Notes for MOISHE SHMUEL REICHBARDT:
I. Surname definition:
Reich, resh, yod, yod, final chaf, "rich" (G.; M.H.G. rich "noble; rich; dominion"), translation Hungarian dus (Dushak), Polish (Russian) Bogati. Reichel is feminine proper n. for Rachel. Der. Reicher, Reiches, Reichkind, Reichman, Reichmann (also new n. change), Reichner; comp. Reichard, Reichardt, Reichert (Richard, "bold ruler" M.G. proper n.), Reichbach, Reichbard, Reichbart, Reichbert ("splendid ruler", M.G. proper n.), Reichberg, Reichenberg (Franconia, also Czech Liberec, Bohemia).
II. In "Jewish Roots in Poland", by Miriam Weiner, Page 71, in a section about the city Lodz, there is a picture of a synagogue. The caption reads in part: "... dates from 1885-1900 ... was built by Wolf Reichert, who died in the Lodz Ghetto." We have several known "Wolf"s in the Reichbardt family; could this be another one?
III. In "Jewish Roots in Poland", by Miriam Weiner, Page 70:
"The history of Lodz, like the history of capitalism in Poland, is short, beginning only in the mid-nineteenth century, when the czar encouraged German weavers to settle in Poland. By the second half of the century, hand weaving had been superceded by large textile mills established by German and Jewish entrepreneurs, employing Polish laborers. Lodz, known as the "Polish Manchester", emerged as the center of textile production for the Russian Empire. ... In proletarian Lodz, Jews also increasingly worked with their hands as manual weavers and in the needle trades; but they were largely excluded from employment in the largest, most modern, and best paying textile mills. The northern neighborhood known as Baluty became a synonym for poverty and a hotbed for the Jewish socialist Bund.
"By 1939, the Jewish population of Lodz was second only to Warsaw's; there were nearly a quarter of a million Jews ...
...
"The Lodz ghetto, established by the Germans in the spring of 1940, was the second to be set up in Poland and the last to be destroyed. ... In August 1944, as the Soviet Army was approaching and the war was ending, the Lodz ghetto was liquidated. Rumkowski (civil Jewish leader of Lodz under the occupation) and nearly all the 70,000 remaining Jews were loaded into freight cars and sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau. When the Soviets entered Lodz in January 1945, they found only 877 Jews.
"Location:
"134 km SW of Warsaw
51 degrees 47 minutes / 19 degrees 28 minutes
Voivodship [i.e., territory]: Lodz"
IV. In "Jewish Roots in Poland", by Miriam Weiner, Page 72:
"There is a Jewish cemetery in ul. Bracka and Zmeinna, with 180,000 tombstones dating from 1892.
More than 40,000 ghetto victims buried in one section on ul. Bracka. Key is available at the Jewish Community Office, ul Zachodnia 78.
"ul Zachodnia 78:
Prayer house and Jewish community office (maintains a list of burials in the Jewish cemetery and information as to when the cemetery is open)."
"ul Wesola
Old Cemetery dating from 1811.
Completely destroyed by Germans and paved after 1945.
There is a Lodz Yiskor book, New York: United Emergency Relief Committee for the City of Lodz, 1943.
There is an "Organization of the Lodz Former Residents in Israel: which published a "Lodz-Names", in 1989.
There is: "Yiddish Lodz, A Yiskor Book", Melbourne: Lodzer Center, 1974.
There is a film: Cohen, Peter. "The story of Chaim Rumkowski and the Jews of Lodz". NY: The Cinema Guild, 1982.
Additional Resources:
Two valuable databases are maintained by the Organization of Former Residents of Lodz in Israel,
158 Dizengoff Street,
Tel Aviv 63461, Israel
One list (200,000 names) includes residents of the Lodz ghetto from February 1940 to August 1944.
The second list (160,000 names) is a compilation of cemetery records from 1895 through the final liquidation in August 1944.
V. <http://www.jewishgen.org/Shtetlinks/Lodz/Lodz.htm>
City of Lodz chartered in 1423
Jewish presence since ca. 1780
Old cemetery, dating from 1811 to 1892, destroyed in W.W. II
New cemetery, dating from 1892, largest Jewish cemetery in Europe
Jewish population in 1939: 223,000, 34% of total
Second largest Jewish population in Europe
Second largest city in Poland
Lodz ghetto, 1940-1944: longest existing Polish ghetto
Deportations: Chelmno, Auschwitz-Birkenau, Poznan, Stutthof
Survivors of the Lodz ghetto: approximately 5,000-7,000
Textile capital of Eastern Europe
Other Names: Lodzh (in Yiddish); Lodsch (in German); Renamed Litzmannstadt by the Germans,
1939-1945
Polish Pronunciation: "wootch"
Facts taken from Jewish Roots in Poland: Pages from the Past and Archival Inventories, 1997, by Miriam Weiner,
Encyclopedia of the Holocaust, 1990, and other sources.
VI. <http://www.jewishgen.org/Shtetlinks/Lodz/tour10.htm>
Site of the old Jewish cemetery on ul. Wesola.
Before this cemetery was founded in 1811, the Jews of Lodz were buried in Lutomiersk or Strykow. The Chevra Kadisha (Burial Society) was founded at the same time. By the time it closed to burials in 1892, it held nearly 4,000 tombstones, often without ornamentation, rectangular in shape or in curved triangles. The graves of the tzaddiks and rabbis were marked by masonry ohels.
During the interwar period, the former mortuary served as a hospital for the mentally ill. The first deportations from the Lodz ghetto left from this site. The cemetery was partially destroyed in 1942 after the German administration of the ghetto ordered all tombstones removed for use as paving stones. In the early 1950s the cemetery was completely destroyed. The only surviving remnant is the cemetery gate, placed in the wall of the new cemetery.
Facts taken from "A Guide to the Jewish Cemetery in Lodz", Lodz City Office, 1997, and "A Guide to Jewish Lodz", by Jerzy Malenczyk, 1994.
VII. <http://www.jewishgen.org/Shtetlinks/Lodz/rabbi.htm>
Shochet (ritual slaughterer) in Lodz by 1807; also taught religion.
Chevrah Kaddishah established on 28 May 1811.
First cemetery established in 1811 by two elders of the Jewish community (prior to this date, the Jews of Lodz were buried in Lutomiersk, Strykow or Zgierz).
VIII. <http://www.jewishgen.org/Shtetlinks/Lodz/Lodz.htm#Bibliography and Film>
Synagogues
Altshtot ("Old City") Synagogue, dating from 1860 to 1871, with major renovation from 1897 to 1900,
ul. Wolborska 20; photos and plan (in Polish); burned on November 15, 1939 and demolished 1940-1941
The Great Synagogue, dating from 1883 to 1887, on ul. Zielona (Reform); German Jewish soldiers
gathered for prayers near the Great Synagogue in 1916 (during WWI), view 2 and close-up of view 2;
burned on November 16, 1939 and demolished 1940-1941
Synagogue, dating from 1885-1900, ul. Revolucja 1905, No. 28 (formerly ul. Poludniowa 28) (photo
unavailable); the single surviving synagogue of Lodz; damaged by fire in 1987 and rebuilt with financial
assistance from the Ronald S. Lauder Foundation
Ohel Yaakov Synagogue, dating from 1899-1904, ul. Wolczanska 6 (photo unavailable); one of the
greatest synagogues of Lodz; burned in November 1939
Prayer house, dating from 1897, ul. Zachodnia 78; active prayer house (photo unavailable)
Prayer house, dating from 1899, ul. Piotrkowska 114/116; undergoing restoration
IX. <http://www.virtual.co.il/communities/wjcbook/poland/index.htm>
Sites
Poland, particularly in its central and eastern parts, contains numerous places of interest for the Jewish visitor. Lodz is the site of one of the largest Jewish burial grounds in Europe. Of particular interest are the mausoleums of the city's great textile magnates.
X. From <http://www.jewishgen.org/Shtetlinks/Lodz/oldcem.htm>
The Old Jewish Cemetery In Lodz
Reviewed by Chaim Freedman, Petah Tikvah, Israel
email: fridman@ultinet.co.il
web page: http://www.avotaynu.com/gaonbook.html
March 4, 1999
Although the large Jewish community of Lodz was decimated during the Holocaust, the new Jewish cemetery remained intact. This cemetery is one of the largest in Europe, comprising about 180,000 tombstones. The new cemetery was established in 1892, following the closure of the old cemetery on ul. Wesola (pictured at right). The old cemetery, dating from 1811, was destroyed by the Germans during W.W.II and by development after the war, thereby desecrating the physical remains of the Jews who had lived in Lodz for most of the nineteenth century.
The memory of those buried in the old cemetery of Lodz could not be
wiped out since a list of their tombstones survived.
"Stary Cmentarz Zydowski w Lodzi:
dzieje i zabytki"
(The Old Cemetery in Lodz: Records and Relic Remains)
By Philip Friedman and Pincus Zelig Gliksman
Published in Lodz in 1938 by Nakladem Gminy Wyznaniowej Zydowskiej m. Lodzi
Children of MOISHE REICHBARDT and WIFE are:
