MTN: Radegast Station Branch

The Radegast Station Branch, at al. Pamięci Ofiar Litzmannstadt Getto 12 in Łódź, is housed in a building of the former railway station from which the Jewish population of the Łódź ghetto was deported to extermination camps during the German occupation. It is a branch of the Museum of Independence Traditions in Łódź.

Railway station and Umschlagplatz

The building belonged to Radegast railway station, previously called Marysin, on the Łódź-Widzew to Zgierz line. From January 1942 it served as an Umschlagplatz, a loading point where the Jewish population was loaded into freight wagons. From here transports departed beyond the ghetto boundaries.

Deportations from the Łódź ghetto

Over 140,000 people were deported from Radegast Station, the vast majority Jews from the Łódź ghetto. Transports were directed primarily to the extermination centre at Kulmhof (Chełmno nad Nerem) and to Auschwitz-Birkenau camp. Mass deportations to Kulmhof began in January 1942, and by September of the same year over 70,000 people had been murdered there.

The building after the war

After the end of the war the station served various economic functions before, following years of renovation, coming under the management of the Museum of Independence Traditions and being opened to visitors as a place of remembrance. The renovation work preceding the opening of the branch lasted approximately one year.

The station as the ghetto gate

For the inhabitants of the Łódź ghetto, Radegast station was the place through which successive groups of people were deported, wagon after wagon, beyond the ghetto boundaries. This was where the journey from a home in the ghetto to a freight wagon bound for an extermination centre ended.

Exhibition

The viewing route leads through the symbolic Tunnel of the Deported and a hall in the shape of a chimney. Inside are fragments of deportation lists, objects found at mass graves, and a map of Europe showing the cities from which Jews brought to the Łódź ghetto originated. Every year this place hosts commemorations honouring Holocaust victims, attended by survivors.

Practical information

• Address: al. Pamięci Ofiar Litzmannstadt Getto 12, Łódź
• Access: grounds of the former Radegast railway station, accessible from al. Pamięci Ofiar Litzmannstadt Getto
• Opening hours are worth checking in advance at the Museum of Independence Traditions, to which the branch belongs
• What to expect: an exhibition with the character of a place of remembrance, devoted to the history of deportations from the Łódź ghetto
• Another branch of the same museum, Radogoszcz Martyrdom Branch, documents occupation and German crimes at another location in Łódź