back...10th March of Remembrance

“Our annual participation in the March is an expression of the will to preserve the memory of the most vulnerable victims of World War II,” said Dr. Ireneusz Piotr Maj, director of the Museum of Polish Children – Victims of Totalitarianism, in connection with the 10th March of Remembrance of the victims of the German concentration camp for Polish children on Przemyslowa Street in Lodz.

On November 9, 2023, a March of Remembrance was held dedicated to the young prisoners of the German concentration camp for Polish children in Lodz, which operated from December 1942 to January 1945. The March was organized for the tenth time by the Metropolitan Curia of Lodz. Honorary patronage of the event, for the third time, was assumed by the Museum of Polish Children – Victims of Totalitarianism.

“The German concentration camp for Polish children in Lodz was the only place of execution of this type on the territory of occupied Poland, which was intended exclusively for the youngest prisoners. Children up to the age of sixteen were sent there, and the youngest among them were still infants. About 2,000 to 3,000 small prisoners passed through the camp, brutally separated from their families, whose members were most often also victims of German repression–subjected to mass arrests and executions, prisoners of other concentration camps or forced labourers sent deep into the Third Reich,” said Dr. Ireneusz Piotr Maj, director of the Museum of Polish Children – Victims of Totalitarianism.

Traditionally, the event began with Mass at the Church of Divine Providence, presided over by Cardinal Grzegorz Ryś. After the Eucharist, a moving animated film titled "It Was Here” was screened. It tells the story of a girl who goes to the camp on Przemyslowa Street in Lodz from the present day.

After the Mass, the participants of the March, including former prisoners of the camp, students and teachers representing Lodz schools, and representatives of local institutions marched through the streets of the city to the Monument to the Martyrdom of Children (the Broken Heart Monument) in Szare Szeregi (Gray Ranks) Park, where a short prayer was held in the intention of the victims. The final point of the ceremony was the laying of flowers and the lighting of candles by the representatives of Lodz authorities and institutions present.

The event was held under the honorary patronage of: Museum of Polish Children – Victims of Totalitarianism, the Lodz Board of Education, and Rev. Cardinal Grzegorz Ryś.