Lodz, Poland

Today is a holiday in Poland, as was Wednesday. Not ideal from a sightseeing point of view perhaps, but I’d aimed for a museum yesterday and left the Jewish cemetery and ghetto for today. The cemetery is a distance away-3 miles, trip advisor says, and I think that’s for crows. My walk was interrupted by exploring the source of loud bangs, possibly a gun salute, which was the constitution day gathering, and one long walk later I was at the cemetery. Which has a wall around it so, left or right? I picked left, went west and the entrance is on the east. I share it in the hope that you might be saved the complete perambulation.

The whole Jewish community of Lodz was lost so many of the graves have obviously had no visitors in some time. I found the one pictured the most touching, but it is an atmospheric place to visit.

As an industrial city that was largely undeveloped till 1820, Lodz has managed to hold on to plenty of green spaces. You’re never more than a km or so from a park, and today I’ve walked through 6, including the survivors’ park, with a memorial to those Poles who saved Jewish lives-star shaped if only I’d realised it in time to photograph it better-and rows of trees of remembrance. The open spaces are cheek by jowl with civilisation, derelict, run-down and new.

Statues and sculpture.

Family gravestone,

Church.

Poznanski mausoleum.

Star of David-shaped stone memorial.