Events commemorating the 61st anniversary of the liquidation of the Jewish ghetto in Lodz began in that central Polish city today. A mass in the intention of those who perished there was celebrated by French cardinal Jean-Marie Lustiger and the Lodz metropolitan archbishop Wladyslaw Ziolek.
The Nazis created the Litzmannstadt Getto in February 1940 in the city’s most neglected district. It covered the area of 4 square kilometres. More than 160,000 Jews were closed there. Many Jewish intellectuals from Poland, Germany, Austria and Luxembourg were placed there. According to various sources only 5,000 to 12,000 people survived.
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