Photographs from Łódź Ghetto - Litzmannstadt - Fotografowie getta - Natek Nachman Zonanend story.

Natek-Nachman Zonabend (on the right with the "Post-badge"-Mail) handing out money - support from the Jewish Council (Judenrat) in Łódź Ghetto - Litzmannstadt. The man on the left is probably a member of the Judenrat.

Natek-Nachman Zonabend ID with information that he belongs to the "Post" (Mail) department.

March 1945. Henryk Ross with a box of negatives he photographed in the Litzmannstadt-Łódź Ghetto, Poland. Pictured in the photograph are Henryk Ross, Stefania Ross, Zenon Goldreich and his wife, and Bronka and Jakob Urbach.

Natek, Nachman Zonabend was a member of the Swedish Holocaust Memorial Association (SHMA) from 1994. The association, in Swedish, Föreningen Förintelsens Minne, had a core of Holocaust survivors and the second generation. Halina Neujahr and Nachman-Natek Zonabend were a great source of personal information. Halina about the Warszawa Ghetto and Natek about the Litzmannstadt - Łódź Ghetto. After our association published the first book about the Holocaust and sent it to all the Swedish schools and Swedish MPs, I was asked to prepare internet pages about the two biggest ghettos in occupied Poland. Halina Neujahr and Nachman-Natek Zonabend helped me with the facts about the Warszawa Ghetto and about the Litzmannstadt - Łódź Ghetto. For years, pages were part of the "Living History" Campaign (Levande historia). Natek and Halina were very generous with their time. At that time, I got from Natek coins and bills issued in the Łódź-Litzmannstadt ghetto. As I worked professionally with X-ray microanalysis, I could analyze the chemical composition of the coins in the electron microscope. Natek told me that they were highly flammable and they helped to make the fire. My analysis showed that 10 pfennig coins consisted of magnesium (Mg) and aluminum (Al), and some zinc (Zn).

Henryk Rozencwajg-Ross (1910-1991) was a Jewish photographer employed by the Statistics Department of the Judenrat (Jewish Council) in the Łódź Ghetto. His job enabled him to document Jewish life in the ghetto, which he did, with thousands of prints and negatives.

During the liquidation of the Łódź Ghetto in August 1944, Ross and his wife Stefania buried a box of negatives in the field next to his house on 12 Jagielonska Street in the ghetto. The negatives were shot by Ross during the years 1940-1944.

Ross survived the Holocaust and returned to Łódź, where he located and dug up the documentary material he had buried underground before the liquidation of the ghetto.


Mendel Grossman was another Jewish photographer in the Łódź (Litzmannstadt) ghetto, born in 1913. He was a slim man of less than average height with sloping shoulders, his coat hanging on him as if it were not cut to his size, even his shoes appearing too large for him.

Grossman distributed many of his photographs; those he was unable to distribute, he tried to hide. In August 1944, shortly before the final liquidation of the Litzmannstadt Ghetto, he hid ca. 10.000 negatives, showing scenes from the Ghetto. He was deported to a labor camp in Koenigs Wusterhausen and stayed there until 16 April 1945. Ill and exhausted, he was shot by Nazis during a forced death march, still holding on to his camera

Many other pictures (some of them by Ross and Grossman) were hidden by Nachman Zonabend (Natek). Nachman Zonabend was an inmate of the Łódź Ghetto from 1940 to 1945. In August 1944, following the liquidation of the ghetto, the Germans assigned him to a work unit whose task was to clean up the deserted ghetto. He succeeded in hiding parts of the ghetto archives, as well as photographs and artworks of ghetto photographers and artists. He recovered these materials after the liberation of Łódź in January 1945. In 1947, Nachman Zonabend donated the bulk of his collection to the YIVO Archives. These are fragmentary records of the Eldest of the Jews of the Łódź Ghetto, by which name the Jewish ghetto administration was known.

Mendel Grossman at work in the darkroom

Nachman Zonabend: 

I was among the group of inmates whom the Germans had left in the ghetto after the last deportation in August 1944. We were to pack and ship the goods and equipment left behind by those Jews who had been deported. One day, during a moment when the Nazi guards were not paying attention, I slipped unnoticed into the deserted print shop of the ghetto administration and came out with a complete set of Rumkowski’s announcements. Next, I went into the offices of the Secretariat at 1 Dworska Street, which handled Rumkowski’s correspondence. The papers that I found there, which had once been so meticulously sorted and filed, were in complete disarray. I stuffed them in large glass jars and later buried the jars in a remote spot. I also had another hiding place where I kept photographs, drawings, and paintings made by ghetto artists.

One rainy Sunday in October 1944, as we were marching under escort to the bath, we passed the former post office building, 4 Kościelny Square. I broke away from the group and ran inside. As a former employee of the ghetto post office, I knew the place well. Making my way through the silent corridors and empty rooms, I reached the back door and entered the adjoining house where the ghetto archives were located. Several suitcases bulging with documents stood on the floor, covered with scattered papers. Evidently, these materials were of special value and were meant to be taken to a safe place.

Not one minute could be wasted. I dragged the heavy valises down the stairs and into a deserted courtyard. In the middle of the courtyard I saw a well which turned out to be completely dry. With great difficulty, I brought the valises over to the well and dropped them in. The ground was strewn with quilt covers and pillows; their former owners were probably either dying in slave labor camps or had already been immolated in the crematoria at Auschwitz (Oświęcim). I gathered the covers and pillows and stuffed them inside the well, hoping that this would keep the documents dry and protect from harm.

In January 1945, after the Red Army liberated Lódz, I returned to Kościelny Square. Plunderers were already at work in the former ghetto, looking for treasures abandoned by the Jews. Despite the threat they posed, I pulled the suitcases out of the well and carried them to my apartment. Later on, I dug up the glass jars. I was relieved when everything was finally secure. An important record of the history of the Lódz ghetto had been saved.

On many occasions, I have been asked to explain why I took all these risks to secure these documents, whose contents I did not even know, in a place as desolate as the ghetto was then, and at a time when the rest of us inmates were looking for places to hide themselves rather than a batch of seemingly worthless papers. Furthermore, what motivated me in the first moments of freedom to return to the abandoned streets of the former ghetto, now overrun with dangerous looters, to bring these moldy papers to safety? 

Plunderers were already at work in the former ghetto, looking for treasures abandoned by the Jews. Despite the threat they posed, I pulled the suitcases out of the well and carried them to my apartment. Later on, I dug up the glass jars. I was relieved when everything was finally secure. An important record of the history of the Lódz ghetto had been saved.

Nachman Zonabend is giving support from the Jewish Council - Judenrat. The ghetto had its own money!

 

From my first days in the ghetto, I was close to a small circle of people who strove to document for posterity all that was happening around us. As the ghetto mailman, whose special task it was to deliver relief payments to welfare recipients, I used to come to the homes of poverty-stricken families. I will never be able to describe the destitution, starvation, sickness, despair, injustice, and loneliness that I saw there. Fortunately, others had done it, such as the photographers Mendel Grossman and Henryk Rozencwajg-Ross, who preserved images of the ghetto on film. I was a close friend of both men and was intimately familiar with their work as well as that of their colleagues, Rubiczek and Borkowski. I knew about the daily chronicle, which was being meticulously compiled by scholars working in the Department of Statistics. I was involved with artists, writers, and poets whose common goals were to preserve the evidence of the horrendous crime we were all witnessing, and I often participated in their discussions and meetings. Shortly before the liquidation of the ghetto, I was able to hide some of their photographs and artworks. I also made a mental note of the location of other materials to which I had no access at the time.

W Archiwum Państwowym w Łodzi przechowywanych jest 27 albumów z getta Litzmannstadt, w których jest ponad 15 tysięcy fotografii zrobionych w latach 1940–44 w łódzkim getcie. Albumy zostały opisane jeszcze w czasie wojny. Na każdym są odręczne informacje w języku niemieckim. Niemal każdy zawiera zdjęcia wydziałów bądź resortów pracy: zdrowia, szkolnictwa, aprowizacji. Są na nich przede wszystkim ludzie przy pracy i wykonywane przez nich produkty: buty ze słomy, dywany, wiadra. Jest też odrębny album o szkołach, szpitalach, policji. Wiele fotografii pokazuje po prostu ludzi, którzy pozują do zdjęć, jakby chcieli przetrwać wojnę, choćby na zdjęciach. Zdjęcia nie są podpisane nazwiskami autorów, ale bez wątpienia byli nimi przede wszystkim Mendel Grosman i Henryk Ross, oficjalnie zatrudnieni w Wydziale Statystycznym.

Deportation. Mendel Grossman is taking "official" pictures. Grossman took unauthorized pictures as well and hid the camera under his big coat. 

Bakery number 3 in the Ghetto. Picture by Mordka Mendel Grossman.

Fotografowie getta dobrze jednak wiedzieli, że byli świadkami wydarzeń ważnych dla historii, a ich zdjęcia mogły pokazać to, co działo się w getcie naprawdę. Dlatego, mając dostęp do materiałów dla innych zakazanych i niedostępnych, robili też zdjęcia nieoficjalne, będące dokumentem życia w zamkniętej dzielnicy, i rozdawali je przyjaciołom i znajomym. Zdarzało się, że fotografowali sytuacje niebezpieczne — z ukrycia, z narażeniem życia. Jak choćby wywózkę dzieci we wrześniu 1942 roku. Grosman dawał też swoje zdjęcia młodszym kolegom.
 

Warszawa mur getta - Warsaw Ghetto wall - Reise nach Warschau

Zawsze cos nowego. Nowe zdjęcia, nowe szczegóły i nowe przemyślenia.

Warszawa Getto. En av de första gränsdragningarna runt Lila Gettot. De blåa ringarna visar var bilderna med den putsade muren har tagits. DS - Dom Sierot - dr. Janusz Korczaks barnhem. Senare låg gettogränsen bl.a. längs de röda linjen, mitten av Wielkagatan och ett metallnätstängsel delade Siennagatan där Dom Sierot låg fram till den 5 augusti 1942 då barnen och personalen fördes till Treblinka där de mördades.

„Reise nach Warschau” to album fotografii, wykonanych przez oficera Wehrmachtu
Jurgena Josta podczas dwudniowej wycieczki z Poznania do Warszawy w czerwcu
1941 roku. Większość zdjęć zostało zrobionych w Warszawie. Jedno z nich
przedstawia mur getta i w oddali Dom Sierot (DS) Korczaka na Siennej 16. Mur
był otynkowany tylko od strony aryjskiej.

Na Siennej - od strony Marszałkowskiej - były dwa różne mury. Jeden otynkowany - drugi
surowy ceglany. Wygląd zależy od datowania zdjęć. Granica getta w tym rejonie (podobnie
jak w innych) zmieniała się na przestrzeni czasu. Pierwszy mur, ten otynkowany, przecinał
ulicę Sienną na wysokości podwórek między ul. Zielną a ul. Wielką do marca 1941. Po zmianie granic getta mur dzielił ulicę Wielką  - to był nowy mur, bez tynku. Wszyscy w Warszawie wiedzieli, co było za nieotynkowanym murem...


Zdjęcia niemieckiego żołnierza z 1941 roku

 På skylten står: Frisör...

Korsningen Siennagatan och Wielkagatan i det Lilla Gettot. Foto: Joe Heydecker

 Sienna gatan på den ariska sidan. På skylten står: Frukost, MIDDAG, kvällsmat, rum att hyra. Bakom muren syns Janusz Korczaks Dom Sierot vid Sienna 16.

Wrong description above. It is Próżna Street at the level of Swietokrzyska str.

Korsningen Siennagatan och Wielkagatan i det Lilla Gettot. Man kan se början till en mur längs Wielkagatan.

Korsningen Siennagatan och Wielkagatan. Man kan se en mur längs Wielkagatan och stolpar och stängsel längs Siennagatan.

Korsningen Siennagatan och Wielkagatan. Man kan se en mur längs Wielkagatan och stolpar och stängsel längs Siennagatan. De gående finns således på den ariska sidan. Bilden är troligen tagen under vintern 1942-43 då alla invånarna från Lilla Gettot deporterades och mördades i Treblinka, bland de, min mormor, morfar alla kusiner, dr. Janusz Korczak och 265 000 andra!

Na Siennej (od strony Marszalkowskiej) były dwa różne mury - jeden otynkowany a drugi surowy. Wyglad zależy od datowania zdjęć. Granica getta w tym rejonie (podobnie jak w innych) się zmieniała. Pierwszy mur, ten otynkowany, przecinał ulicę Sienną na wysokości podwórek między Zielną a Wielką (do marca 1941), po zmianie granic przebiegał po środku ulicy Wielkiej - to był nowy mur. Ze zdjęć wynika, że ten pierwszy był otynkowany, ten drugi nie.

At Sienna street (looking from the Marszalkowska) there were two different walls - one raw and one plastered. Appearance depends on the dating of images or changes in ghetto boundaries. Ghetto boundary in this area (as also in the others) was changed. The first wall that was plastered, was the height of the courtyards between the Zielna street and Wielka street (until March 1941). After the change of the borders of the ghetto, the wall was raised in the middle of the Wielka street. From the pictures we know that it was raw, not plastered.

Tu inny mur. Zdaje się że to Sienna przy Żelaznej i tez otynkowany z jednej strony....

Ovan en gettomur. På Sienna gatan (nära Zelazna). Här ser man klart att muren hade två olika väggar - en rå och en putsade. Utseende beror på från vilken sida man tittar på muren. Råytan mot gettot och den putsade mot den ariska sidan. Gettogräns i flera områden ändrades. Den första muren som byggdes parallellt med Marszalkowska (en fin gata i Warszawa) var muren mot den ariska sidan är putsad. På bilderna överst ser man en mur som korsade Sienna gatan i höjd av Zielna och Wielkagatan. Efter ändringen av gettogränserna förflyttade man muren till mitten av Wielkagatan. Den nya muren, en bit längre ifrån Marszalkowskagatan hade då bara oputsade väggar på båda sidor. Alla visste var gettot fanns och vad föregick bakom murarna.

"På begäran av myndigheterna" Sara, Sarnecki, Wroblewski i Rozental - "na prośbę władz"

Jerzy Sarnecki. Znany prof. kryminologii na Uniwersytecie Sztokholmskim opowiadał wczoraj w szwedzkiej telewizji swoich rodzicach i o sobie. Dla mnie to była kolejna wersja
tej samej historii. Rok 1939, wybuch wojny - na wschód, byle dalej od Niemców, następnie deportacja w głąb Rosji, w 1945 - powrót do Polski, a potem 1968 i wyjazd z Polski.

Zmiana nazwiska "na prośbę władz". No i zmiana tożsamości dziadków Sarneckiego, zamordowanych w Oświęcimiu. Ojciec Jurka chciał coś zachować po rodzicach i po swojej matce której na imię było Sara przyjął polsko brzmiące nazwisko Sarnecki. Tak że on jest Sarnecki po babci Sarze a nie po sarnie.....

Moja mama chciała zachować coś po swoich rodzicach, rodzinie Rozentali, która została cała zamordowana w Treblince - dlatego imię moje zaczyna się na Ro (reszta imienia, -mek, -muald, czy też -man była nieważna!). Najważniejsze żeby Ro się zachowało!

Sara, Sarnecki, Wroblewski och Rozental - "på begäran av myndigheterna"

Jerzy Sarnecki, känd prof. i Kriminologi vid Stockholms universitet talade igår om sina föräldrar och om sig själv i den svenska tvn. För mig är historien en kopia av så många liknande historier av mina föräldrars vänner. År 1939 - flykt österut (mot polsk-ryska gränsen), därefter deportation till Sibirien, 1945 - tillbaka Polen, 1968 - lämnade Polen.

Jo, namnbyte. Det senare är "på begäran av myndigheterna", och inkluderade även förändring i identiteter av Sarneckis morföräldrar vilka mördades i Auschwitz. Jureks far ville hålla något kvar från sina föräldrars namn, sk från sin älskade mor som hette SARA. Så han valde namnet SARnecki. De flesta som heter Sarnecki i Polen härstammar dock sitt namn från Sarna (rådjur).

Min mamma ville behålla något från sina föräldrar, hela familjen ROZENTAL mördades i Treblinka - därför mitt förnamn börjar med RO (resten av namnet,-man,-muald var inte viktigt!). Ro var viktigast i förnamnet för att något skulle ha överlevt!

Sara, Sarnecki, Wroblewski and Rozental - "due to the request of the authorities'

Jerzy Sarnecki, now known prof. Criminology at Stockholm University spoke yesterday about his parents and his own life at the Swedish television. For me, the story was almost a copy of many of my parnts friends stories. Year 1939 - war, moving East, thereafter deported to Sibiria, 1945 - back to the Poland, and year 1968 and the departure from Poland.

Well, change of the surname. The latter is due to "the request of the authorities" and involve as well the change in the identities Sarnecki grandparents that were murdered in Auschwitz. Jurek's father wanted, however, to keep something from his parents and from his mother whose name was Sara. So he choose surname after his mother Sara (Jureks grandmother)  Sarnecki. Most named Sarnecki in Poland derives their name from Sarna (deer) ...

My mother wanted to keep something from her parents, as the whole family Rozental was murdered in Treblinka - That´s why my name starts with Ro (the rest of the name,-mek,-muald, or-man was not important!). Ro is most important, Ro has to survive!

Mom naked! Dad naked! Stalin naked! Lenin naked! Mama golas! Tato golas! Stalin golas! Lenin golas!

På bilden överst är mitt gamla hem, Huset utan hörnor som jag bodde i 17 år tills jag år 1967, lämnade Warszawa och Polen.
Från det markerade fönstret vänt mot öst och mot Wislastranden ropade jag när jag blev ledsen för något, mitt värsta skällsord NAKEN.
När jag var ledsen så var 
Mamma naken! 
Pappa naken! 
Stalin naken! 
Lenin naken! 
och så den polske stalinisten 
Bierut var också naken. 
Till sist skrek jag ut 
ALLA NAKNA!

The picture at the top of the page is my home, called House without corners where I lived for 17 years, until I left Warsaw and Poland (1967).

From the windows facing East, I used to watch the park, cars and the line of  the Wisla river. Sometimes, I also used to stand at the window and cry and scream. Cry, when I was very sad about something.

When I was a child, my worst invective was (at that time) NUDE and when I was sad, I was screaming:  

Mom naked! 

Dad naked! 

Stalin naked! 

Lenin naked! 

and thereafter, the 

Polish Stalinist - 

Bierut was also naked. 

Finally, I yelled out 

ALL NAKED!

Na zdjęciu na górze jest mój dom dzieciństwa, Dom bez kantów. Mieszkałem tu przez 17 lat, dopóki nie opuściłem latem 1967 roku Warszawy i Polski.

Okna naszego mieszkania na Krakowskim Przedmieściu wychodziły na wschód i na Wisłę. Kiedy jako dziecko byłem smutny i zły,

krzyczałem, używając z uporem najgorszego znanego mi epitetu. Mojego dziecinnego przekleństwa, słowa „golas”.

Mama golas!

Tato golas!

Stalin golas!

Lenin golas!

na koniec i

Bierut był nagi…

Krzyczałem, wyczerpawszy wszystkie łzy i całą ofiarę mojego smutku:

WSZYSCY GOLASY!

 

Dom bez kantów widziany z Hotelu Europeiskiego. Na rogu z Krakowskiego Przedmiescia dziura po bombie lotniczej z wrzesnia 1939 roku.

Popielate getto warszawskie - Ash gray Warsaw ghetto coloures

Aerial photographs taken by the Luftwaffe showing Warsaw's gradual destruction during World War II are showing the progression from the early days of the Nazi occupation in September 1939 to brutal street fighting of the ill-fated Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in Spring 1943 and Warsaw Uprising in 1944.

Luftwaffe's black-and-white pictures give an eagle's eye view of the Polish capital as the densely packed, almost honeycomb-like city of tenement buildings, townhouses, and palaces was pounded by fighting into a landscape of rubble and roofless, hollowed-out shells.

Luftwaffe picture from late 1944 (after Warsaw Uprising) showing river Wisla - the Vistula at the bottom and Warsaw's downtown. In the right upper corner, there is a pale gray area that one year earlier belonged to the Warsaw Ghetto.

Higher magnification of the picture shown above. Although the houses outside the former ghetto are also destroyed during the uprise, there is a certain difference in the gray color.

Higher magnification of the picture and the corner as shown above. Bonifraterska street. Workers are cleaning bricks and transporting them with the horse carriages. U góry narożnik dawnego Getta Warszawskiego, skrzyzowanie Bonifraterska-Świętojerska - Tanie cegły wydobywane z popiołów!

Bonifraterska street. Houses and the area on the right of Bonifraterska look intact.

Plac Krasińskich i ulica Bonifraterska. U góry narożnik Getta Bonifraterska-Świętojerska. Zobacz te same domy na kolorowym powojennym zdjeciu z pomnikiem Kilinskiego w Srodku zdjecia.

Plac Krasińskich (z lewej) i ulica Bonifraterska. Za pomnikiem Kilinskiego, narożnik Getta i ulica Bonifraterska-Świętojerska - Cegły na cokół wydobyte z popiołów!

Ghetto area in colors, picture was taken after WW II.

Ghetto area in pictures taken after WW II. Red and blue lines indices places from where pictures were taken. The young girl stands on the roof of one of the houses around the Umschlagsplatz,. The houses are seen in the left picture. On the left from the houses, one can see a railway track with cattle wagons. 

3-D animation from the movie Warszawa 1945 - after the liberation.