Deportation of Jewish children from the Łódź ghetto in German-occupied Poland during the "Gehsperre" Aktion, September 1942.
In September 1942, German authorities rounded up and deported about 15,000 Jews from the Łódź ghetto to the Chełmno killing center. During this action, they specifically targeted the sick, the elderly, and young children under age ten. On September 4, Chaim Rumkowski, head of the Łódź Jewish Council, called on ghetto residents to cooperate and give up their young children. The following day, the Germans imposed a curfew that confined Jews to their homes while the roundup took place. This roundup became known as the Gehsperre action, named for the German phrase "allgemeine Gehsperre," meaning "general curfew."
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