When I first saw it on the big screen in late November of 1989, this heartbreaking true story of the notorious staging ground (one of the largest) for Hitler's Final Solution provided a heavy dose of reality in a season normally devoted to blockbuster fantasy...but it was also one of the stronger films of that or any year. Of course by now the facts about the Holocaust are all too familiar, and the fate of the Polish city of Lodz was by no means unique: out of 200,000 Jews herded into the ghetto only 800 lived to see the end of the war. The numbers speak for themselves, but the film doesn't rely on statistics to relate what turns out to be a compelling story, unfolding almost like a drama in the diaries and letters of witnesses and survivors, read aloud over a vivid and varied collection of archival film footage, still photos, and images of the modern city. Among the many voices is that of the designated Jewish Elder Mordechai Rumkowski, a controversial figure who struck a Faustian bargain of appeasement with the Nazis that sent many of his own people to their grave. His letters, together with those of his victims, help make this both a profoundly moving film and a vital lesson in all-too recent history.

Very powerful, moving chronicle of one Polish Jewish ghetto in WWII, which has it's population go from 200,000 souls to only 800 left by the liberation. All the narration is taken from the diaries and writings of those who were actually there, and the visuals include some amazing film and stills from the time. A few historical details are frustratingly sketchy, and intense thought it was, in the end I wasn't quite as emotionally overwhelmed as I expected. But overall one of the more accessible and unique holocaust documentaries. I'd imagine it's intimate 1st person narratives would help make these nightmare stories more 'real' for students, making this an invaluable teaching tool.

this documentary plods along in seemingly real-time through the four years of the lodz ghetto...that aside, it is ripe with information from eyewitnesses who left their diaries to antiquity...the video has numerous pictures and film footage that i had never seen before...it appears that the Nazis documented this ghetto meticulously until they "liquidated" it in the summer of 1944...the personal accounts are quite gripping, especially at the end when Jews who had hidden in ice cellars were liberated by Poles and the Russian army...i checked the video out from my local library as part of my ongoing holocaust research, some of which is documented on my blog Never Again! at http://holokauston.wordpress.com

This is the best short Holocaust documentary I know. By "short", I mean shorter than Lanzmann's "Shoah".The imagery is imaginative and exceptional: modern day footage of Lódz, paintings, colour photos -- lots of them. I was impressed by the sheer size of the photographic documentation, with much, most, of it unfamiliar to me anyway. It's not possible to believe that all of the photographic, and even cinematic, evidence actually comes from Lódz. There's just too much. But the short second documentary, the sequel, which follows on the videocassette release, makes it clear how that all came about.The sequel also provides other significant information, such as the fate of Rumkowski, the leader of the ghetto Judenrat.In these two films, writer/director Alan Adelson almost seems to be the Ken Burns of the Holocaust documentary. He arguably seems to have originated the Burns style to a certain extent, or at least appears to have received similar inspiration. Has Adelson's work really been limited to these two films alone?The force of the narrative is really what takes Adelson's "Lódz Ghetto" out of the ordinary. The film is very dramatic, very moving, and very suspenseful, in spite of the inevitability of the outcome. If you can stand it, you will find it a profound experience.