Webcam Zgezh. Prospect of the Army of Kray
Zgierz is a town in Lodz province, Poland. It is part of the Union of Polish Cities. As of 2016, its population was 56,929.
Zgierz is one of the oldest cities in Central Poland. It acquired its city rights shortly before 1288.
Before World War II, Zgierz had a thriving Jewish community of about 4,000 people. When the Germans occupied the town, they began to persecute the Jews with the help of the locals. A synagogue was burned, and Jews were abducted from the streets for forced labor.
In December 1939, the Germans deported 2,500 Jews to Glowno in the Governor General's Office, a Nazi-occupied part of Poland. Less than 100 Jews remained, mostly artisans who were considered useful to the Germans. In 1942 these Jews were deported to the Łódź ghetto. This story is unusual in that no massacres were reported in Zgierz.
