Lodz, or Litzmannstadt, was the only ghetto to survive the entire war. To organize and implement Nazi policy within the ghetto, the Nazis chose a Jew named Mordechai Chaim Rumkowski. At the time Rumkowski was appointed the Älteste der Juden (Elder of the Jews), he was 62 years old, with billowy, white hair.
Rumkowski was a firm believer in the autonomy of the ghetto. He started many programs that replaced outside bureaucracy with his own. Rumkowski replaced the German currency with ghetto money that bore his image and signature–soon referred to as “Rumkies.” He also created a post office (and stamps with his image, but they never were used for postage). Because the ghetto had no sewage system, he also established a sewage clean-up department.
Rumkowski created jobs and workshops to employ the residents and worked with the Nazis so they would leave him and the ghetto alone. On June 10, 1944, Heinrich Himmler ordered the liquidation of the Lodz ghetto. Rather than tell residents what was happening, Rumkowski told them that workers were needed in Germany to repair the damages caused by air raids. The first transport left on June 23, with many others following until July 15. On July 15, the transports halted.
By August 1944, the Lodz ghetto had been liquidated. Only a few remaining workers were retained by the Nazis to finish confiscating materials and valuables left in the ghetto. Even Rumkowski and his family were included in these last transports to Auschwitz.
When the Soviets liberated the ghetto on January 19, 1945, they found that only 877 Jews remained of the roughly 245,000 who had lived there.
