FIND FROM THE ŁÓDŹ GHETTO SEWER
The ghetto in Łódź (Litzmannstadt) was characterised by its strict isolation, which was influenced, among other things, by the lack of a sewage system. Up until the outbreak of war, the municipal water and sewage system did not serve the Old Town and Bałuty, where a "closed district" was created in 1940. This ruled out the possibility of its prisoners having contact with the outside world through underground communication, as in the Warsaw Ghetto. However, inconspicuous artefacts discovered in the canal of the Bałutka River may shed new light on the issue.
Andrzej Grzegorczyk
Museum of Independence Traditions in Łódź, Radegast Station Branch
In 2019, the Łódź Waterworks and Sewage Company (ZWiK) donated the hinges and metal locking elements of the grating to the Museum of Independence Traditions in Łódź. They were found in the canal of the Bałutka river (in the vicinity of today's Piekarska Street), near the borders of the former ghetto. This stream was the only one of the local watercourses that flowed within the ghetto. Like other rivers in Lodz, as early as the 1920s and 1930s, the Bałutka was hidden in an underground sewer, only occasionally emerging to the surface. For this reason, it was never etched in the memory of the forced inhabitants of the ghetto. However, it can be assumed that during its existence, it was used as a sewer - as was the case with the hospital buildings at 37 Łagiewnicka Street.
However, on a map of the sewerage network dating back to 1935, we do not find such a facility. The metal grate inside the sewer was only mentioned on a map produced in July 1940 (i.e., after the ghetto was closed at the end of April 1940) by the Water and Sewerage Department (Department IV) of the German Municipal Administration. Therefore, this unique piece of technical infrastructure only found its way underground during the occupation.
Its supposed purpose was brought to Tatiana Berenstein's attention when the plans of the sewer network were submitted to the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw in 1960. In the protocol, the researcher pointed out that the documentation "testifies to the existence of a grating shutting off the sewer clearance to prevent underground communication for the ghetto inhabitants". The opinion given at the time is all the more plausible as it makes no sense from the viewpoint of the sewer system's operation to install such elements inside the sewers. As a rule, they are located at their outlets, protecting them from unwanted entry while allowing them to be cleaned efficiently. Installation in the interior makes it difficult to clean the sewers of accumulated waste, which could block sewage flow over time. Therefore, all indications are that the Bałutki sewer grating was installed intentionally to prevent people from passing through the underground sewer. It should be assumed that it was intended to close off any possible way of communication between the ghetto inhabitants and the so-called Aryan section of the city (including preventing escape from it).
It is without a doubt that the grating must still have been in the canal after 1945. At present, however, it is difficult to establish the circumstances under which it was dismantled or what happened to it. The field investigation carried out by ZWiK employees revealed the existence of only fixing elements. However, they provide evidence of the cutting off of a possible communication route. It is an open question whether its placement by the Germans was a preventive measure or whether the grating was intended to interrupt an already existing contact route. Regardless of the answer, the find points to a hitherto unknown aspect of the ghetto's functioning and extremely oppressive nature - a tight separation from the rest of the city.