Why was this page created?

Lodz has always been a cosmopolitan city. At the beginning of the last century craftsmen from Germany, Jews escaping their persecutors and Russians started arriving in the city. Most of them poor, with very few possessions, but they were heading for the Promised Land. They arrived in Lodz to make their fortune and become the richest people within the then Europe, or to earn their basic living through their hard work. They built palaces and temples, they founded their schools, created the foundations of industry and the culture of this unique city.

The acquisition of the Jewish community cannot be measured only in terms of magnificent palaces of the manufacturers. The poet - Julian Tuwim and the composer - Artur Rubinstein will always be associated with this city.

The war destroyed the Jewish Community and a great majority of its acquisitions. My generation, born after the second world war, became an eyewitness of the gradual disappearance of the world that was left after the Holocaust. I used to live on the outskirts of the former Jewish district of the city. I remember from my childhood my neighbours celebrating the "Sukkot" Holiday. I remember my Jewish mates, who dispersed all over the world after 1968. I remember the poor Jewish shops at Wschodnia street where the total goods consisted of a few hens hung on hooks and small workshops offering services on a small scale, struggling to make ends meet. I saw them vanish one by one, I witnessed the disappearance of everything that created the unique climate of the city.

Our High School was built within the grounds of the former old Jewish district of Lodz, that used to be a part of the ghetto. For the generation of my students, it is only history seen by them as remote as 1945 or 1968. The work on this site helped us to get to know better the culture of the nation, whose representatives used to live in our city, used to live in the houses next to our school and walked along the same streets and squares we walk nowadays.

By means of this page we would like to pay tribute to people, who no longer live but who contributed to the present, unique image of our city.