The Mayor of Łódź joined dignitaries and a Holocaust survivor in a march to honour victims of the city’s infamous former ghetto.
The event commemorated the liquidation 81 years ago and was organised by The March of the Living.
It began at the historic Jewish cemetery and concluded at Radegast Station, retracing the final path of the last transport of Jews from the Łódź Ghetto to Auschwitz-Birkenau.
The ghetto was one of the largest established by Nazi Germany, where more than 20 percent of residents perished from starvation and disease even before deportations to extermination camps began.
Holocaust survivor Leon Weintraub, 99, was born in 1926 in Łódź, the youngest of five children.
Aged 13, he and his family were forced into the ghetto. In August 1944 they were deported to Auschwitz, where he narrowly avoided the gas chambers.
He was later sent to Groß-Rosen (Dörnhau), Flossenbürg,and Natzweiler-Struthof. Near the end of the war, while being transported again, his train was bombed, allowing him to escape. He reached Donaueschingen suffering from typhus, weighing only about 35 kg, and was liberated by French troops.
After recovering, he studied medicine, earned his doctorate in Warsaw, and worked as a gynecologist. Facing antisemitism, he emigrated in 1969 and continued his medical career in Sweden, becoming a dedicated Holocaust educator and witness.
Weintraub shared his life story and addressed the younger generation: “The memory of the Holocaust guarantees that something like this will never happen again. The worst thing is forgetting. We are all born human, and I hope that you remain human.”
Emphasising the need for vigilance, he added: “Be sensitive to all manifestations of intolerance. I urge you to be vigilant and watchful.”
Michel Gourary, director of the European March of the Living, said at the ceremony: “We gather here to remember the men, women, and children who perished in the Łódź Ghetto. Yet 81 years after the Holocaust, we are witnessing a tsunami of antisemitism.”
Gourary called for the adoption of the IHRA definition of antisemitism to safeguard the dignity and safety of the Jewish people. “The March of the Living is not only about memory — it is about responsibility, vigilance, and the promise of a better future.”
