima
- Felicja and Isaac Rubinstein; parents Artur Rubinstein
- Israel Poznanski
The pre-burial house built in 1898 by the Konstadt family was restored by the Family Nissenbaum Foundation.
LODZ II: US Commission No. POCE000658- Ulica Bracka Cemetery
Cemetery location is Ulica Bracka. Kongregacja Wyznania Mojzeszowego wlodzi, Ulica Zachodnia 78, has the key to the locked Orthodox, Conservative and Progressive/Reform cemetery. Living here were (list different from list above) the industrialists Izrael Kalmanowicz Poznanski-zm. 1900 and Rabbi Chaim Majzel zm 1912; Icchak Katzenelson-zm. 1944-Poeta. Buried in the cemetery include Izrael Kalmanowicz Poznanski, Chaim Majzel, and artist Perec Willenberg. The landmarked cemetery was established in 1892: Rejestr Cmentarzy Zydowskich Urzedu Ds. Wyznan z 1981. The urban flat land, separate but near other cemeteries, has a sign in Polish that mentions the Jewish community. Reached by turning directly off a public road, access is open to all. A fence with a locking gate surrounds site. Approximate size of cemetery is more than 40.5 ha. More than 180,000 gravestones in the cemetery, more than 5000 stones not in original location and more than 75% of stones toppled and broken or not in original location, date from 1897-20th centuries. Vegetation overgrowth is a constant problem, disturbing stones. Men, women, tabbis, Cohanim and children divide the cemetery into sections. The marble, granite, sandstone and iron flat shaped stones, finely smoothed and inscribed, flat stones with carved relief decoration, sculptured monuments, or multi-stone monuments have Hebrew, Yiddish, Polish and German inscriptions. Some tombstones have traces of painting on their surfaces, iron and bronze decorations or lettering, and/or metal fences around graves. The cemetery contains special memorial monuments to Holocaust victims and has unmarked mass graves. The local Jewish community owns property used as a Jewish cemetery only. Properties adjacent are residential. Compared to 1939, the cemetery is smaller due to new roads. Frequently, organized Jewish groups, organized individual tours and private visitors stop. The cemetery was vandalized in WW II and occasionally afterward. Jewish groups abroad (Fundacja Nissenbaumow) cleaned stones, cleared vegetation and fixed wall since 1983. The regular caretaker is paid by visitors' contributions. The cemetery has a pre-burial house with a tahara table and more than one ohel. Vegetation is a slight threat.
Pawel Fijalkowski, 96-500 Sochaczew, ul. Ziemowita 11, Tel. 227-91 visited April 1991 and completed survey on 11/03/1991. Photo archives were used as documentation.
New Bracka Street Cemetery. Plan of the New Bracka Street Cemetery [February 2001]
The pre-burial house donated by the Konstadt family was renovated. [January 2010]
[UPDATE] About the Bracka Street Cemetery [May 2015]
ShtetLink [January 2001]. "…The large Jewish cemetery in Lodz was established in 1892. This establishment of this cemetery, the largest Jewish cemetery in Europe, was prompted by a cholera epidemic that year and because of the closing of the old Lodz Jewish cemetery on Wesola Street, established in 1811. Prior to 1811, the Jews of Lodz were buried in surrounding communities, such as Leczyca and Lutomiersk." Source: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., [12 Jan 2001 on JewishGen Digest]
The Organization of Former Residents of Lodz in Israel (OFRLI) an all-volunteer group in Tel Aviv maintains a database of those buried in the Lodz Jewish cemetery between approximately 1895 and the ghetto's liquidation in August 1944. The burial list includes an identification number, surname and first name(s) father's name, age at death, date of death as year-month-day and exact site within the cemetery and notes. Contact: OFRLI at 158 Dizengoff St. 63461 Tel Aviv, Israel; telephone; (03) 524-1833 fax (03) 523-8126. Source: "Lodz Ghetto and Cemetery Lists" by This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.; Avotaynu
"JRI-Poland has taken on this indexing project with the enthusiastic support of Mr. Symcha Keller, head of the Jewish Community of Lodz. The much larger new Jewish cemetery survived nearly intact and planning for the indexing of the burial records of the New Lodz Cemetery is underway. More than 180,000 indices to these burials will become part of the JRI-Poland searchable database in the near future. The Chevra Kadisha records are made up of two separate databases. Phase I: Indexing of the Polish Subsidiary Death Register, 1826-1893, containing 2,034 entries, is complete and online in the searchable JRI-Poland database. ... Phase II: Indexing of the Hebrew List of Burials, 1822-1922, containing 3,411 graves in the Old Lodz Cemetery, is in progress. ... "Source: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. on Jewish Gen Digest [21 Jan 2001]
Mr. Symcha Keller, Jewish Community Office, 78 Zachodnia str. Lodz 90-725, Poland; fax: Fax (011) (48-42) 33 51 56; Home (48-42) 51 17 86. Enclose a postal reply coupon. Mr. Keller is the Secretary of the Jewish Community of Lodz. He has a large card file of, one hopes, all the burials in the large cemetery now in use. He told me a little over a year ago that they are slowly entering the data into computer-readable files. Each card gives the name of the person, his or her last address, and the location of the grave. He, as well as the caretaker at the cemetery itself, has a large chart of the graves. The farther you make your way into the cemetery, the more like a jungle it is. If Mr. Keller can help you, it would be nice to send the Jewish Community of Lodz a gift. It has many needs. Dollar check can be accepted. Sources: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., Mansfield, Connecticut, U.S.A. and This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. [date? before 2000?]
BOOKS:
- BOOK: The Jewish Cemetery in Lodz; Bronislaw Podgarbi; (tlumaczenie Malgorzata Talikowska-Musial). Published: Lodz: Wydawn. Artus, 1990. DS135.P62 L644161 1990. It essentially is of nil genealogical value, except for documenting with many contemporary photographs that the cemetery was emphatically NOT destroyed in the Holocaust. Another value of the Podgarbi book is that text is in both English as well as Polish, thus it can be rapidly assimilated. The copy I read was at Brandeis University Library in Waltham, MA. The Podgarbi book quotes the size as 180 thousand graves ahttp://www.jewishlodzcemetery.org/EN/AboutCemetery/AboutCemeteryAtBrackaStreet/Default.aspxnd states it is probably the largest in tact Jewish Cemetery in Europe. I do not know if he is correct. Podgari gives essentially an historical overview of the growth of the Cemetery in the 19th century. Comment source: Jay Norwalk This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. See JRI-Poland at Jewish Gen.
- BOOK: The Jewish exhibition catelogmetery in Lodz, 3106, book, 6/19/1997, "Podgarbi Bronislaw, Jedrzehcztjiwa Wielslawa", title:,"Wydawnictwo", 1990, 96 p.,ANG/POL, 83-85132-00-7; source: contact Daniel Dratwa: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. The books are among the collection at the Jewish Museum of Belgium.
- BOOK: Stary Cmentarz Zydowski W Lodzi (The Old Jewish Cemetery in Lodz) by Dzieje i Zabytke, Lodz 1938 Publisher: Nahladem Gmny Wyznaniowez m Lodzi available at YIVO in fragile condition, They were to microfilm it with a contribution by Allen Strickler, 1417 Kensinton Dr., Fullerton, CA 92631. This is also available at Harvard (Slavic Department) and a microfiche version is available at the Library of Congress. The book lists the inscriptions on individual tombstone (but I don't know if all), a genealogical treasure trove for many researching ancestry in Lodz. I estimate the book is 600-700 pages in length. It is 75% in Polish and 25% in Hebrew. It has an index. I noted it has a partial year by year listing of some of the interments from the beginning of the cemetery in the early 19th century, though names are not alphabetized within each year. If one knew the year of death, one could use this part of the book. This continues until perhaps the 1880's. Many sections of the book seemingly describe given families, sometimes with separate genealogical discussions. The book is long and detailed and in nearly mint condition, though it was not printed on acid-free paper. The Judaica Dept of the Library, a few doors down the hall at Weidner, has become quite excited about the book and immediately made funds available to preserve it. This means that it will now first be filmed at Harvard, and then re-printed to acid-free paper and bound. Jay Norwalk: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
- BOOK: Tanu Ez A Kohalom: (This Cairn is Witness Today) by Saros Laszlo and Vali Dezso. ISBN 963 7476 172.; a very interesting book of Jewish Cemetery Photographs; published in Hungary in 1993. The vast majority of this 149-page book contains black and white photographs. There are 8 (English) text pages with general information. The sections are: Introduction, Cemetery in Ancient Times, Old Tombstones, Cemetery and History, The Tombs of the Ancestors, Tent and Parchment, People and Flower, Rituals of Death, Epitaphs, Signs and Symbols I. Symbols II. Animal and Vegetal (sic) Symbols III. Hebrew Abbreviations Bibliographical Notes There are 23 pictures of Krakow source: Bruce Kahn This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 1:260/204 JGSR Jewish Genealogy Web Pages http://jgsr.net
- BOOK: Szkice z dziejow gminy Zydowskiej oraz cmentarza w Lodzi by Kersz, Isaak. 115 p. call # DS135.P62 L644126 1996 (1) folded leaf: ill., map; 29 cm; history and Jewish cemeteries source: Pennycandy Jansen; e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
- BOOK: Hortus ludorum; Cmentarz zydowski w Lodzi: 1892-1992 (The Garden of the Jews: the Jewish cemetery in Lodz), by M. Swiathowska and A. Pugaczewski. Lodz, 1992. 4 pages, 16 plates, Latin title, Polish and English introduction). S2 94B1368. Notes: tombstone photo album (some readable), cemetery history. Source: Tragger, Mathilde. Printed Books on Jewish cemeteries in the Jewish National and University Library in Jerusalem: an annotated bibliography. Jerusalem: The Israel Genealogical Society, 1997.
- BOOK: Gruber, Ruth Ellen. Jewish Heritage Travel A Guide to East-Central Europe. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1992. p. 26, 54-5
[UPDATE] Photos by Charles Burns [March 2016]