Lódz - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Łódź AUD is the third-largest city in Poland

Poland

Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

. Located in the central part of the country, it had a population of 742,387 in December 2009. It is the capital of Łódź Voivodeship, and is approximately 135 kilometres (83.9 mi) south-west of Warsaw

Warsaw

Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...

. The city's coat of arms

Coat of arms

A coat of arms is a unique heraldic design on a shield or escutcheon or on a surcoat or tabard used to cover and protect armour and to identify the wearer. Thus the term is often stated as "coat-armour", because it was anciently displayed on the front of a coat of cloth...

is an example of canting

Canting arms

Canting arms are heraldic bearings that represent the bearer's name in a visual pun or rebus. The term cant came into the English language from Anglo-Norman cant, meaning song or singing, from Latin cantāre, and English cognates include canticle, chant, accent, incantation and recant.Canting arms –...

: depicting a boat, it alludes to the city's name which translates literally as "boat".

Agricultural Łódź

Łódź first appears in the written record in a 1332 document giving the village of Łodzia to the bishops of Włocławek. In 1423 King Władysław Jagiełło

Jogaila

Jogaila, later 'He is known under a number of names: ; ; . See also: Jogaila : names and titles. was Grand Duke of Lithuania , king consort of Kingdom of Poland , and sole King of Poland . He ruled in Lithuania from 1377, at first with his uncle Kęstutis...

granted city rights

Magdeburg rights

Magdeburg Rights or Magdeburg Law were a set of German town laws regulating the degree of internal autonomy within cities and villages granted by a local ruler. Modelled and named after the laws of the German city of Magdeburg and developed during many centuries of the Holy Roman Empire, it was...

to the village of Łódź. From then until the 18th century the town remained a small settlement on a trade route

Trade route

A trade route is a logistical network identified as a series of pathways and stoppages used for the commercial transport of cargo. Allowing goods to reach distant markets, a single trade route contains long distance arteries which may further be connected to several smaller networks of commercial...

between Masovia and Silesia

Silesia

Silesia is a historical region of Central Europe located mostly in Poland, with smaller parts also in the Czech Republic, and Germany.Silesia is rich in mineral and natural resources, and includes several important industrial areas. Silesia's largest city and historical capital is Wrocław...

. In the 16th century the town had fewer than 800 inhabitants, mostly working on the nearby grain farms.

With the second partition of Poland

Partitions of Poland

The Partitions of Poland or Partitions of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth took place in the second half of the 18th century and ended the existence of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, resulting in the elimination of sovereign Poland for 123 years...

in 1793, Łódź became part of the Kingdom of Prussia

Kingdom of Prussia

The Kingdom of Prussia was a German kingdom from 1701 to 1918. Until the defeat of Germany in World War I, it comprised almost two-thirds of the area of the German Empire...

's province of South Prussia

South Prussia

South Prussia was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1793 to 1807. It was created out of territory annexed in the Second Partition of Poland and included in 1793*the Poznań, Kalisz and Gniezno Voivodeships of Greater Poland;...

, and was known in German as Lodsch. In 1798 the Prussians nationalised the town, and it lost its status as a town of the bishops of Kuyavia

Kuyavia

Kujawy , is a historical and ethnographic region in the north-central Poland, situated in the basin of the middle Vistula and upper Noteć Rivers, with its capital in Włocławek.-Etymology:The origin of the name Kujawy was seen differently in history...

. In 1806 Łódź joined the Napoleonic Duchy of Warsaw

Duchy of Warsaw

The Duchy of Warsaw was a Polish state established by Napoleon I in 1807 from the Polish lands ceded by the Kingdom of Prussia under the terms of the Treaties of Tilsit. The duchy was held in personal union by one of Napoleon's allies, King Frederick Augustus I of Saxony...

and in 1810 it had 190 inhabitants. In the 1815 Congress of Vienna

Congress of Vienna

The Congress of Vienna was a conference of ambassadors of European states chaired by Klemens Wenzel von Metternich, and held in Vienna from September, 1814 to June, 1815. The objective of the Congress was to settle the many issues arising from the French Revolutionary Wars, the Napoleonic Wars,...

treaty it became part of Congress Poland

Congress Poland

The Kingdom of Poland , informally known as Congress Poland , created in 1815 by the Congress of Vienna, was a personal union of the Russian parcel of Poland with the Russian Empire...

, a client state

Client state

Client state is one of several terms used to describe the economic, political and/or military subordination of one state to a more powerful state in international affairs...

of the Russian Empire

Russian Empire

The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...

Industrial growth

In the 1815 treaty, it was planned to renew the dilapidated town and with the 1816 decree by the Czar a number of German immigrants received territory deeds for them to clear the land and to build factories and housing. In 1820 Stanisław Staszic aided in changing the small town into a modern industrial centre. The immigrants came to the Promised Land ( Ziemia obiecana, the city's nickname) from all over Europe. Mostly they arrived from Southern Germany

Saxony

The Free State of Saxony is a landlocked state of Germany, contingent with Brandenburg, Saxony Anhalt, Thuringia, Bavaria, the Czech Republic and Poland. It is the tenth-largest German state in area, with of Germany's sixteen states....

, Silesia

Silesia

and Bohemia

Bohemia

Bohemia is a historical region in central Europe, occupying the western two-thirds of the traditional Czech Lands. It is located in the contemporary Czech Republic with its capital in Prague...

, but also from countries as far away as Portugal, England, France and Ireland. The first cotton mill

Cotton mill

A cotton mill is a factory that houses spinning and weaving machinery. Typically built between 1775 and 1930, mills spun cotton which was an important product during the Industrial Revolution....

opened in 1825, and 14 years later the first steam-powered

Steam engine

A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid.Steam engines are external combustion engines, where the working fluid is separate from the combustion products. Non-combustion heat sources such as solar power, nuclear power or geothermal energy may be...

factory in both Poland and Russia commenced operations. In 1839 the population was 80% Germans and German schools and churches were established.

A constant influx of workers, businessmen and craftsmen from all over Europe transformed Łódź into the main textile production centre of the Russian Empire. Three groups dominated the city's population and contributed the most to the city's development: Poles, Germans and Jews, who started to arrive since 1848. Many of the Łódź craftspeople were weavers from Silesia.

In 1850, Russia abolished the customs barrier between Congress Poland

Congress Poland

The Kingdom of Poland , informally known as Congress Poland , created in 1815 by the Congress of Vienna, was a personal union of the Russian parcel of Poland with the Russian Empire...

and Russia proper; industry in Łódź could now develop freely with a huge Russian market not far away. Soon the city became the second-largest city of Congress Poland. In 1865 the first railroad line opened (to Koluszki

Koluszki

Koluszki is a town, and a major railway junction, in Central Poland, in Łódź Voivodeship, about 20 km east of Łódź. Population: 13,331 . The junction in Koluszki serves trains that go from Warsaw to Łódź , Wrocław, Częstochowa and Katowice. Also, it is connected with Radom and Lublin by an...

, branch line of the Warsaw-Vienna Railway), and soon the city had rail links with Warsaw and Białystok.

One of the most important industrialists of Łódź was Karl Wilhelm Scheibler

Karl Wilhelm Scheibler

Karl Wilhelm Scheibler was a German - Polish industrialist.- Biography :Scheibler was born in Montjoie in the Prussian Province of Jülich-Cleves-Berg into a family of textile fabricants. He attended school in Monschau and Krefeld and received a practical education at his uncle's Worsted factory...

. In 1852 he came to Łódź and with Julius Schwarz together started buying property and building several factories. Scheibler later bought out Schwarz's share and thus became sole owner of a large business. After he died in 1881 his widow and other members of the family decided to pay homage to his memories by erecting a chapel, intended as a mausoleum with family crypt, in the Lutheran part of the Łódź cemetery in ulica Ogrodowa (later known as The Old Cemetery).

In the 1823–1873, the city's population doubled every ten years. The years 1870–1890 marked the period of most intense industrial development in the city's history. Many of the industrialists were Jewish. Łódź soon became a major centre of the socialist movement. In 1892 a huge strike paralysed most of the factories.

By 1897, the share of the German population had dropped from 80 to 40%. According to Russian census of 1897

Russian Empire Census

The Russian Imperial Census of 1897 was the first and the only census carried out in the Russian Empire . It recorded demographic data as of ....

, out of the total population of 315,000, Jews constituted 99,000 (around 31% percent).

During the 1905 Revolution, in what became known as the June Days or Łódź insurrection, Tsarist police killed more than 300 workers.

Despite the air of impending crisis preceding World War I, the city grew constantly until 1914. By that year it had become one of the most densely-populated industrial cities in the world—13280 PD/km2. A major battle was fought near the city in late 1914, and as a result the city came under German occupation after 6 December but with Polish independence

History of Poland (1918–1939)

The History of interwar Poland comprises the period from the re-recreation of the independent Polish state in 1918, until the joint Invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union in 1939 at the onset of World War II...

restored in November 1918 the local population liberated the city and disarmed the German troops. In the aftermath of World War I, Łódź lost approximately 40% of its inhabitants, mostly owing to draft, diseases and because a huge part of the German population was forced to move to Germany.

In 1922, Łódź became the capital of the Łódź Voivodeship, but the period of rapid growth had ceased. The Great Depression

Great Depression

The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...

of the 1930s and the Customs War

Customs war

A Customs war, also known as a toll war or tariff war, is a type of economical conflict between two or more states. In order to pressure one of the states, the other raises taxes or tariffs for some of the products of that state...

with Germany closed western markets to Polish textiles while the Bolshevik Revolution (1917) and the Civil War

Russian Civil War

The Russian Civil War was a multi-party war that occurred within the former Russian Empire after the Russian provisional government collapsed to the Soviets, under the domination of the Bolshevik party. Soviet forces first assumed power in Petrograd The Russian Civil War (1917–1923) was a...

in Russia (1918–1922) put an end to the most profitable trade with the East. The city became a scene of a series of huge workers' protests and riots in the interbellum

Interwar period

Interwar period can refer to any period between two wars. The Interbellum is understood to be the period between the end of the Great War or First World War and the beginning of the Second World War in Europe....

. On 13 September 1925 a new airport, Lublinek Airport, started operations near the city of Łódź. In the interwar years Łódź continued to be a diverse city, with the 1931 Polish census

Polish census of 1931

The Polish census of 1931 or Second General Census in Poland was the second census taken in Poland, performed on December 9, 1931 by the Main Bureau of Statistics...

showing that the total population of 604,470 included 315,622 (52.21%) Poles, 202,497 (33.49%) Jews and 86,351 (14.28%) Germans (determination based on the declaration of language used).

Also read Battle of Łódź (1939) Prelude.

World War II

During the Invasion of Poland the Polish forces of the Łódź Army of General Juliusz Rómmel

Juliusz Rómmel

Juliusz Karol Wilhelm Józef Rómmel was a Polish military commander and a general of the Polish Army. During the Polish-Bolshevik War, he gained great fame for achieving a decisive victory in the Battle of Komarów, the largest cavalry engagement of the 20th century...

defended Łódź against initial German attacks. However, the Wehrmacht

Wehrmacht

The Wehrmacht – from , to defend and , the might/power) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the Heer , the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe .-Origin and use of the term:...

captured the city on 8 September. Despite plans for the city to become a Polish exclave, attached to the General Government

General Government

The General Government was an area of Second Republic of Poland under Nazi German rule during World War II; designated as a separate region of the Third Reich between 1939–1945...

, the Nazi hierarchy respected the wishes of the local governor of Reichsgau Wartheland

Reichsgau Wartheland

Reichsgau Wartheland was a Nazi German Reichsgau formed from Polish territory annexed in 1939. It comprised the Greater Poland and adjacent areas, and only in part matched the area of the similarly named pre-Versailles Prussian province of Posen...

, Arthur Greiser

Arthur Greiser

Arthur Greiser was a Nazi German politician and SS Obergruppenfuhrer. He was one of the persons primarily responsible for organizing the Holocaust in Poland and numerous other war crimes and crimes against humanity, for which he was tried, convicted and executed by hanging after World War...

, and of many of the ethnic Germans living in the city, and annexed it to the Reich in November 1939. The city received the new name of Litzmannstadt after the German general Karl Litzmann

Karl Litzmann

200px|thumbKarl Litzmann was a German World War I infantry general and later a Nazi official. He is best known for his victory in Battle of Łódź...

, who captured the city during World War I. Nevertheless, many Łódź Germans refused to sign Volksliste

Volksliste

The Deutsche Volksliste was a Nazi institution whose purpose was the classification of inhabitants of German occupied territories into categories of desirability according to criteria systematized by Heinrich Himmler. The institution was first established in occupied western Poland...

and become Volksdeutsche

Volksdeutsche

Volksdeutsche - "German in terms of people/folk" -, defined ethnically, is a historical term from the 20th century. The words volk and volkische conveyed in Nazi thinking the meanings of "folk" and "race" while adding the sense of superior civilization and blood...

, instead being deported to the General Government.

Soon the Nazi authorities set up the Łódź Ghetto in the city and populated it with more than 200,000 Jews from the Łódź area. As Jews were deported from Litzmannstadt for "resettlement" others were brought in. Due to the value of the goods that the ghetto population produced for the German military

Bundeswehr

The Bundeswehr consists of the unified armed forces of Germany and their civil administration and procurement authorities...

and various civilian contractors it was the last major ghetto to be "liquidated" (destroyed); approximately 900 people survived the liquidation of the ghetto in August 1944. Several concentration camps and death camps arose in the city's vicinity for the non-Jewish

Gentile

The term Gentile refers to non-Israelite peoples or nations in English translations of the Bible....

inhabitants of the regions, among them the infamous Radogoszcz prison

Radogoszcz prison

Radogoszcz prison was a prison in Lodz, which was used by the occupation authorities during the Nazi occupation of Poland.- Establishment :...

and several minor camps for the Romani people and for Polish children.

By the end of World War II, Łódź had lost approximately 420,000 of its pre-war inhabitants: 300,000 Polish Jews

History of the Jews in Poland

The history of the Jews in Poland dates back over a millennium. For centuries, Poland was home to the largest and most significant Jewish community in the world. Poland was the centre of Jewish culture thanks to a long period of statutory religious tolerance and social autonomy. This ended with the...

and approximately 120,000 other Poles. In their place were thousands of new German residents, many of whom were Volksdeutsch who had been repatriated from Russia during the time of Hitler's alliance with the Soviet Union. In January 1945 most of the German population fled the city for fear of the Red Army

Red Army

The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...

. The city also suffered tremendous losses due to the German policy of requisition of all factories and machines and transporting them to Germany. Thus despite relatively small losses due to aerial bombardment

Aerial bombing of cities

A species of strategic bombing, the aerial bombing of cities began in 1915 during World War I, grew to a vast scale in World War II, and continues to the present day. The development of aerial bombardment marked an increased capacity of armed forces to deliver explosive weapons in populated areas...

and the fighting, Łódź had lost most of its infrastructure.

The Soviet Red Army

Red Army

entered the city on 18 January 1945. According to Marshal Katukov

Mikhail Katukov

Marshal of the Armored Troops Mikhail Efimovich Katukov served as a commander of armored troops in the Red Army during and following World War II. He is viewed as one of the most talented Soviet armor commanders.-Pre-War:...

, whose forces participated in the operation, the Germans retreated so suddenly that they had no time to evacuate or destroy the Łódź factories, as they did in other cities. In time, Łódź became part of the People's Republic of Poland

People's Republic of Poland

The People's Republic of Poland was the official name of Poland from 1952 to 1990. Although the Soviet Union took control of the country immediately after the liberation from Nazi Germany in 1944, the name of the state was not changed until eight years later...

Prior to World War II, the Jewish population

Jewish population

Jewish population refers to the number of Jews in the world. Precise figures are difficult to calculate because the definition of "Who is a Jew" is a source of controversy.-Total population:...

of Łódź numbered about 233,000, accounting for one-third of the city’s population. The community was wiped out in the Holocaust

The Holocaust

The Holocaust , also known as the Shoah , was the genocide of approximately six million European Jews and millions of others during World War II, a programme of systematic state-sponsored murder by Nazi...

After 1945

At the end of World War II, Łódź had fewer than 300,000 inhabitants. However the number began to grow as refugees from Warsaw and territories annexed by the Soviet Union

Curzon Line

The Curzon Line was put forward by the Allied Supreme Council after World War I as a demarcation line between the Second Polish Republic and Bolshevik Russia and was supposed to serve as the basis for a future border. In the wake of World War I, which catalysed the Russian Revolution of 1917, the...

immigrated. Until 1948 the city served as a de facto capital of Poland, since events during and after the Warsaw uprising

Warsaw Uprising

The Warsaw Uprising was a major World War II operation by the Polish resistance Home Army , to liberate Warsaw from Nazi Germany. The rebellion was timed to coincide with the Soviet Union's Red Army approaching the eastern suburbs of the city and the retreat of German forces...

had thoroughly destroyed Warsaw, and most of the government and country administration resided in Łódź. Some planned moving the capital there permanently, however this idea did not gain popular support and in 1948 the reconstruction of Warsaw began. Under the Polish Communist regime many of the industrialist

Business magnate

A business magnate, sometimes referred to as a capitalist, czar, mogul, tycoon, baron, oligarch, or industrialist, is an informal term used to refer to an entrepreneur who has reached prominence and derived a notable amount of wealth from a particular industry .-Etymology:The word magnate itself...

families lost their wealth when the authorities nationalised private companies. Once again the city became a major centre of industry. In mid-1981 Łódź became famous for its massive, 50,000 hunger demonstration of local mothers and their children (see: Summer 1981 hunger demonstrations in Poland

Summer 1981 hunger demonstrations in Poland

In mid-1981, amid widespread economic crisis and food shortages, thousands of Poles, mainly women and their children, took part in several hunger demonstrations, organized in cities and towns across the country. The protests were peaceful, without rioting, and the biggest one took place on July 30,...

).

After the period of economic transition during the 1990s, most enterprises were again privatised. In 2002 the city came to national attention due to the "Skin Hunters

Skin Hunters

The "Skin Hunters" is the media nickname for four hospital casualty workers from the Polish city of Łódź, who were convicted of murdering at least five patients and selling information regarding their deaths to funeral homes. They were apprehended in 2002...

" scandal: doctors and paramedics in one of the city's hospitals were caught murdering patients and selling their details to funeral homes for them to contact the relatives. Four men have been convicted but others are still under investigation. A film was made of the events in 2003.

Historical population

Year	Population
1793	190
1806	767
1830	4,300
1850	15,800
1880	77,600
1905	343,900
1925	538,600
1990	850,000
2003	781,900
2007	753,192
2009	742,387

Łódź in literature and cinema

Three major novels depict the development of industrial Łódź. Władysław Reymont's Ziemia Obiecana (The Promised Land) (1898), Joseph Roth

Joseph Roth

Joseph Roth, born Moses Joseph Roth , was an Austrian journalist and novelist, best known for his family saga Radetzky March about the decline and fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and for his novel of Jewish life, Job as well as the seminal essay 'Juden auf Wanderschaft' translated in...

's Hotel Savoy (1924) and Israel Joshua Singer

Israel Joshua Singer

Israel Joshua Singer was a Yiddish novelist. He was born Yisroel Yehoyshue Zinger, the son of Pinchas Mendl Zinger, a rabbi and author of rabbinic commentaries, and Basheva Zylberman...

's Di Brider Ashkenazi (The Brothers Ashkenazi) (1937). Roth's novel depicts the city on the eve of a workers' riot in 1919. Reymont's novel was made into a film by Andrzej Wajda

Andrzej Wajda

Andrzej Wajda is a Polish film director. Recipient of an honorary Oscar, he is possibly the most prominent member of the unofficial "Polish Film School"...

in 1975: see The Promised Land. In the 1990 film Europa Europa

Europa Europa

Europa Europa is a 1990 German language film directed by Agnieszka Holland. Its original German title is Hitlerjunge Salomon, i.e. "Hitler Youth Salomon". It is based on the 1989 autobiography of Solomon Perel, a German Jewish boy who escaped The Holocaust by masquerading not just as a non-Jew, but...

, Solomon Perel

Solomon Perel

Solomon Perel is an author and motivational speaker. He was born 21 April, 1925 in Peine, Lower Saxony, Germany to a German Jewish family. He escaped persecution by the Nazis by masquerading as an ethnic German...

's family flees pre-WWII Berlin and settles in Łódź. Scenes of David Lynch

David Lynch

David Keith Lynch is an American filmmaker, television director, visual artist, musician and occasional actor. Known for his surrealist films, he has developed his own unique cinematic style, which has been dubbed "Lynchian", and which is characterized by its dream imagery and meticulous sound...

's 2006 film Inland Empire

Inland Empire (film)

Inland Empire, sometimes styled as INLAND EMPIRE, is a 2006 mystery film written and directed by David Lynch. It was his first feature-length film since 2001's Mulholland Drive, and shares many similarities with that film. It premiered in Italy at the Venice Film Festival on September 6, 2006...

were shot in Łódź. Sections of Harry Turtledove

Harry Turtledove

Harry Norman Turtledove is an American novelist, who has produced works in several genres including alternate history, historical fiction, fantasy and science fiction.- Life :...

's Worldwar

Worldwar

Worldwar is a series of novels by Harry Turtledove whose premise is an alien invasion of Earth in the middle of World War II. The military invasion begins on or around May 30, 1942, but the aliens, who call themselves the Race, reached Earth orbit in December 1941...

alternate history series take place in Łódź.

Tourism

Piotrkowska Street is the main artery and attraction stretching north to south for a little over five kilometres, making it (one of) the longest commercial streets in the world. A few of the building fronts have been renovated and date back to the 19th century.

Although Łódź does not have any hills nor any large body of water, one can still get close to nature in one of the city's many parks, most notably Łagiewniki (the largest city park in Europe). Łódź has one of the best museums of modern art

Museums of modern art

-Argentina:*Latin American Art Museum of Buenos Aires *Buenos Aires Museum of Modern Art -Australia:*Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney 140 George Street, The Rocks, Sydney*Heide Museum of Modern Art, Bulleen, Melbourne...

in Poland, Muzeum Sztuki on Więckowskiego Street, which displays art by all important contemporary Polish artists. Despite insufficient exhibition space (many very impressive paintings and sculptures lie in storage in the basement), there are plans to move the museum to a larger space in the near future. There is also a branch of Muzeum Sztuki called MS² located in the area of Łódź largest mall "Manufaktura".

Another popular source of recreation is the Lunapark, an amusement park

Amusement park

thumb|Cinderella Castle in [[Magic Kingdom]], [[Disney World]]Amusement and theme parks are terms for a group of entertainment attractions and rides and other events in a location for the enjoyment of large numbers of people...

featuring about two dozen attractions including an 18 metre tall roller coaster

Roller coaster

The roller coaster is a popular amusement ride developed for amusement parks and modern theme parks. LaMarcus Adna Thompson patented the first coasters on January 20, 1885...

and two dozen other rides and features, located near the city's zoo

Zoo

A zoological garden, zoological park, menagerie, or zoo is a facility in which animals are confined within enclosures, displayed to the public, and in which they may also be bred....

and its botanical garden

Botanical garden

A botanical garden The terms botanic and botanical, and garden or gardens are used more-or-less interchangeably, although the word botanic is generally reserved for the earlier, more traditional gardens. is a well-tended area displaying a wide range of plants labelled with their botanical names...

s.

The largest 19th Century textile factory complex which was built by Izrael Poznanski

Izrael Poznanski

Izrael Kalmanowicz Poznański was a textile magnate and philanthropist in Łódź, and the husband of Elenora Hertz Poznański....

has been turned into a shopping centre

Shopping mall

A shopping mall, shopping centre, shopping arcade, shopping precinct or simply mall is one or more buildings forming a complex of shops representing merchandisers, with interconnecting walkways enabling visitors to easily walk from unit to unit, along with a parking area — a modern, indoor version...

called "Manufaktura" which is an example of a modern business which operates in restored nineteenth century buildings.

Economy

Before 1990, Łódź's economy focused on the textile industry

Textile

A textile or cloth is a flexible woven material consisting of a network of natural or artificial fibres often referred to as thread or yarn. Yarn is produced by spinning raw fibres of wool, flax, cotton, or other material to produce long strands...

, which in the nineteenth century had developed in the city owing to the favourable chemical composition

Empirical formula

In chemistry, the empirical formula of a chemical compound is the simplest positive integer ratio of atoms of each element present in a compound. An empirical formula makes no reference to isomerism, structure, or absolute number of atoms. The empirical formula is used as standard for most ionic...

of its water. Because of the growth in this industry, the city has sometimes been called the "Polish Manchester

Manchester

Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...

". As a result, Łódź grew from a population of 13,000 in 1840 to over 500,000 in 1913. By the time right before World War I Łódź had become one of the most densely populated industrial cities in the world, with 13,280 inhabitants per km². The textile industry declined dramatically in 1990 and 1991, and no major textile company survives in Łódź today. However, countless small companies still provide a significant output of textiles, mostly for export to Russia and other countries of the former Soviet Union

Post-Soviet states

The post-Soviet states, also commonly known as the Former Soviet Union or former Soviet republics, are the 15 independent states that split off from the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in its dissolution in December 1991...

.

The city benefits from its central location in Poland. A number of firms have located their logistics centres in the vicinity. Two planned motorways, A1 spanning from the north to the south of Poland, and A2

A2 autostrada (Poland)

The autostrada A2 in Poland is a motorway which, when completed, will run from west to east through central Poland, from the Polish-German border in Świecko/Frankfurt , through Poznań, Łódź and Warsaw to the Polish-Belarusian border in Terespol/Brest...

going from the east to the west will intersect northeast of the city. When these motorways are completed around 2012, the advantages due to the city's central location should increase even further. Work has also begun on upgrading the railway connection with Warsaw, which reduces the 2 hour travel time to make the 137 km (85 mi) journey to 1.5 hours in 2009. In the next few years much of the track will be modified to handle trains moving at 160 km/h (99.4 mph), cutting the travel time to about 75 minutes.

Recent years has seen many foreign companies opening offices in Łódź. Indian IT company Infosys has one of its centres in Łódź. Despite the fact that Łódź is regarded to be the poorest among Polish cities with population over 500,000, the GDP per capita in Łódź was 123,9% of Poland's average (2008).

In January 2009 Dell

Dell

Dell, Inc. is an American multinational information technology corporation based in 1 Dell Way, Round Rock, Texas, United States, that develops, sells and supports computers and related products and services. Bearing the name of its founder, Michael Dell, the company is one of the largest...

announced that it will shift production from its plant in Limerick

Limerick

Limerick is the third largest city in the Republic of Ireland, and the principal city of County Limerick and Ireland's Mid-West Region. It is the fifth most populous city in all of Ireland. When taking the extra-municipal suburbs into account, Limerick is the third largest conurbation in the...

, Ireland to its plant in Łódź, largely because the labour costs in Poland are a fraction of those in Ireland. The city's investor friendly policies have attracted 980 foreign investors

Investment

Investment has different meanings in finance and economics. Finance investment is putting money into something with the expectation of gain, that upon thorough analysis, has a high degree of security for the principal amount, as well as security of return, within an expected period of time...

by January 2009. Foreign investment

Foreign direct investment

Foreign direct investment or foreign investment refers to the net inflows of investment to acquire a lasting management interest in an enterprise operating in an economy other than that of the investor.. It is the sum of equity capital,other long-term capital, and short-term capital as shown in...

was one of the factors which decreased the unemployment rate

Unemployment

Unemployment , as defined by the International Labour Organization, occurs when people are without jobs and they have actively sought work within the past four weeks...

in Łódź to 6.5 percent in December 2008, from 20 percent four years earlier.

Education

Currently Łódź hosts three major state-owned universities

University

A university is an institution of higher education and research, which grants academic degrees in a variety of subjects. A university is an organisation that provides both undergraduate education and postgraduate education...

and a number of smaller schools of higher education

Higher education

Higher, post-secondary, tertiary, or third level education refers to the stage of learning that occurs at universities, academies, colleges, seminaries, and institutes of technology...

. The tertiary institutes with the most students in Łódź include:

University of Łódź (Uniwersytet Łódzki)
Technical University of Łódź (Politechnika Łódzka)
Medical University of Łódź (Uniwersytet Medyczny w Łodzi)
National Film School in Łódź (Państwowa Wyższa Szkoła Filmowa, Telewizyjna i Teatralna w Łodzi)
Academy of Music in Łódź (Akademia Muzyczna im. Grażyna i Kiejstuta Bacewiczów w Łodzi)
Academy of Fine Arts and Design (Akademia Sztuk Pięknych im. Wł. Strzemińskiego w Łodzi)

National Film School in Łódź

The Leon Schiller

Leon Schiller

Leon Schiller de Schildenfeld was a Polish theater and film director, critic and theoretician. He was also a composer and wrote theater and radio screenplays....

's National Higher School of Film, Television and Theatre in Łódź (Państwowa Wyższa Szkoła Filmowa, Telewizyjna i Teatralna im. Leona Schillera w Łodzi) is the most notable academy for future actors, directors, photographers, camera operators and TV staff in Poland. It was founded on 8 March 1948 and was initially planned to be moved to Warsaw as soon as the city was rebuilt following the Warsaw Uprising

Warsaw Uprising

. However, in the end the school remained in Łódź and today is one of the best-known institutions of higher education in that town.

At the end of the Second World War Łódź remained the only large Polish town besides Kraków which war had not destroyed. The creation of the National Film School gave the town a role of greater importance from a cultural viewpoint, which before the war had belonged exclusively to Warsaw and Kraków. Early students of the School include the directors Andrzej Munk, Andrzej Wajda

Andrzej Wajda

Andrzej Wajda is a Polish film director. Recipient of an honorary Oscar, he is possibly the most prominent member of the unofficial "Polish Film School"...

, Kazimierz Karabasz

Kazimierz Karabasz

Kazimierz Karabasz is a Polish documentary filmmaker.Although his work is now rarely seen, his most famous film, a 10-minute documentary short entitled Muzykanci, can be found as an extra on the Criterion Collection edition of Krzysztof Kieslowski's film The Double Life of Véronique...

(one of the founders of the so called Black Series of Polish Documentary) and Janusz Morgenstern

Janusz Morgenstern

Janusz "Kuba" Morgenstern was a Polish film director and producer.Janusz Morgenstern was born in 1922 to a Jewish family in the village of Mikulińce near Tarnopol , to Dawid Morgenstern and Estera .He debuted as a director with the film Goodbye, See You Tomorrow...

, who at the end of the Fifties became famous as one of the founders of the Polish Film School

Polish Film School

Polish Film School refers to an informal group of Polish film directors and screenplay writers active between 1955 and approximately 1963.The group was under heavy influence of Italian neorealists. It took advantage of the liberal changes in Poland after the 1956 to portray the complexity of...

of Cinematography.

Immediately after the war, Jerzy Bossak, Wanda Jakubowska, Stanisław Wohl, Antoni Bohdziewicz

Antoni Bohdziewicz

Antoni Bohdziewicz was a Polish screenplay writer and director, best known for his 1956 adaptation of Zemsta by Aleksander Fredro.Bohdziewicz was born in the city of Wilno, then part of the Russian Empire...

and Jerzy Toeplitz

Jerzy Toeplitz

Jerzy Toeplitz AO was born in 1909 in Kharkiv . He was educated in Warsaw. After World War II he was the co-founder of the Polish Film School, and later took up an appointment in Australia for the Film and TV School.Between 1948 and 1972 he was Vice-President of the International Film and...

worked as the first teachers. The internationally renowned film director Roman Polański

Roman Polanski

Roman Polanski is a French-Polish film director, producer, writer and actor. Having made films in Poland, Britain, France and the USA, he is considered one of the few "truly international filmmakers."...

was among the many talented students who attended the School in the 1950s. Łódź's cinematic involvement and its Hollywood-style star walk on Piotrkowska Street have earned it the nickname "Holly-Łódź". The school is also associated with the Camerimage

Camerimage

The International Film Festival of the Art of Cinematography CAMERIMAGE is a festival dedicated to cinematography and its creators cinematographers.The first seven events were held in Toruń, Poland. The next ten events were held in Łódź...

Film Festival

Film festival

A film festival is an organised, extended presentation of films in one or more movie theaters or screening venues, usually in a single locality. More and more often film festivals show part of their films to the public by adding outdoor movie screenings...

, which occurs annually in late November and early December. Founded in Toruń

Torun

Toruń is an ancient city in northern Poland, on the Vistula River. Its population is more than 205,934 as of June 2009. Toruń is one of the oldest cities in Poland. The medieval old town of Toruń is the birthplace of the astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus....

in 1993, the festival was specifically organised to focus on the art of cinematography

Cinematography

Cinematography is the making of lighting and camera choices when recording photographic images for cinema. It is closely related to the art of still photography...

and is well-attended every year by world-renowned cinematographer

Cinematographer

A cinematographer is one photographing with a motion picture camera . The title is generally equivalent to director of photography , used to designate a chief over the camera and lighting crews working on a film, responsible for achieving artistic and technical decisions related to the image...

s, many of whom also participate in seminars, workshops, retrospectives and Q&A sessions. Because of both subject matter and attendee composition, it is considered a key event for industry exhibitors, who often make European debuts of their products here.

Łódź constituency

Members of Parliament

Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

(Sejm) elected from Łódź constituency:

Wojciech Olejniczak
Wojciech Olejniczak
Wojciech Michał Olejniczak is a Polish leftist politician and member of the European Parliament.He was the chairman of the Democratic Left Alliance from May 29, 2005, to May 31, 2008 and the vice-speaker of Sejm since October 26, 2005...

, LiD
Zdzisława Janowska, LiD
Mirosław Drzewiecki, PO
Iwona Śledzińska-Katarasińska
Iwona Sledzinska-Katarasinska
Iwona Śledzińska-Katarasińska is a Polish politician. She was elected to Sejm on September 25, 2005 getting 23119 votes in 9 Łódź district, candidating from Platforma Obywatelska list....

, PO
John Abraham Godson, PO
Cezary Grabarczyk
Cezary Grabarczyk
Cezary Stanisław Grabarczyk is a Polish politician.He was elected to the Sejm on September 25, 2005, getting 13,775 votes in the 11th Sieradz district. He stood for election as a candidate on the Platforma Obywatelska list...

, PO
Joanna Skrzydlewska
Joanna Skrzydlewska
Joanna Skrzydlewska is a Polish politician. She was elected to Sejm on 25 September 2005 getting 11822 votes in 9 Łódź district, candidating from Platforma Obywatelska list....

, PO
Piotr Krzywicki
Piotr Krzywicki
Piotr Krzywicki was a Polish politician. From 1998-2001, he served on the he served on Łódź's city council....

, PiS
Jarosław Jagiełło, PiS

Members of Parliament (Senat) elected from Łódź constituency:

Krzysztof Kwiatkowski
Krzysztof Kwiatkowski
Krzysztof Kwiatkowski is a Polish politician, Minister of Justice of Poland in Cabinet of Donald Tusk. He is also a member of Senate . He did not die in that one plane crash.- External links :* *...

, PO
Maciej Grubski, PO

Mayor

Waldemar Bohdanowicz, Solidarity (November 1989–1990) – appointed by Prime Minister Tadeusz Mazowiecki
Tadeusz Mazowiecki
Tadeusz Mazowiecki is a Polish author, journalist, philanthropist and Christian-democratic politician, formerly one of the leaders of the Solidarity movement, and the first non-communist prime minister in Central and Eastern Europe after World War II.-Biography:Mazowiecki comes from a Polish...

.
Grzegorz Palka (1990–1994)
Marek Czekalski, Freedom Union
Freedom Union (Poland)
The Freedom Union was a liberal democratic party in Poland. It was founded on March 20, 1994 out of the merger of the Democratic Union and the Liberal Democratic Congress . Both of these parties had roots in the Solidarity trade union movement. It represented European democratic and liberal...

(1994–1998)
Tadeusz Matusiak, SLD
Democratic Left Alliance
Democratic Left Alliance is a social-democratic political party in Poland. Formed in 1991 as a coalition of centre-left parties, it was formally established as a single party on 15 April 1999. It is currently the third largest opposition party in Poland....

(1998–2001)
Krzysztof Panas, SLD (2001–2002)
Krzysztof Jagiełło, SLD (2002)
Jerzy Kropiwnicki
Jerzy Kropiwnicki
Jerzy Janusz Kropiwnicki is a Polish right-wing politician, member of Law and Justice party.He was leader of small party Christian-National Union . He was a president of the city of Łódź from 2002 until 2010...

, Christian-National Union
Zjednoczenie Chrześcijańsko-Narodowe
The Christian National Union , abbreviated to ZChN, is a Polish national conservative political party. Founded on 15 September 1989, the party traced its tradition to the Solidarity movement, as well as pre-war National Democracy and Polish Christian Democratic Party.The party adhered to the...

(ZChN) (2002–2010)
Tomasz Sadzyński, Platforma Obywatelska / Civic Platform (temporary in 2010)
Hanna Zdanowska, Platforma Obywatelska / Civic Platform

Twin towns – sister cities

Łódź is twinned with:

Chemnitz Chemnitz Chemnitz is the third-largest city of the Free State of Saxony, Germany. Chemnitz is an independent city which is not part of any county and seat of the government region Direktionsbezirk Chemnitz. Located in the northern foothills of the Ore Mountains, it is a part of the Saxon triangle... in Germany (since 1972) Stuttgart Stuttgart Stuttgart is the capital of the state of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. The sixth-largest city in Germany, Stuttgart has a population of 600,038 while the metropolitan area has a population of 5.3 million .... in Germany (since 1988) Lyon Lyon Lyon , is a city in east-central France in the Rhône-Alpes region, situated between Paris and Marseille. Lyon is located at from Paris, from Marseille, from Geneva, from Turin, and from Barcelona. The residents of the city are called Lyonnais.... in France (since 1991) Vilnius Vilnius Vilnius is the capital of Lithuania, and its largest city, with a population of 560,190 as of 2010. It is the seat of the Vilnius city municipality and of the Vilnius district municipality. It is also the capital of Vilnius County... in Lithuania Lithuania Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark... (since 1991) Ivanovo Ivanovo Ivanovo is a city and the administrative center of Ivanovo Oblast, Russia. Population: Ivanovo has traditionally been called the textile capital of Russia. Since most textile workers are women, it has also been known as the "City of Brides"... in Russia (since 1992) Kaliningrad Kaliningrad Kaliningrad is a seaport and the administrative center of Kaliningrad Oblast, the Russian exclave between Poland and Lithuania on the Baltic Sea... in Russia (since 1992) Minsk Minsk - Ecological situation :The ecological situation is monitored by Republican Center of Radioactive and Environmental Control .During 2003–2008 the overall weight of contaminants increased from 186,000 to 247,400 tons. The change of gas as industrial fuel to mazut for financial reasons has worsened... in Belarus Belarus Belarus , officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered clockwise by Russia to the northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Its capital is Minsk; other major cities include Brest, Grodno , Gomel ,... (since 1993) Odessa Odessa Odessa or Odesa is the administrative center of the Odessa Oblast located in southern Ukraine. The city is a major seaport located on the northwest shore of the Black Sea and the fourth largest city in Ukraine with a population of 1,029,000 .The predecessor of Odessa, a small Tatar settlement,... in Ukraine Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia... (since 1993) Tel-Aviv Tel Aviv Tel Aviv , officially Tel Aviv-Yafo , is the second most populous city in Israel, with a population of 404,400 on a land area of . The city is located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline in west-central Israel. It is the largest and most populous city in the metropolitan area of Gush Dan, with... in Israel Israel The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea... (since 1994)		Tianjin Tianjin ' is a metropolis in northern China and one of the five national central cities of the People's Republic of China. It is governed as a direct-controlled municipality, one of four such designations, and is, thus, under direct administration of the central government... in People's Republic of China (since 1994) Rustavi Rustavi Rustavi is a city in the southeast of Georgia, in the province of Kvemo Kartli, situated southeast of the capital Tbilisi. It stands on the Mtkvari River at... in Georgia Georgia (country) Georgia is a sovereign state in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the southwest by Turkey, to the south by Armenia, and to the southeast by Azerbaijan. The capital of... (since 1995) Barreiro in Portugal (since 1996) Tampere Tampere Tampere is a city in southern Finland. It is the most populous inland city in any of the Nordic countries. The city has a population of , growing to approximately 300,000 people in the conurbation and over 340,000 in the metropolitan area. Tampere is the third most-populous municipality in... in Finland (since 1996) Puebla Puebla, Puebla The city and municipality of Puebla is the capital of the state of Puebla, and one of the five most important colonial cities in Mexico. Being a planned city, it is located to the east of Mexico City and west of Mexico's main port, Veracruz, on the main route between the two.The city was founded... in Mexico (since 1997) Murcia Murcia -History:It is widely believed that Murcia's name is derived from the Latin words of Myrtea or Murtea, meaning land of Myrtle , although it may also be a derivation of the word Murtia, which would mean Murtius Village... in Spain (since 1999) Örebro Örebro -Sites of interest:Örebro's old town Wadköping is located on the banks of Svartån . It contains many 18th and 19th century wooden houses, along with museums and exhibitions.... in Sweden (since 2001) Szeged Szeged ' is the third largest city of Hungary, the largest city and regional centre of the Southern Great Plain and the county town of Csongrád county. The University of Szeged is one of the most distinguished universities in Hungary.... in Hungary Hungary Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The... (since 2004) Córdoba Córdoba, Argentina Córdoba is a city located near the geographical center of Argentina, in the foothills of the Sierras Chicas on the Suquía River, about northwest of Buenos Aires. It is the capital of Córdoba Province. Córdoba is the second-largest city in Argentina after the federal capital Buenos Aires, with... in Argentina

Łódź belongs also to the Eurocities

Eurocities

EUROCITIES is the network of major European cities.The EUROCITIES network was founded in 1986 by mayors from six large European cities:* Barcelona, Spain* Birmingham, United Kingdom* Frankfurt, Germany* Lyon, France* Milan, Italy* Rotterdam, Netherlands...

network.

Sports

Widzew Łódź – men's football
Football in Poland
Football is the most popular sport in Poland. Over 400,000 Poles play football regularly, with millions more playing occasionally. The first professional clubs were founded in the early 1900s, and the Polish national football team played its first international match in 1921.There are hundreds of...

team (established in 1910), (Polish Champion 1981, 1982, 1996, 1997; Polish Cup
Polish Cup
The Polish Cup in football or officially Remes Puchar Polski, is an elimination tournament for Polish football clubs, held continuously from 1950, and is the second most important national title in Polish football after the Ekstraklasa title...

winner: 1985; Polish SuperCup
Polish SuperCup
The Polish SuperCup in football is an annually held match between the champion of the Ekstraklasa and the Polish Cup winner. To this date the Polish SuperCup has been played out 21 times with the Polish Cup winner taking the trophy 13 times, while the Ekstraklasa champions had won the trophy 8 times...

winner: 1996; Ekstraklasa
ŁKS Łódź – men's football
Football in Poland
Football is the most popular sport in Poland. Over 400,000 Poles play football regularly, with millions more playing occasionally. The first professional clubs were founded in the early 1900s, and the Polish national football team played its first international match in 1921.There are hundreds of...

team (established in 1908), (Polish Champion 1958, 1998; Polish Cup
Polish Cup
The Polish Cup in football or officially Remes Puchar Polski, is an elimination tournament for Polish football clubs, held continuously from 1950, and is the second most important national title in Polish football after the Ekstraklasa title...

winner 1957; 1st league (Orange Ekstraklasa) in 2006/2007 season)
ŁKS Lotto Łódź – women's basketball team, 6th place in Sharp Torell Basket Liga
PLKK
PLKK is a Polish female basketball league. The league also uses sponsors' names.- PLKK names in previous seasons :* 2006-still Ford Germaz Ekstraklasa...

in 2003–2004 season
KS Społem Łódź – leading youth road
Road bicycle racing
Road bicycle racing is a bicycle racing sport held on roads, using racing bicycles. The term "road racing" is usually applied to events where competing riders start simultaneously with the winner being the first to the line at the end of the course .Historically, the most...

and track cycling
Track cycling
Track cycling is a bicycle racing sport usually held on specially built banked tracks or velodromes using track bicycles....

team in Poland
Budowlani Łódź- winner of Polish Rugby League in 1982/1983, 2005/2006, 2006/2007 and 2009/2010
Torpedy Łódź – American football
American football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...

team made to the Final of the 2nd League play-offs in 2008
BBRC Łódź – 3rd place in Polish Rugby7 League in 2009/2010
Klub Żużlowy Orzeł Łódź - speedway team (established in present form in 2005)

Notable residents

Daniel Amit
Daniel Amit
Daniel J. Amit was an Israeli physicist and pacifist.Amit started his scientific activity in particle physics, obtaining a PhD from Brandeis University. He was then active, in the 1970s, in statistical mechanics. In the 1980s he moved on to a more interdisciplinary research including neurosciences...

, Israeli physicist
Grażyna Bacewicz
Grazyna Bacewicz
Grażyna Bacewicz was a Polish composer and violinist. She is only the second Polish female composer to have achieved national and international recognition, the first being Maria Szymanowska in the early 19th century.- Life :Bacewicz was born in Łódź...

, composer
Aleksander Bardini
Aleksander Bardini
Aleksander Bardini was a Polish theatre and opera director, actor, notable professor at the State Theatre School in Warsaw...

, stage director and actor
Andrzej Bartkowiak
Andrzej Bartkowiak
Andrzej Bartkowiak, A.S.C. is a Polish cinematographer and director.In the early 1980s, Bartkowiak was cinematographer on three films that received Academy Award nominations for Best Picture: The Verdict, Terms of Endearment, and Prizzi's Honor.As cinematographer he has collaborated with several...

, cameraman and film director
Jurek Becker
Jurek Becker
Jurek Becker was a Polish-born German writer, film-author and GDR dissident. His most famous novel is Jacob the Liar, which has been made into two films. He lived in Łódź during World War II for about two years and survived the Holocaust.-Childhood:Jurek Becker was born in 1937 and lived in the...

(1937–1997) writer
Kazimierz Brandys
Kazimierz Brandys
Kazimierz Brandys was a Polish essayist and writer of film scripts.Brandys was born in Łódź. He was the brother of the writer Marian Brandys and husband of the translator Maria Zenowicz. He completed a law degree at the University of Warsaw. He was first published in 1935 as a theatrical critic,...

, writer
Artur Brauner
Artur Brauner
Artur "Atze" Brauner is a polish film producer and entrepreneur. He was born to a Jewish family in Łódź, Poland. Artur and his brother Wolf survived the Holocaust by fleeing to the Soviet Union, then emigrated to Berlin after the war. As a young man he saw Fritz Lang's film The Testament of Dr...

, film producer
Jacob Bronowski
Jacob Bronowski
Jacob Bronowski was a Polish-Jewish British mathematician, biologist, historian of science, theatre author, poet and inventor...

, writer, mathematician, and Britain's leading academic TV figure of the 1970s.
Karl Dedecius
Karl Dedecius
Karl Dedecius is a German translator of Polish and Russian literature.-Life:Dedecius was born to German parents in the city of Łódź, Poland, then a multicultural city, which at that time had recently once again become a part of the Second Polish Republic...

, translator
Karl Dominik
Karl Dominik
Karl Dominik, Chinese name: Kaier is a Western Chinese speaking actor based in China. Originally from Poland he studied acting in Canada in 1996, and started his acting career in China in 2006....

(Born:Karol Dominik Ignaczak), China's first Chinese speaking Polish actor

Max Factor, Sr.
Max Factor, Sr.
Max Factor , born Maksymilian Faktorowicz, was a successful Polish-Jewish businessman, cosmetician, chemist, wigmaker...

, businessman, founder of the Max Factor
Max Factor
Max Factor & Company is a cosmetics company, founded during 1909 by Maksymilian Faktorowicz , Max Factor, a Polish-Jewish cosmetician. Max Factor & Company was a related, two-family, multi-generational international cosmetics company before its sale in 1973 for $500 million dollars...

cosmetics company

Piotr Fronczewski
Piotr Fronczewski
Piotr Fronczewski , is a Polish actor and singer.As a fictional character Franek Kimono he issued a disco LP in 1983 which was meant to be a musical joke but turned out to be a great success. Fronczewski started his acting career playing in the theater. He also performed in cabarets...

, Polish actor
Marcin Gortat
Marcin Gortat
Marcin Gortat, pronounced "MAHR-cheen GOR-taht" , also known as the Polish Hammer, is a Polish professional basketball player who plays the center position for the Phoenix Suns of the NBA. The 6'11", 240 pound power forward/center is the son of boxer Janusz Gortat...

, NBA basketball player for the Phoenix Suns
Phoenix Suns
The Phoenix Suns are a professional basketball team based in Phoenix, Arizona. They are members of the Pacific Division of the Western Conference in the National Basketball Association and the only team in their division not to be based in California. Their home arena since 1992 has been the US...
Mendel Grossman
Mendel Grossman
Mendel Grossman was born in 1913. He was a Jew, and a Hasid in Lodz during the Holocaust. The Nazis put him in the Łódź Ghetto in 1939; there he found work as a photographer, making identification cards and documenting the work that his fellow inmates did in the ghetto...

, Łódź ghetto photographer
Józef Hecht
Józef Hecht
Józef Hecht , more commonly known as Joseph Hecht, was a Polish painter, engraver and printmaker. Trained in classical engraving techniques, Hecht had a profound influence on 20th century printmaking.-Career:...

(1891–1951), engraver and printmaker
Josef Joffe
Josef Joffe
Josef Joffe is publisher-editor of Die Zeit, a weekly German newspaper. His second career has been in academia...

, journalist
Jan Karski
Jan Karski
Jan Karski was a Polish World War II resistance movement fighter and later scholar at Georgetown University. In 1942 and 1943 Karski reported to the Polish government in exile and the Western Allies on the situation in German-occupied Poland, especially the destruction of the Warsaw Ghetto, and...

, diplomat and antinazi resistant
Aharon Katzir
Aharon Katzir
Aharon Katzir was an Israeli pioneer in the study of the electrochemistry of biopolymers. He was killed in the Lod Airport Massacre in 1972.-Biography:...

(1914–72), Israeli pioneer in study of electrochemistry of biopolymers; killed in Lod Airport Massacre
Paul Klecki
Paul Kletzki
Paul Kletzki was a Polish conductor and composer.Born Paweł Klecki in Łódź, Poland, he later adopted the German spelling Paul Kletzki. He joined its Philharmonic Orchestra at the age of fifteen. After serving in the First World War, he studied philosophy at the University of Warsaw before moving...

, conductor
Katarzyna Kobro
Katarzyna Kobro
Katarzyna Kobro was a Polish sculptor of Latvian origin. She studied at the School of Painting, Sculpture and Drawing, the second Free Workshops , Moscow, 1917-20. In 1920 she moved to Smolensk, and in 1921 she married WLADYSLAW STRZEMINSKI. In 1920-22 she was associated with the Vitebsk-based...

, sculptor, Strzeminski's wife
Jerzy Kosinski
Jerzy Kosinski
Jerzy Kosiński , born Józef Lewinkopf, was an award-winning Polish American novelist, and two-time President of the American Chapter of P.E.N.He was known for various novels, among them The Painted Bird and Being There...

, writer
Jan Kowalewski
Jan Kowalewski
Lt. Col. Jan Kowalewski was a Polish cryptologist, intelligence officer, engineer, journalist, military commander, and creator and first head of the Polish Cipher Bureau...

, Polish cryptologist who broke Soviet military codes and ciphers
Cryptography
Cryptography is the practice and study of techniques for secure communication in the presence of third parties...

during the Polish-Soviet War.
Feliks W. Kres
Feliks W. Kres
Feliks Wiktor Kres is a popular Polish fantasy writer. He debuted with his short story "Mag" , submitted to a writing contest of the Fantastyka magazine. Since then, he has published seven novels and dozens of short stories...

, fantasy writer
Fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...
Daniel Libeskind
Daniel Libeskind
Daniel Libeskind, is an American architect, artist, and set designer of Polish-Jewish descent. Libeskind founded Studio Daniel Libeskind in 1989 with his wife, Nina, and is its principal design architect...

, architect

Tadeusz Miciński
Tadeusz Micinski
Tadeusz Micinski was an influential Polish poet, gnostic and playwright, and was a forerunner of Expressionism and Surrealism. He is one of the writers of the Young Poland period . His writings are strong influenced by Dark Romanticism and Romantic gothic fiction...

, poet,
Zew Wawa Morejno
Zew Wawa Morejno
Zew Wawa Morejno was a Polish and American rabbi.Morejno was born into a hasidic family in Warsaw. He studied at rabbinical schools in Baranovichi, Mir, Belarus and in Kamieniec Litewski. In 1939 he became a rabbi in Zuprany...

, Chief Rabbi
Chief Rabbi
Chief Rabbi is a title given in several countries to the recognized religious leader of that country's Jewish community, or to a rabbinic leader appointed by the local secular authorities...
Zbigniew Nienacki
Zbigniew Nienacki
Zbigniew Nienacki was a pen name of Polish writer, Zbigniew Tomasz Nowicki.His works consist of adventure stories aimed at teenagers as well as adult novels...

, writer

Josef Olechowski
Josef Olechowski
Josef Olechowski was born to a noble Polish Catholic family on March 6, 1898 in Łódź, Poland to Marcin Olechowski and Baroness Josephina von Plötzke and died on September 29, 1984 in Toronto, Canada....

, Lawyer, Polish Senator, Anti-Soviet counter-espionage
Counter-intelligence
Counterintelligence or counter-intelligence refers to efforts made by intelligence organizations to prevent hostile or enemy intelligence organizations from successfully gathering and collecting intelligence against them. National intelligence programs, and, by extension, the overall defenses of...

operative

Marian P. Opala
Marian P. Opala
Marian Peter Opala was a Polish-American lawyer and jurist who served as a Justice of the Oklahoma Supreme Court for thirty-two years. Opala was appointed to the State's highest court in 1978 by Governor of Oklahoma David L. Boren...

, Oklahoma Supreme Court Justice
Władysław Pasikowski, director
Roman Polanski
Roman Polanski
Roman Polanski is a French-Polish film director, producer, writer and actor. Having made films in Poland, Britain, France and the USA, he is considered one of the few "truly international filmmakers."...

, cinema director, Oscar and Golden Palm winner

Zbigniew Rybczyński
Zbigniew Rybczynski
Zbigniew Rybczyński is a Polish filmmaker who has won numerous prestigious industry awards both in the United States and internationally. He was also a teacher of cinematography, and digital cinematography. Currently he is a researcher of blue and greenscreen compositing technology at Ultimatte...

, animator and Oscar winner

Władysław Reymont, writer, Nobel Prize
Nobel Prize
The Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895...

winner
Joseph Rotblat
Joseph Rotblat
Sir Joseph Rotblat, KCMG, CBE, FRS , was a Polish-born, British-naturalised physicist.His work on nuclear fallout was a major contribution to the agreement of the Partial Test Ban Treaty...

, Nobel Prize winner
Stefan Rozental
Stefan Rozental
Stefan Rozental , was a nuclear physicist, specialising in quantum mechanics. Trapped outside Poland when World War I started, he and his parents ended up in Denmark and spent four years from 1915 there before they returned to their native Poland in 1919 after the war...

, nuclear physicist
Nuclear physics
Nuclear physics is the field of physics that studies the building blocks and interactions of atomic nuclei. The most commonly known applications of nuclear physics are nuclear power generation and nuclear weapons technology, but the research has provided application in many fields, including those...
Artur Rubinstein
Arthur Rubinstein
Arthur Rubinstein KBE was a Polish-American pianist. He received international acclaim for his performances of the music of a variety of composers...

, pianist, settled
Andrzej Sapkowski
Andrzej Sapkowski
Andrzej Sapkowski, born 21 June 1948 in Łódź, is a Polish fantasy writer. He is best known for his best-selling book series The Witcher.-Biography:...

, fantasy writer
Carl Wilhelm Scheibler
Karl Wilhelm Scheibler
Karl Wilhelm Scheibler was a German - Polish industrialist.- Biography :Scheibler was born in Montjoie in the Prussian Province of Jülich-Cleves-Berg into a family of textile fabricants. He attended school in Monschau and Krefeld and received a practical education at his uncle's Worsted factory...

(1820–1881) one of the most important Łódź industrialists
Piotr Sobociński
Piotr Sobocinski
Piotr Sobociński was one of the most respected cinematographers ever to come from Poland, picking up where his father, legendary Polish cinematographer, Witold Sobociński, left off. He was nominated for Academy Award for Best Cinematography for Three Colours: Red in 1994.-Early life:Born in 1958,...

, cinematographer

Andrzej Sontag
Andrzej Sontag
Andrzej Sontag is a retired triple jumper from Poland. He won a bronze medal at the 1974 European Championships. He is now Director of the Lodz Region for the Polish Department of Culture, Education and Sport.-Achievements:-References:...

, track-and-field star
Natan Spigel
Natan Spigel
Natan Spigel was a Jewish artist painter born in Poland. Spigel was a key member of the influential Expressionist group, Jung Idysz. He showed throughout Europe until his internment in Radomsko ghetto in 1939...

, painter (1900–1942)
Władysław Strzemiński, painter, Kobro's husband
Arthur Szyk
Arthur Szyk
Arthur Szyk was a graphic artist, book illustrator, stage designer and caricaturist. Arthur Szyk was born into a Jewish family in Łódź, in the part of Poland which was under Russian rule in the 19th century. He always regarded himself both as a Pole and a Jew...

, artist
Aleksander Tansman
Alexandre Tansman
Alexandre Tansman was a Polish-born composer and virtuoso pianist. He spent his early years in his native Poland, but lived in France for most of his life...

, composer and pianist
Jack Tramiel
Jack Tramiel
Jack Tramiel is an American businessman, best known for founding Commodore International - manufacturer of the Commodore PET, Commodore 64, Commodore 128, Commodore Amiga, and other Commodore models of home computers.-Biography:...

computer manufacturer, founder of Commodore
Commodore International
Commodore is the commonly used name for Commodore Business Machines , the U.S.-based home computer manufacturer and electronics manufacturer headquartered in West Chester, Pennsylvania, which also housed Commodore's corporate parent company, Commodore International Limited...

and Atari
Atari
Atari is a corporate and brand name owned by several entities since its inception in 1972. It is currently owned by Atari Interactive, a wholly owned subsidiary of the French publisher Atari, SA . The original Atari, Inc. was founded in 1972 by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney. It was a pioneer in...

.
Julian Tuwim
Julian Tuwim
Julian Tuwim , sometimes used pseudonym "Oldlen" when writing song lyrics. He was a Polish poet, born in Łódź, Congress Poland, Russian Empire, of Jewish parents, and educated in Łódź and Warsaw where he studied law and philosophy at Warsaw University...

, poet
Miś Uszatek
Mis Uszatek
Miś Uszatek is a Polish character from the stop motion-animated TV series of the same name. He was created jointly by Polish writer Czesław Janczarski and cartoonist Zbigniew Rychlicki....

, cartoon character
Character (arts)
A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...
Aleksandra Ziółkowska-Boehm, writer
Marek Saganowski
Marek Saganowski
Marek Mirosław Saganowski is a Polish football player who plays as a striker for ŁKS Łódź.-Poland:Saganowski was born in Łódź, Poland and began his career in 1994 with his local club ŁKS Łódź, playing there for six seasons, with brief loan spells at Feyenoord in 1996 and at Hamburg in early 1997...

, football player

External links

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