Entrapment, fear, enduring spirit: the story of the Łódź Ghetto
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About the Tour
About the Tour
Journey through one of World War II’s darkest chapters as you explore the core of the Łódź Ghetto, the second largest and longest-surviving Nazi ghetto in occupied Europe. For four years (1940-1944), this sealed-off district became a place of fear, suffering, and death for over 200,000 people, primarily Jews, who were imprisoned and brutalized within its boundaries.
The tour starts at Park Staromiejski, a peaceful urban park that was once a bustling Jewish market quarter. You’ll walk through the boundary of the one time ghetto and make your way to its centre, passing places along the way where today people work, live, or pass by with no knowledge of the dark secrets they house. As you step deeper into the ghetto’s past, your guide James will takes you deeper and deeper into the step by step unfolding horror which not even the most wary inhabitants suspected, until the grim reality of Nazi intentions about their fate overwhelmed them. You will discover not only historical facts about the route you take, but you will hear the very words of survivors and victims, as the tour brings their experiences vividly to life.
IMPORTANT: Please see “Places to stop along the way” for other recommended places to visit that are connected to the ghetto and its legacy, but are too far away to be included on this tour.
As you walk, you’ll find out how the Nazi occupation transformed Łódź, entrapping its vibrant Jewish community behind barbed wire in a district that became a place of isolation and terror. You’ll learn about the ghetto’s internal governance, its transformation into a massive industrial complex producing goods for the German war effort, and the ultimate fate of its inhabitants. You’ll also hear stories from teenage diarists like Dawid Sierakowiak, whose moving accounts provide intimate glimpses into daily life under Nazi oppression.
The tour illuminates how, despite overwhelming hunger, fear, and despair, people found ways to maintain their humanity through education, culture, and acts of resistance. It ends at the Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which masked the first clues of the terrible fate awaiting the ghetto’s inhabitants.
On this two-hour tour, you’ll also have a chance to:
- Pass the “Red House,” headquarters of the German Criminal Police, where torture and terror were everyday occurrences
- Hear about Chaim Rumkowski, the controversial Jewish leader appointed by the Nazis to run the ghetto’s internal affairs, and Hans Biebow, the cruel and calculating Nazi overlord of the ghetto
- Visit the site of the Culture House, where concerts, plays, and cabarets offered temporary escape from ghetto reality
- Walk past the former hospital that marked the starting point of the ghetto’s most traumatic event
- See where Heinrich Himmler, head of the murderous Nazi SS, visited the ghetto along with curious Nazi “tourists”
- Stand at the memorial where public executions once took place
- Learn about the ghetto’s liquidation and the fate of its inhabitants
By the end of this sobering but essential walk, you’ll understand why this chapter of history must never be forgotten.
VOICES FROM THE GHETTO:
On this tour, you will hear the actual voices of survivors of the ghetto, telling their stories. Their testimonies are gripping and deeply moving accounts which can be found freely on the internet thanks to the USC Shoah foundation and ‘Generation 2 Generation”.
These are the anglicised versions of their names which they adopted after leaving Poland following World War 2:
Mary Natan
Helen Aronson
George Shainfarber
Daniel Geslewitz
I am very grateful to the following whose voices you hear reading other voices from the ghetto.
Przemyslaw Wieczorek (Dawid Sierakowiak)
Daniel Nowak (Abramek Koplowicz)
Artur Nowak (Oskar Rosenfeld/Jozef Klementynowski)
Jo Eckardt (Melita Maschmann)
Tour Producer
Tour Producer
James Cowan
I love creating audio tours of cities which lie close to my heart in the hope that others will share my love and passion.
I wrote my first audio tour of Cardiff, Wales in 2018. I grew up with Cardiff on my doorstep and lived there most of my adult life. Discovering its incredible but still largely unknown history became an ever-growing passion. This led me to develop walking tours and telling people the history, legends and ghost stories of Cardiff and Wales – tales of Kings, Princes, and a one-time tiny town on the Taff that overnight become the world’s biggest coal port, from which emerged the grand domes, towers and columns of its beautiful civic centre….and all the time, in its woodlands and castles lurk ancient legends and tales of ghosts!
I am delighted that, thanks to VoiceMap, I have been able to convert some of these tours into self-guided audio tours.
Since 2019 I have had a new home, Copenhagen, and I have fallen in love with this city. Discovering its history, its character, and its characters past and present, has been an all-consuming pleasure, always full of surprises. In 2021 I was delighted to offer my first Copenhagen audio tour, which was a labour of love to research and develop, as a prelude to more Copenhagen tours following in 2022 and 2023.
In 2023 I was very excited to introduce my first ever audio tour in Poland, of Warsaw’s beautiful Old Town. I have been fascinated and deeply moved by Polish history since childhood, and as an adult I have been spellbound by the beauty of its cities, and awe struck by the resilience and determination of the Polish character despite everything the country has experienced.
In 2025 I published a series of audio tours of Łódź! I hope that my tours of Łódź shed new light on this striking, exciting, and much underrated city! Moreover, I hope that my audiotour of the site of the Łódź Ghetto serves as a powerful informational and educational tool, shedding light on the city's darkest chapter. Indeed, I hope all my Polish audio tours convey my admiration and respect for the country's history and culture.
Preview Location
Preview Location
Location 32
Roman Kent and Dawid Sierakowiak
Both lived as teenage boys in the ghetto in this very stre... Read More
View locations and route
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Major Landmarks
Major Landmarks
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Park Staromiejski
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Fountain
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Sundial
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Ogródek dźwiękowy
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Stary Rynek
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Kościół pw. Wniebowzięcia NMP w Łodzi
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German Police in the Ghetto lodz
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Hala i plac targowy Jojne Pilcera
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Pracownia Rzeźby i Sztuki wszelakiej
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Mural Stormie Millsa z cyklu "Lost Giants"
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Mural "Anutsa" autorstwa Boaza Sidesa.
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Kościół pw. Dobrego Pasterza
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Murals of memory - Jewish boy
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Łagiewnicka 36
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Centra Medyczne Medyceusz - Bazarowa
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Bałucki Rynek
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PAMIĄTKOWA MACEWA - STARY CMENTARZ ŻYDOWSKI
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Plac Piastowski w Łodzi
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Jewish cemetery in Łódź
Getting There
Getting There
Route Overview
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Start locationPark Staromiejski, 90-001 Łódź, Poland
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Total distance4km
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Final locationZgierska 24-22, 91-468 Łódź, Poland
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Distance back to start location345.08m
Directions to Starting Point
The tour begins at Park Staromiejski, the large park which is a few minutes walk north from Plac Wolności, and directly opposite the large Manufaktura retail and leisure complex.
From the main tram station (called by locals The Unicorn’s Stable):
You can take trams numbered 2, 3, 6, 7, or 11 which leave from the platform nearest to the Hampton by Hilton. You must have a ticket before you enter and you can buy a ticket from the machine (with English instructions) in the station.
Remember to time stamp your ticket as soon as you board by inserting it into the orange or yellow box inside the tram. Take the tram 6 stops (about 10 minutes journey) and get off at the stop called "Manufaktura" which you will hear announced. When you get off the tram you will see the pedestrian crossing taking you straight to the park which is on the right side of the road. Enter the park and walk straight ahead, following the instructions on your phone to the exact starting point.
Show Directions
Tips
Tips
Places to stop along the way
The route is primarily residential, with limited opportunities to stop along the way to buy refreshments. There is a Netto supermarket at Plac Kościelny (Ecclesiastical Square) near the start of the tour which is open 6am-10pm Mon-Sat, and a large indoor market selling many food and non-food items at the square called Bałucki Rynek towards the end of the tour (open 7am-6pm Mon-Fri and 7am-4pm Saturday).
The end point of the tour is a few minutes walk from Manufaktura, where there are many places to sit down and eat throughout the day. Alternatively, 1 km from the end point of the tour, Piotrkowska begins with many places to sit and eat or drink.
One recommended place to eat on Piotrkowska is the restaurant Imber
(Piotrkowska 43), which pays tribute to the city's Jewish legacy with an acclaimed menu combining Jewish and Polish dish
IMPORTANT NOTE:
There are very important locations in the history of the ghetto which cannot be included in this tour because of their distance from this route. However, it is highly recommended that you visit them after the tour, to complete your understanding of the ghetto. Public transport options vary and it is recommended that you ask at the Tourist Information Office Piotrkowska 28:
• Radegast railway station, address: aleja Pamięci Ofiar Litzmannstadt Getto 12 (4km from the tour route). This memorial and museum commemorating the victims of the ghetto is free to enter and is housed in the railway station from which many of the ghetto inhabitants were sent to their deaths. A cattle truck of the type used to transport people sits at the platform. It is situated in the north east of Łódź. Precise opening and closing hours vary but it is open every day except Fridays between 10am and 4pm.
• The Jewish Cemetery, Łódź. ul. Zmienna (3.5 km from the tour route). This is one of the largest Jewish cemeteries in the world, and was on the outermost edge of the ghetto. It covers 40 hectares and includes one section where 43,000 victims of the ghetto are buried, called The Ghetto Field
. Admission today is only via the entrance at Zmienna Street and costs 10PLN. Opening hours Apr-Oct: Sun-Thu 9-5, Fri 9-3. Nov-Mar: Sun-Fri 9-3.
• Monument to child martyrdom, Szarech Szeregów Park, Bracka 2 (2.5 km from the tour route). An 8 metre high heart shaped monument, broken down the centre with a hollowed-out outline of a child. It commemorates the many non-Jewish Polish children imprisoned in a special enclosed children's camp within the ghetto, after their parents were murdered or imprisoned. Free entry. Open 24 hours.
• Park Ocalałych (Survivors' Park). Wojska Polskiego 83 (1.6km from the tour route). This is an 8.5 hectare landscaped park opened in 2004, with monuments commemorating those who survived the ghetto and those who risked their lives to save Polish Jews. It contains hundreds of trees planted by ghetto survivors, and a mound commemorating Łódź Catholic and resistance fighter Jan Karski, who alerted world leaders about what was happening to Poland's Jews.
• Chełmno death camp, Chełmno nad Ner, (approx 75km from the tour route). This is now a museum and memorial ground. Private tours are available from Łódź (please ask at the Tourist Information Centre). More information about the museum itself can be found on its website https://chelmno-muzeum.eu/
Best time of day
The tour can be taken at any time of year, wearing appropriate clothing to suit the weather conditions. The route tends to be quieter traffic-wise from mid-morning to mid-afternoon. I would not recommend taking the tour at night. The route passes through many quiet streets and, while the area is generally safe, the isolation and quietness at night may leave a visitor feeling uncomfortable.
Precautions
The tour route is primarily flat and entirely paved with, at most, very gentle slopes and alternative directions offered in the few cases where there are a small number of steps. Comfortable shoes for walking are recommended. It is also recommended to check the weather forecast beforehand and dress appropriately. Łódź can get very hot in the summer and so sun block and bottled water are recommended in hot weather.
The route is generally safe, but normal precautions are advised regarding following instructions when crossing roads, and taking care of your possessions.
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