us-005578-irn85601-irn20686
type: RecordSet
archival history: The announcement was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1989 by Gila Flam.
biographical history: Mordechai Chaim Rumkowski was born on February 27, 1877, in Ilino, Russia, to Reuven Rumkowski. His brother, Josef, was born on August 8, 1884. He relocated to Łódź, Poland, in the early 1900s, and worked as a merchant and velvet manufacturer before beginning a career as an insurance salesman. In the early 1920s, with funding from the Joint Distribution Committee and other business entities, he opened an orphanage in Helenowek, a Łódź district. He was heavily involved in local Jewish affairs, served on the board of the local Zionist party, and was a member of the Jewish Council. On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland and by September 8, they occupied Łódź. They appointed an Ältestenrat [Council of Elders] and made 62-year-old Mordechai the Älteste der Juden [Elder of the Jews], a position which gave him a wide range of powers over the Jewish community. He was ordered to choose 31 prominent Jews. On November 11, the Germans arrested the 31 members and they were taken to Radogoszcz prison; eight were released and the rest were murdered. Mordechai formed a second Ältestenrat, which had little influence on Jewish affairs. The Germans established the Łódź ghetto on February 8, 1940. It was a sealed ghetto, surrounded by barbed wire fencing. Inhabitants were not permitted to leave, except for a small number of forced laborers. This led to overcrowding, starvation, illness, and unsanitary living conditions. Mordechai was appointed the sole administer and answered to Hans Biebow, the head of the ghetto administration. Biebow controlled all activity in the ghetto; he made a profit on slave labor, confiscated property, organized transports to Chelmno killing center, and was active in the destruction of the ghetto. Mordechai was responsible for providing heat, housing, work, food, clothing, and health care. He instituted social programs, issued postage stamps and “Rumkies”, ghetto money printed with his name and signature, performed marriages, and made numerous public sp…
physical characteristics and technical requirements: Announcement on light brown paper with text printed in black ink. The left half of the page has 18 lines of German text in a mix of font sizes and types, with several underlined phrases. The right half of the page repeats the announcement with similar typographic effects in Yiddish. A vertical bold line between the text blocks visually separates the 2 sections.
conditions of access: No restrictions on access
conditions of use: No restrictions on use
date: 1942 January 08
has or had holder: us-005578
has or had identifier: 1
has or had some members with language: yid
has or had some members with language: deu
has or had subject: 513
has record set type: Item
identifier: irn20686
is or was included in: us-005578-irn85601
record resource extent: overall: Height: 9.750 inches (24.765 cm) | Width: 13.500 inches (34.29 cm)
results or resulted from: 1
scope and content: Notification of a postal ban issued in the Łódź ghetto in German occupied Poland by Mordecai Rumkowski, head of the Jewish Council that administered the Ghetto for the Germans. Nazi Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, and occupied Łódź one week later. Łódź was renamed Litzmannstadt and, by February 1940, the Germans forcibly relocated the large Jewish population of 160,000 into a small, sealed ghetto. All residents had to work and many were forced laborers in ghetto factories. Residents. Living conditions were horrendous; the overcrowding and lack of food caused widespread disease and starvation. In January 1942, mass deportations to Chelmno killing center began; half the residents were murdered by the end of the year. In summer 1944, Łódź, the last ghetto in Poland, was destroyed and the remaining Jews were sent to Chelmno and Auschwitz-Birkenau killing centers.
title: Announcement suspending postal service in the Łódź ghetto