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The first diary of Bronuś. Gehsperre in child’s experience
Ewa Wiatr
ewa.wiatr@uni.lodz.pl Author BiographyAssistant Professor at the Center for Jewish Research at the University of Łódź. His work focuses on the history of the Jewish diaspora in Łódź and the surrounding region, mainly during the Second World War and the Holocaust, with particular emphasis on everyday life. He is the co‑editor and editor of numerous source publications, including the Chronicle of the Łódź Ghetto, the Encyclopedia of the Łódź Ghetto, the series “Judaica Łódzkie,” as well as many diaries. He was a member of the team that prepared the Lexicon of the Łódź Ghetto, carried out within the framework of the National Programme for the Development of the Humanities. He currently leads the project “The Activities of Hashomer Hatzair in Occupied Poland, 1939–1945,” supported financially by the Claims Conference.
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2675-0726
Center for Jewish Studies, University of Łódź
Zagłada Żydów. Studia i Materiały, No. 21 (2025), Pages: 226-246
Submission Date: 2025-07-09Publication Date: 2025-12-27
https://doi.org/10.32927/zzsim.1124
Abstract
The documents presented here are the personal notes of six-year-old Bronisław Leider (after the war, Ledowski), which can be considered a diary and a letter to his mother. They were written between September 6 and 12, 1942, while children and he elderly people were deported from the Łódź ghetto to the Chełmno nad Nerem extermination center. Bronek, like over 2,000 other people, was officially excluded from deportation. He was placed in a shelter, that had previously been a hospital and had been emptied a few days earlier. The dozen or so words written by the six-year-old provide a backdrop against which the organization of the deportation and the efforts of the Jewish administration and parents to save their loved ones become apparent. These documents are also a unique evidence of family relationships during a period of immediate threat of death.
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