Detailed scale model of Łódź Ghetto created by a resident and recovered postwar

Detailed scale model of Łódź Ghetto created by a resident and recovered postwar 

Detailed scale model of Łódź Ghetto created by a resident and recovered postwar 

overall: Height: 21.500 inches (54.61 cm) | Width: 33.250 inches (84.455 cm) | Depth: 26.125 inches (66.358 cm) 

Model of Łódź Ghetto created by Leon Jacobson. He began the model after arriving in the Ghetto following his release from a prisoner of war camp in April 1940. The streets and blocks and all other built elements that appear in the model are in the exact locations of those in Łódź Ghetto before it was destroyed. The houses were painted in the original colors. The model is highly detailed and includes some of the official badges of office issued by the Ghetto administration. The official seals used inside the case were used on all official documents. The Ghetto was highly organized and the seals were found on individual enterprises, factories and offices in the ghetto. There are representations of the scrip designed and printed for ghetto use. Łódź Ghetto was evacuated in August 1944, and Leon and the other residents were sent to Auschwitz concentration camp. Leon wrapped the model in tar paper and buried it in a metal trunk in the basement of his building, Brzezinska #5, which was destroyed. After the war ended in May 1945, Leon discovered that his brothers also had survived. He gave them the location of the model and they found and dug it out of the building rubble and brought it to him in Germany. Jacobson later brought it to the United States.