Lodz Ghetto Commemoration 2025

Join the Melbourne Holocaust Museum and the Lodz Committee in commemoration of the 81st anniversary of the liquidation of the Lodz Ghetto.

The Landsmanshaftn were societies of Jewish immigrants who came from the same town or region in Eastern Europe. They were named for the members’ original birthplaces. They were formed to assist their fellow ‘townspeople’ in settling into their new lives in Australia. This assistance – material, emotional, cultural, and social – helped many new arrivals to begin their acclimatisation to life in their new country.

By 1949, numerous attempts had been made to form a Lodzer Landsmanshaft. In 1953 an initiating committee was formed with the aim of calling a general meeting of Melbourne Jews from the Polish city of Lodz and organising an evening to commemorate the memory of their annihilated community.

Today’s Lodz Committee consists of second and third generation descendants. As the years pass by and we have fewer of our precious survivors with us, we realise the importance of involving the younger generations in helping us remember the Lodzers who called Melbourne their home. Today we remember and honour Jewish Lodz, and its inhabitants, the last embers of a once glorious and vibrant community.

This year’s program includes Honouring six of our Lodz Ghetto survivors
with a special candle lighting ceremony.
Reflections from second and third generation descendants,
Dr Joseph Reich and Joel Gerschman.
Music by Sholem Aleichem Students.