back...Ceremonial unveiling of the Monument to Polish Children – Victims of German Camps in Lodz and the Surrounding Areas

On December 1, 2023, at the St. Wojciech cemetery in Lodz, in the presence of guests including Survivors of the German camp on Przemyslowa Street together with their families as well as family members of people murdered during the war and of inmates of the Lodz camps who died after the war, representatives of state, local government and church institutions, as well as residents of Lodz, a ceremony was held to unveil a monument to the Memory of Polish Children – Victims of German Camps in Lodz and the Surrounding Areas. The monument was initiated by the Museum of Polish Children – Victims of Totalitarianism.

“The monument is to commemorate 500 children who died as a result of imprisonment in the Lodz camps established by the German occupiers and were buried in unmarked places in the Lodz necropolises. The victims commemorated there also include more than 70 little prisoners from the Konstantynow Lodzki camp who, before their deaths, were transferred to the camp-hospital (Krankenlager) on today's Strzelców Kaniowskich Street or to Lodz hospitals and were consequently buried in local cemeteries,”said Dr. Ireneusz Piotr Maj.

In this context, the role of the St. Wojciech cemetery was special. By order of Litzmannstadt Lord Mayor Werner Ventzki, since June 1942, it had been the only burial place (along with the nearby St. Franciszek cemetery) for people of Polish nationality who died in the occupied city. We know that 77 prisoners of the German concentration camp for Polish children on Przemyslowa Street were buried there, among other people. Only two of these children rest in marked graves.

“During the more than two years of the Museum's operation, we were contacted by a number of families of children murdered in German camps in occupied Lodz. As a result of our research, we have precise information on the circumstances of the deaths of these children, but due to the lack of surviving tombstones, the families cannot make a symbolic gesture of farewell. It is for this purpose that the monument to be unveiled will serve. It will be a symbolic grave for specific five hundred children, with an indication of their name, surname and age at the time of death. The monument is also located in the immediate vicinity of the actual burial site of the children to whom it was dedicated, sometimes just a dozen metres away,” the Museum director said.

On Sunday, December 3 this year at 12:30 pm, at the St. Stanislaus Kostka Archcathedral Basilica in Lodz, a mass will be held forPolish children – victims of German camps in Lodz and the surrounding area.

The monument was co-financed with the funds from the Minister of Culture and National Heritage and PGE Polska Grupa Energetyczna S.A., which is patron of the Museum of Polish Children – Victims of Totalitarianism.

Support in the implementation of the monument construction project was provided by the Archdiocese of Lodz.