Łódzka Organizacja Turystyczna

Children’s Martyrdom Monument

On the outskirts of the park Szarych Szeregów (Grey Ranks park), there is a special monument commemorating part of the history of Lodz during World War II. In the neighbourhood of the Jewish Getto there was a camp (working as a prison) on Przemysłowa Streeet for Polish children. The camp was intended for children between 8 and 16 who were supposedly captured committing a crime and, in reality, were descendants of Poles locked up in Nazi prisons. Children’s Martyrdom Monument, also called the monument of the Broken Heart, is dedicated to Polish children who died or were murdered while being imprisoned in the camp.

The monument was unveiled on 9 May 1971 and it has a shape of a heart broken in the middle with a figure of an emaciated child and an empty space outlining the form of small human being. The plate placed next to the monument reads: “You were stripped of your life, today we only give you memory”.