The aim of the project "Lexicon of the Łódź  Ghetto" is to create a basic collection of entries to learn about the history of the "closed district" in Łódź (Litzmannstadt). The collection of entries prepared by specialists in the fields of history, sociology and literary studies is intended to cover all aspects of the ghetto's functioning, the lives of its inhabitants, including its specifics and unique features found only in this place. The "Lexicon" is based on a rich and largely preserved collection of testimonies, archival documents and studies created in the ghetto, stored for the most part in the State Archives in Łódź, the Archives of the Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw and other institutions.

A guideline for the compilation of the collection of issues was the "Encyclopaedia of the Ghetto", compiled in the Łódź ghetto in 1943-1944, together with a preserved list of planned entries - a list of concepts, names, events and phenomena relevant to the ghetto documentarians. An interdisciplinary team of researchers gathered in the Filip Friedman Centre for Jewish Studies at the University of Łódź undertook the task of completing and expanding the work started by a group of scientists, journalists and writers gathered in the Archive Department of the ghetto administration, who were forced to discontinue their work due to the liquidation of the ghetto. Only one of the authors of the "Encyclopaedia" survived the war.

We dedicate this project to all those who took the trouble to document the realities of the Łódź Ghetto.

Project manager: Dr. Adam Sitarek
Project team: Dr. Adriana Bryk, Dr. Andrzej Czyżewski, Dr. Justyna Majewska, Prof. Krystyna Radziszewska, Dr. Izabela Terela, Dr. Jacek Walicki, Dr. Ewa Wiatr

Research work funded by the programme of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education in Poland called "National Programme for the Development of the Humanities" in 2018-2024, project number 11H17022685, funding amount 923 185 PLN.