More than 200,000 Jews passed through the ghetto, the vast majority of whom were sent to their deaths.

By JNS

The International March of the Living held a joint March of Remembrance and March of the Living last week to mark 80 years since the liquidation of Lodz Ghetto, the second largest ghetto in Nazi-occupied Europe after Warsaw.

The event gathered 500 participants, including Polish officials and ambassadors from 12 countries, to honor the memory of those who suffered and perished during one of the darkest chapters of history.

The central ceremony was held at the historic Radegast train station, where the last transport from the ghetto departed 80 years ago, on Aug. 29, 1944. This transport marked the final phase of the ghetto’s liquidation, during which thousands of Jews were deported to extermination camps, including Auschwitz and Chelmno.

“We gather to remember those who suffered in the Łódź Ghetto and to share some lesser-known stories of resilience, courage and strength. Our aim at the March of the Living is to educate the young generation to learn from the tragic past of the Holocaust, in order to build a better future. We must ensure that what happened during the Holocaust is never forgotten,” said Michel Gourary, director of the European March of the Living.

Participants of the march walked the historic route that once bore witness to the suffering of the ghetto’s inhabitants. At the Radegast station, wreaths were laid and prayers offered in memory of the victims. The ceremony was followed by a march to the Monument to the Martyrdom of Children, the Monument to Poles Saving Jews in the Survivors’ Park and the Roma Forge, ending at the Monument to the Decalogue in Lodz.

A number of aging Holocaust survivors attended, including 98-year-old Leon Weintraub, who survived the ghetto, four concentration camps and a death march, and Marian Turski, who insisted on joining the ceremony and marching together with those assembled.

Ghetto Lodz, established in February 1940, was one of the most significant sites of Jewish suffering and resistance during the Holocaust. At its peak, it housed over 160,000 Jews, who were forced into labor under brutal conditions. Despite the deprivation, the community maintained cultural and educational activities, a testament to their determination to preserve their humanity.

By the time the ghetto was liquidated in 1944, more than 200,000 Jews had passed through it, the vast majority of whom were sent to their deaths. The destruction of Polish Jewry was nearly complete by the end of the war, with over 90% of Poland’s pre-war Jewish population of 3.3 million perishing in the Holocaust.

The march took place as part of March of the Living’s regular memorial events throughout Europe on the local and national Holocaust memorial days where Jews lived and perished. The organization’s flagship program is a seven-day educational journey in Poland which culminates in a symbolic march on the Jewish Holocaust Remembrance Day between Auschwitz and Birkenau.