Łódź 2010
Łódź had little to remind us of the thriving communities where our ancestors once lived when Roman Weinfeld, my husband, Norman, and I visited in 2010. The old synagogues are gone. The buildings and the neighborhoods that housed our relatives during the 1920s and 1930s are run down and graffiti laden.
The impoverished Baluty neighborhood where half of the Jewish population lived before the war and where all were confined during the Holocaust remains largely impoverished and, in many places, crumbling. The town's largest textile mill, pictured above, once owned by the family of Izrael Poznański, has been turned into a hotel, shopping center, arts and entertainment complex. And the Poznański palace, which stands next to the factory, has become a city museum.
It should be no surprise that all of our ancestral towns have changed or that some the remnants of the past are growing older while others are disappearing and still others have been converted to totally different uses. But, like Żarki, Łódź still retains some Jewish memorials and memories. And, unlike Częstochowa the memorials are easy to locate and remain unlocked. Roman stayed at the Dom Gościnny, a Jewish guesthouse, and my husband and I stayed at the Andel Hotel Łódź. So, between the three of us, we were able to see the workings of a resurgent but still small Jewish presence in Łódź and the ultra-modern conversion of a huge 19th century Jewish owned brick textile factory into a complex of businesses geared to 21st century needs. Together the three of us were able to visit some of the places where our own relatives lived and died -- parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. Some photographs from our visit appear in the slideshow below. Click on any photo to go to the slideshow.
