During the conference between the commissioner and the gmina representatives,
we were shocked to see several tearful, faltering Jewish families
with rucksacks on their backs entering the police station building,
escorted by gendarmes. They were the first of our sisters and brothers to be
brutally ejected from their homes, in the middle of the 20th century, in the
second largest Jewish settlement in Europe, and crammed into the narrow,
foul-smelling streets of Bałuty, subsequently called: ghetto. We calmed the
wretched people as best we could. They thought they were being expelled from
Łódź, but we assured them that we were going out to arrange [2] accommodation
for them in the future Jewish ghetto.
With blank sheets of paper in our hands, we went out into the street
with the sad yet joyful news that the Jews of Łódź were being ‘helped’ by the
establishment of a ghetto. I emphasise the sad but joyful nature of the news
because, after the expulsions of December 1939, the Jewish population of Łódź
generally wished that, with God’s help, the Germans would create a ghetto,
although they did not understand what that would mean. When we entered
the first flats in Bałuty, the Jews received us very well and provided us with
accurate information on their living conditions, because they were overjoyed
at the news that a ghetto was to be created in their district. They were the
lucky ones who would remain undisturbed in their flats.
On the first day of the registration (4 or 5 February), we allocated approximately
10 or 11 flats to the Jews who had been expelled, and the ghetto gradually
took shape. In a couple of days, the small number of officials who had
initially dealt with the matter grew into a large, many-branched organisation,
the kehillah’s Housing Department,³¹⁵ headed by attorney N. Its task was
315 The Housing Department (Registration Office) (Wydział Mieszkaniowy [Biuro Meldunkowe]) was established when the Jews were being resettled into the ghetto. Its director was attorney Henryk Neftalin. Initially, the office was at Południowa Street 14, and on 10 February 1940 it moved to Lutomierska Street 13. At the peak of its operation, the Department employed about 100 people and had an extensive organisational structure. A group of Order Service functionaries, directed by Henryk Kaufman, was assigned to the Department. The operation of the Department was highly controversial with those who were resettled. With the end of the resettlement, Rumkowski dissolved the Department on 6 May 1940, and 15 July 1940 saw the establishment of the second Housing Department, which dealt with exchanging accommodation or allocation of new accommodation after the appropriation of locales for offices.
