April 18, 1985

Polish-American scientist and historian Lucjan Dobroszycki, a professor at Yeshiva University and Senior Associate of the Jewish Scientific Institute (YIVO), lectured on “The Destruction of the European Jewry: Deportation in and out of the Ghetto of Łódź” in the Josselyn House living room. Dobroszycki was sent to Auschwitz after living in the Łódź ghetto for nearly five years. The only survivor in his family, he was liberated from a satellite camp in 1945. Discussing the unusually complete and well-kept records of Łódź, Dobroszycki explained, “It was an extremely sophisticated and well-organized group of scholars who kept the archives,” and those working to chronicle their experiences had the mentality that “we’re not going to survive, but let’s tell the story.” Their records of the Lodz ghetto were buried underground before the last deportation.

The Miscellany News

Dobroszycki was a co-author of Image Before My Eyes:A Photographic History of Life in Poland 1864-1939 (1977), and was the editor of The Chronicle of the Łódź Ghetto, 1941-1944 (1984), a compilation of reminiscences and comments gathered clandestinely by ghetto residents.