The ghettos were urban areas where the Germans confined the local Jews and also Jews from other regions, in order to facilitate the process of deportation and extermination. In those places, the Jews lived in miserable conditions. At least 1,000 ghettos were created in Poland and in Eastern Europe during World War II.The city of Lodz, with 230,000 Jews, was a home for the second largest Jewish community in Europe. In December of 1939, the Jews in the city began to suffer beatings, stealing and looting of their property. According to the Nazis, by October 1st, 1940, the deportation would have already been concluded and the city of Lodz could be considered “free from Jews”.

In February 1940, the Nazis decreed that the Jews could reside only in the streets adjacent to the neighborhood of Baluty, and their reallocation was accelerated by a pogrom on March 1st.

By the time of the creation of the Lodz ghetto, its population was 164,000 people. In the following couple years, Jews from different areas in Central Europe were deported to the ghetto, so it became the second largest ghetto in Europe (the largest one was the Warsaw ghetto).

The ghetto of Lodz was liquidated by the Nazis in August 1944. Only 1,600 of its residents survived.