The Mayor of Łódź, Hanna Zdanowska, and the Jewish Community of Łódź
are hereby extending their invitation to join them in Łódź on 29 August 2024
for the main commemorations
the 80th anniversary of the liquidation of the Litzmannstadt Getto

You are invited to the 80th Anniversary of the Litzmannstadt Ghetto Liquidation.

The 29th of August is a symbolic date – in August 1944, the last people living in the closed district were deported from the Łódź Ghetto to Auschwitz-Birkenau by the German occupiers. Later, the ghetto was liquidated.

Łódź, which before the war was a crucial centre of Jewish culture, science and trade, still commemorates its inhabitants as well as thousands of Jews from nearby towns and many cities in Europe who lost their lives in the city or were transported from Łódź to the death camps.

29 August 2024 | Tuesday - MAIN COMMEMORATIONS

10:30 AM – Opening of the exhibition Henryk Ross. From Dawn to Dusk. The Lodz Ghetto Photographs 1940-1944.

Venue: Funeral House / Jewish cemetery, 40 Bracka St. (entrance from Zmienna St.).
Organizer: Jewish Community of Lodz.
Description: Exhibition opening: “From Dawn to Dusk,” Henryk Ross Photographs from the Lodz Ghetto, 1940-1944. Courtesy of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston and Toronto’s Art Gallery of Ontario.

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11:00 AM – Religious ceremonies and symbolic lighting of candles at the monument to the memory of the Jews of Łódź at the Jewish cemetery in Łódź. PL/ENG, translation into PJM.

Location: Jewish Cemetery | 40 Bracka St.
The commemoration will be broadcast on the Internet on Facebook – fb.com/centrumdialogulodz and youtube.com/centrumdialoguwlodzi

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12:00 PM – Official ceremonies at the Radegast Station (laying flowers and candles). PL/ENG, PJM translation

Location: Museum of Independence Traditions in Łódź – Radegast Station Branch | al. Pamięci Ofiar Litzmannstadt Getto 12
The celebrations will be broadcast on the Internet on Facebook – fb.com/centrumdialogulodz and youtube.com/centrumdialoguwlodzi

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March of remembrance from the Radegast Station to the Old Market Square. PL/ENG Start: Radegast Station.

Organizers: Archdiocese of Lodz, Cardinal Grzegorz Ryś, Jewish Religious Community in Lodz, Social and Cultural Association of Jews in Poland, March of the Living.

The march sets off at 12:30 p.m. from Radegast Station immediately after the flower-laying ceremony and leads through the Monument to the Martyrdom of Children, the Monument to Poles Saving Jews in Survivors' Park and the Roma Forge, ending at the Decalogue Monument in Łódź. At each stop of the march, a 10-minute break is planned, during which we will hear a piece of poetry or an excerpt of memories. In addition, a representative of a religion or ethnic minority will say a prayer. Those offering their prayers will include: Roman Kwiatkowski, President of the Roma Association in Poland, Cardinal Grzegorz Ryś, Metropolitan Archbishop of Łodź, and Michael Schudrich, Chief Rabbi of Poland.

The event will be a unique opportunity to pray, contemplate, and collectively commemorate the tragic events of our shared history.Please feel invited to participate in the March, which unites generations and different faiths for one purpose - to honour the ones who lost their lives, and the ones who helped save lives.

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7.00 PM – Concert on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the liquidation of the Litzmannstadt-Ghetto performed by the Choir and Orchestra of the Grand Theatre in Łódź and the Jewish Choir CLIL. PL/ENG

Tickets available for pickup in The Great Theater.
Location: Grand Theatre, Łódź Dąbrowskiego Square 1.
Organizers: Grand Theatre in Łódź, Jewish Community in Łódź, Social and Cultural Association of Jews in Poland.

The concert, which will be presented by the Grand Theatre in Łódź, will include, among others, songs from the Łódź ghetto specially arranged for the concert for several choirs and orchestra. Andrzej Seweryn and Milena Lisiecka will read excerpts from ghetto diaries and Chava Rosenfarb's novel "The Tree of Life." Cantor Benjamin Muller will sing, among others, Samuel Malawsky's "Av Horachamim" with the participation of a male choir, pianist Julia Kociuban will perform Alexander Tansman's "Hebrew Rhapsody," and the famous violinist Leila Josefowicz will play, accompanied by the Grand Theatre Orchestra in Łódź under the baton of Rafał Janiak, the second part of Max Bruch's Violin Concerto in G minor, Op. 26. The concert will conclude with Wojciech Kilar's expressive vocal-symphonic poem "Exodus," based on a short theme derived from Jewish folklore. Considering the special significance of the event, the exceptional artistic value of the program, and the unique nature of the concert, we encourage you to watch it. The concert will also be available via VOD on the "Drzwi do Kultury" portal.

Other events on that day:

4:00 PM – In the footsteps of Dawid Sierakowiak's "Diary" - walk. Conducted by: Aleksandra Ciach, Centre for Initiatives for the Development of REGIO. PL

Participation is paid, PLN 20 / person, payment on the spot to the organizer.
Start: Church Square, from Zgierska Street.
Organizer: REGIO Center for Development Initiatives

28 August | Wednesday - SURVIVORS’ DAY/ 20th Anniversary of Survivors’ Park in Łódź

10:00 AM – Survivors in the documentary: Marian Turski My Most Important Day Michał Bukojemski [67 min.]. PL/ENG

Location: Marek Edelman Dialogue Center in Łódź | 83 Wojska Polskiego Street.

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11:15 AM – Survivors in the documentary: Mietek Wajntraub/Mitchell Winthrop Lessons from Mitch, dir. Klaudia Siczek [10 min.] ENG

Location: Marek Edelman Dialogue Center in Łódź | 83 Wojska Polskiego Street.
Description: Mitchell (Mitch) Winthrop is Mietek Weintraub, born in Lodz to a middle-class family in 1926, a student at the private Kacenelson Gymnasium, a fun guy - as he refers to himself, forced to live in the ghetto since 1940. There he had to learn to work and fight to survive. His father died in the ghetto from starvation, his mother and family members died in the camps, but he survived and wanted to live. Klaudia Siczek's film tells of a man full of optimism and joy of life, whose passion became billiards. He has spent his free time in the billiard club for 50 years, while infecting others with his smile and sense of humor. In 2012, he wrote the memoir "The Arrival: I sought God in Hell." The documentary was made by the granddaughter of Marian Turski, Mitch's peer.

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11:30 AM – Survivors in the documentary: Leon Kovner Leon loves the sea and we love Leon and Art_opening_1940 by Elyasaf Kovner. [10 min.] ENG

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11:45 AM – Survivors in the documentary: Tova ben Zvi Tova's World Michał Bukojemski [37 min.]. PL/ENG

Location: Marek Edelman Dialogue Center in Łódź | 83 Wojska Polskiego Street.

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12:30 PM – Survivors in the documentary: Leon Weintraub Leon – the boy who survived hell, author: Jacek Tokarczyk, prod. TVP3 Łódź for TVP Historia [13 min.]. PL/ENG

Location: Marek Edelman Dialogue Center in Łódź | 83 Wojska Polskiego Street.
Description: Leon Weintraub is 96 years old. He is one of the last living "Lodzermensch". Born and raised in Lodz, imprisoned in the city's ghetto, Holocaust Survivor. He lives in Sweden on a daily basis, but visits his hometown exceptionally eagerly and as often as possible.

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02:00 PM – Survivors in the documentary: Halina Elczewska Halina Elczewska in Łódź produced by Marek Edelman Dialogue Center. [27 min.] PL/ENG

Location: Marek Edelman Dialogue Center in Łódź | 83 Wojska Polskiego Street.
Description: Until the outbreak of war, Halina and her sisters, the elder Jadwiga and Inka, lived at 3/5 Łąkowa St. She studied at the Orzeszkowa Gymnasium at 21 Kosciuszko Avenue.
After the outbreak of war, the family moved to the Bałuty area, in the ghetto they lived at 39 Brzezińska St. They survived in the ghetto almost to the end, until liquidation. They were deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau on August 24, 1944, where her husband, parents and younger sister Inka died.
After the war, Halinka was vice mayor of Mieroszow, then moved with Jadwiga and her husband, Arnold Mostowicz, to Wroclaw, where she was director of the school of company counselors.
In August 2004, on the initiative of Halina Elczewska, with the support of Mayor Jerzy Kropiwnicki, the Survivors' Park is established in Lodz.

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3:00 PM – 20th anniversary of the Survivors' Park. Walk two. Guided by: Grażyna Ojrzyńska (guiding in Polish) and Justyna Tomaszewska (guiding in English). PL/ENG

Start: parking in front of the Dialogue Center building, 83 Wojska Polskiego Street.
Organizer: Marek Edelman Dialogue Center in Łódź.

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4:00 PM – Ceremony of awarding new trees of remembrance. PL/ENG

Location: Marek Edelman Dialogue Center in Łódź | Wojska Polskiego Street 83.
Organizer: City of Łódź and Marek Edelman Dialogue Center in Łódź.
Description: Since 2004, memorial trees dedicated to people or families who survived the war have been planted in the Survivors' Park. Every year new names are added. They are planted by Survivors, or their descendants, children, sometimes grandchildren, who come from different parts of the world. At the moment, there are already over 660 memorial trees in the Survivors' Park.

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5:00 PM – Our youth gave us strength – a talk with Marian Turski, a Survivor of the Łódź Ghetto, about youth organisations in the Łódź Ghetto and with Dr Ewa Wiatr from the Filip Friedman Centre for Jewish Research at the University of Łódź. Conducted by: Joanna Podolska, PhD, Marek Edelman Dialogue Center in Łódź. PL/ENG

Location: Marek Edelman Dialogue Center in Łódź | 83 Wojska Polskiego Street.
Organizer: Marek Edelman Dialogue Center in Łódź.
Description: Practically immediately after the closing of the ghetto, hundreds of young people, instead of going to cramped apartments in the densely built urban area of the ghetto, took up residence in small houses in Marysin and began to organize their lives according to kibbutz patterns. Gradually, other groups of young people were formed, linked primarily by political or religious beliefs, environmental or social ties. The young people had gardens and orchards under their care, learned to work the land, but also did other jobs. Above all, however, they organized cultural life and self-education groups, libraries, lectures, interest groups, and published a newspaper. Young people in the ghetto discussed literature and politics, argued about the future postwar shape of Poland and what the new Jewish state should look like. But they also helped each other. Although the groups gradually disbanded, the young people continued to meet in each other's homes and often supported each other. In many cases, the bonds stood the test of time and even lasted for decades. We'll talk about youth organizations in the Lodz ghetto with researcher Dr. Ewa Wiatr and, most importantly, Survivor Marian Turski.

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6:30 PM – Concert in the park on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the Survivors' Park. Performer: Sounds of Memory Robert Stefański clarinet. PL

Location: Survivors' Park | 83 Wojska Polskiego Street.
Organizer: Marek Edelman Dialogue Center in Łódź.
Free admission.

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7:00 PM – Concert in the park on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the Survivors' Park. Performer: Trace of presence Katarzyna Jackowska-Enemuo: singing, akordeon. PL

Location: Survivors' Park | 83 Wojska Polskiego Street.
Organizer: Marek Edelman Dialogue Center in Łódź.
Free admission.

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8:00 PM – Do not despair / Nie rozpaczaj - a concert dedicated to the Survivors of the Łódź Ghetto. Performers: Alan Bern (piano), Sveta Kundish (vocals), Mark Kovnatskiy (violin), Fabian Schnedler (vocals), Martin Lillich (double bass). PL/ENG

Location: Survivors' Park | 83 Wojska Polskiego Street.
Organizer: Marek Edelman Dialogue Center in Łódź.
Free admission.

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Throughout the day, a stand with books published by the Dialogue Centre and books by the University of Lodz will be available.

 

Honorary patronage:

Media patronage:

Co-financed: