Radegast Station – Litzmannstadt Ghetto Memorial, Łódź

Radegast Station in Łódź (say "WOODGE") is the former railway station from which German occupiers deported the Jews of the Łódź Ghetto, known as Litzmannstadt Ghetto, to the Chełmno (Kulmhof) and Auschwitz-Birkenau death camps. Today it is one of Poland's most important Holocaust memorials, part of the Litzmannstadt Ghetto Memorial and a branch of the Museum of Independence Traditions. It is a quiet, deeply moving place that completes any visit to this once multicultural city.

Where it is and how to get there

Łódź is in central Poland, about 130 km southwest of Warsaw; direct trains take roughly an hour and a half. The station stands at Pamięci Ofiar Litzmannstadt Getto Avenue 12 in the Marysin district, about 4 km north of the city center. Use a taxi or check city public transport (MPK Łódź) for current connections. Part of the memorial is outdoors, so dress warmly in winter.

History

The Germans established a ghetto in Łódź in 1940 and confined around 220,000 Jews there, as well as Roma. The wooden station building dates from 1941. At first it handled food and raw materials for the ghetto and its workshops. From January 1942, it became the city's Umschlagplatz: transports left from here for Kulmhof and Auschwitz-Birkenau. According to the city's tourist office, about 145,000 people passed through the station. Almost 45,000 people died inside the ghetto itself, and estimates of survivors range from 7,000 to 13,000.

The memorial, designed by architect Czesław Bielecki, opened in 2004. A museum branch has operated in the station since 2006, and a renovation completed in 2019 improved accessibility.

What you will see

• The station building with an exhibition and a model of the ghetto, described by the tourist office as the largest of its kind in Poland. Surviving deportation lists can be browsed in a multimedia application.
• Freight cars and a Ty2 steam locomotive with tender, built in Berlin and restored in 2014–2015, representing the type of train used for the transports.
• The Tunnel of the Deported, the largest element of the memorial, displaying deportation lists in chronological order and objects found at the Chełmno camp.
• The Column of Remembrance at the end of the tunnel, inscribed "Do not kill" in German, Hebrew and Polish, with the names of the cities from which Jews were brought to the ghetto.
• Steles bearing camp names, including Kulmhof, Auschwitz-Birkenau, Stutthof and Gross-Rosen.

Allow about 1 to 1.5 hours. Please behave as you would at a cemetery.

Opening hours and tickets (as of October 2026)

• Monday–Thursday: 10 a.m.–4 p.m.
• Friday: closed
• Saturday–Sunday: 10 a.m.–5 p.m.

No separate winter schedule is announced. An individual ticket costs 12 PLN (Polish złoty), and a ticket to all branches of the museum costs 20 PLN (valid seven days). Admission is free on Wednesdays. Guided tours in English can be booked for groups of up to 25 people (250 PLN). Some travel websites still list older hours and free admission; the museum's own website is the reliable source.

Is it worth visiting?

Yes. Radegast tells a story that is easy to miss among Łódź's palaces and factories: before the war, roughly a third of the city's residents were Jewish. Nearby, the New Jewish Cemetery on Bracka Street is a few hundred meters away, and the museum also cares for the Roma Forge, a building from the former "Gypsy camp" inside the ghetto.