Ghettostadt: Lodz and the Making of a Nazi City

by Gordon J. Horwitz

Under the Third Reich, Nazi Germany undertook an unprecedented effort to refashion the city of Łódź. Home to prewar Poland’s second most populous Jewish community, this was to become a German city of enchantment—a modern, clean, and orderly showcase of urban planning and the arts. Central to the undertaking, however, was a crime of unparalleled dimension: the ghettoization, exploitation, and ultimate annihilation of the city’s entire Jewish population. Ghettostadt is the terrifying examination of the Jewish ghetto’s place in the Nazi worldview. Exploring ghetto life in its broadest context, it deftly maneuvers between the perspectives and actions of Łódź’s beleaguered Jewish community, the Germans who oversaw and administered the ghetto’s affairs, and the “ordinary” inhabitants of the once Polish city. Gordon Horwitz reveals patterns of exchange, interactions, and interdependence within the city that are stunning in their extent and intimacy. He shows how the Nazis, exercising unbounded force and deception, exploited Jewish institutional traditions, social divisions, faith in rationality, and hope for survival to achieve their wider goal of Jewish elimination from the city and the world. With unusual narrative force, the work brings to light the crushing moral dilemmas facing one of the most significant Jewish communities of Nazi-occupied Eastern Europe, while simultaneously exploring the ideological underpinnings and cultural, economic, and social realities within which the Holocaust took shape and flourished. This lucid, powerful, and harrowing account of the daily life of the “new” German city, both within and beyond the ghetto of Łódź, is an extraordinary revelation of the making of the Holocaust.

Genres: History, Holocaust, Nonfiction, Poland, World War II

416 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 2008

Reviews

[Lawrence · Rating 4 out of 5]

Under the Third Reich, Nazi Germany undertook an unprecedented effort to refashion the city of Łódź. Home to prewar Poland’s second most populous Jewish community, this was to become a German city of enchantment—a modern, clean, and orderly showcase of urban planning and the arts. Central to the undertaking, however, was a crime of unparalleled dimension: the ghettoization, exploitation, and ultimate annihilation of the city’s entire Jewish population. Ghettostadt is the terrifying examination of the Jewish ghetto’s place in the Nazi worldview. Exploring ghetto life in its broadest context, it deftly maneuvers between the perspectives and actions of Łódź’s beleaguered Jewish community, the Germans who oversaw and administered the ghetto’s affairs, and the “ordinary” inhabitants of the once Polish city. Gordon Horwitz reveals patterns of exchange, interactions, and interdependence within the city that are stunning in their extent and intimacy. He shows how the Nazis, exercising unbounded force and deception, exploited Jewish institutional traditions, social divisions, faith in rationality, and hope for survival to achieve their wider goal of Jewish elimination from the city and the world. With unusual narrative force, the work brings to light the crushing moral dilemmas facing one of the most significant Jewish communities of Nazi-occupied Eastern Europe, while simultaneously exploring the ideological underpinnings and cultural, economic, and social realities within which the Holocaust took shape and flourished. This lucid, powerful, and harrowing account of the daily life of the “new” German city, both within and beyond the ghetto of Łódź, is an extraordinary revelation of the making of the Holocaust.

[Adam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Horwitz's previous workon the close relationship between the Mauthausen concentration camp and its surrounding communities seemingly paves the way for this exploration of the city of Lodz/Litzmannstadt under the aegis of the Third Reich. While tracking many of the same dependencies between captive and free populations that he does in his Mauthausen study, this book on Lodz is both broader in scope and better in execution (where did he find these photos?!?) than his first one. Horwitz captures the ways in which ghettoized residents of Lodz related to outside populations, illustrating how the ghetto leadership, city administrators and even Nazi elites came to understand--and manipulate--their fate. Unsavory details appear in every chapter, and they will frequently force readers to reassess their understanding of the Third Reich's exploitative policies and the Holocaust's operation at the ground level. I wished there was a little more pages allocated to the experiences of non-ghettoized residents of Lodz, and think it might better have fleshed out some of the tragedies that Horwitz unearths. But that's a slightly different and surely longer book than this one. For bringing Lodz's Second World War experience to light in such glaring detail, Horwitz deserves real credit.

[Deodand · Rating 4 out of 5]

While reading this book I had to remind myself that it was non-fiction. Horwitz could've written a dry albeit sad book about Lodz, or he could've written something dripping with pathos and romance. Thank goodness he didn't do either.

The pace is high enough to keep you reading, and learning about what happened, yet the book isn't overripe with the horror of the situation. I was surprised to read a fair amount about the exterior staff maintaining the ghetto.

I am glad to have read this book because, up to this point, I knew very little about what happened in Lodz. They don't teach this stuff in school around here because it happened on another continent, so we must be content to hear about it third-hand or via TV-movie. I am interested in the facts of WWII and this book is right up my alley.

[Meaghan · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent history of the Lodz ghetto, with details about the city of Lodz/Litzmannstadt was well. Accounts of Litzmannstadt flourishing and getting bigger and better and more beautiful every day are in stark contrast to the blighted, dying ghetto. The author's portrait of Rumkowski, the ghetto's controversial leader, is pretty sympathetic. I would recommend this book to people who enjoyed Hitler's Gift: The Story of Theresienstadt.

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

As the title suggests, Ghettostadt covers both the Lodz ghetto and the city itself, renamed Litzmannstadt under Nazi rule. And while Horowitz does go into detail to explain the terrible living conditions and daily struggles of life in the ghetto, he definitely fell short in detailing the non-ghetto aspect. It was mostly only used to show a contrast to how well-off the Germans of Litsmannstadt were. Considering the sub-title of the book implies there would be more detail on this aspect, it is a little disappointing he didn't further explore life in Litzmannstadt.