Story:
Surviving Lodz
There were 223,000 Jews in Lodz at the start of war, but only around 10,000 of them survived. Starvation, disease and overwork killed many in the ghetto. Those that avoided this fate were sent to camps where they were either murdered upon arrival or died subsequently from overwork and malnutrition.
Bono Wiener, from Lodz, with other survivors in Mauthausen concentration camp, shortly after liberation
Bono Wiener's post-war provisional identity card detailing the camps he was in during the war
Abram Goldberg, 2nd from right, with fellow Bundists after the war assisting other survivors to find new homes
Bono Wiener with a friend at the Memorial to the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in 1948.
Only 500-600 Jews were left in the ghetto following the final liquidation in August 1944, to “clean up” the ghetto. Another 300 successfully hid from the deportations. On 19 January 1945, the Russian Army liberated 877 Jews from the ghetto. Slowly the surviving Lodz Jews returned and tried to find family, to see if any survived. Some tried to reclaim property and possessions, but this was extremely challenging. There was ongoing antisemitism in Poland, and many of the surviving Jews reported that they did not feel welcome. Many left, going to displaced persons camps to try to build new lives in new countries.