Jewish workers in the saddle workshop. 1940. The ghetto existed from 1939 to 1944 and was the second-largest after the Warsaw Ghetto. It was a major industrial center. Lodz served as a transit station for the death camps Chelmno (Kulmhof); Auschwitz II; Majdanek; Treblinka and Sobibor. Photo: Collection Walter Genewein; Financial Director of the ghetto. Poland.