January 18, 1945 — Łódź, Poland When Soviet forces entered Łódź in January 1945, they found not a thriving ghetto but its aftermath. The Łódź Ghetto (Litzmannstadt Ghetto) had once confined more than 200,000 people, making it the second largest ghetto in Nazi-occupied Europe after Warsaw. Established in 1940, it was sealed off from the city with barbed wire and guards. Starvation, forced labor, disease, and deportations steadily reduced its population. By the summer of 1944, most remaining inhab