The Jewish council established in the Łódź Ghetto under Mordechai Chaim Rumkowski was a Judenrat. German occupation authorities created Jewish councils in many ghettos and compelled them to carry out orders involving administration, food distribution, labor, housing, and deportations.
Rumkowski chaired the Łódź Ghetto council and promoted the idea that extensive forced labor might help the ghetto survive. Łódź became a major center of textile and other production for Germany, but labor did not protect its population from starvation, disease, deportation, or murder.
The term Judenrat is singular; its plural is Judenräte. These councils operated under coercion and differed greatly from place to place. Their leaders faced impossible choices under German terror, and their existence should not be interpreted as voluntary collaboration on equal terms.
The Łódź Ghetto was established in 1940 and was one of the longest-lasting major ghettos. Its remaining inhabitants were deported mainly to Chełmno and Auschwitz-Birkenau. Rumkowski was deported to Auschwitz in August 1944 and was killed there.