Radogoszcz station () is a historic

railway station Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

Łódź Łódź is a city in central Poland and a former industrial centre. It is the capital of Łódź Voivodeship, and is located south-west of Warsaw. Łódź has a population of 655,279, making it the country's List of cities and towns in Polan ...

, Poland. The station, which was originally built between 1926 and 1937, was used extensively during

the Holocaust The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...

. It served as the '' Umschlagplatz'' for transporting

Jews Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

from the

Łódź Ghetto The Łódź Ghetto or Litzmannstadt Ghetto (after the Nazi German name for Łódź) was a Nazi ghetto established by the German authorities for Polish Jews and Roma following the Invasion of Poland. It was the second-largest ghetto in all of ...

to the extermination camps during

Operation Reinhard Operation Reinhard or Operation Reinhardt ( or ; also or ) was the codename of the secret Nazi Germany, German plan in World War II to exterminate History of the Jews in Poland, Polish Jews in the General Government district of German-occupied ...

. The "loading platform" is in Marysin, a neighbourhood in the city's Bałuty district.

The Holocaust

During

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, the station was situated just outside the

– one of the biggest Jewish ghettos in German-occupied Europe. The ''Umschlagplatz'' at the ''Radegast'' station was the place where predominantly Jewish inhabitants of Łódź including thousands of persons expelled from across

occupied Poland ' (Norwegian language, Norwegian: ') is a Norwegian political thriller TV series that premiered on TV 2 (Norway), TV2 on 5 October 2015. Based on an original idea by Jo Nesbø, the series is co-created with Karianne Lund and Erik Skjoldbjærg. ...

were gathered for deportation directly to Chełmno (Kulmhof) and

Auschwitz Auschwitz, or Oświęcim, was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It consisted of Auschw ...

German extermination camps. Approximately 200,000 Polish, Austrian, German, Luxemburg and Czech Jews, and many Roma, Sinti and Lalleri passed through the station on the way to their deaths in the period from January 16, 1942, to August 29, 1944. The collection point had the same significance for Łódź as the better known '' Umschlagplatz'' had for the

Warsaw Ghetto The Warsaw Ghetto (, officially , ; ) was the largest of the Nazi ghettos during World War II and the Holocaust. It was established in November 1940 by the Nazi Germany, German authorities within the new General Government territory of Occupat ...

Memorial

In 2004, the commemoration ceremonies on the sixtieth anniversary of the destruction of the Łódź Ghetto in 1944 and the departure of the last transport from Radegast spurred efforts to transform the former station into a Holocaust memorial. On August 28, 2005, a monument commemorating the Jewish victims who passed through the station was unveiled, based on design by Czesław Bielecki, and featuring the Tunnel of the Deported. The renovated station building serves as one of the divisions of the Łódź Museum of Independence.

References

{{Coord, 51.80214, N, 19.480133, E, source:plwiki_region:PL_scale:5000, format=dms, display=title Holocaust museums in Poland Disused railway stations in Poland

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

Łódź Ghetto Railway stations in Łódź Holocaust trains Repurposed railway stations in Europe Museums in Łódź