Lodz in 3 days

Stacja Radegast (the Radegast Station Memorial — ul. Limanowskiego (in the Bałuty district, the site of the former Łódź Ghetto); the most important Holocaust memorial in Łódź): the history (the Łódź Ghetto (Litzmannstadt Ghetto — the German name given to Łódź after its annexation to the Third Reich in 1939 (Łódź was renamed 'Litzmannstadt' after the WWI German general Karl Litzmann)); the ghetto (established February 8, 1940 — the date when the Germans began the forced relocation of Łódź's 230,000 Jewish residents into the Bałuty district (a pre-war working-class neighbourhood of wooden houses without running water or sewage)): the ghetto was the longest-surviving major Jewish ghetto in Nazi-occupied Europe (it lasted until August 1944 — 4 years); the leadership of the ghetto: Mordechai Chaim Rumkowski ('King Chaim' — the controversial Chairman of the Judenrat (the Jewish Council) who administered the ghetto under German orders; Rumkowski's policy of productive compliance ('If we work, we will live') delayed the liquidation of the ghetto for years but also required him to organize deportations)); the Radegast Station (the railway station from which 200,000 Łódź Jews were deported to the Chełmno and Auschwitz-Birkenau death camps between 1942 and 1944; the deportation trains left from Radegast Station). Free.

Cmentarz Żydowski w Łodzi (Łódź Jewish Cemetery — ul. Bracka 40; the largest Jewish cemetery in Europe (the area: 42 hectares; the number of graves: approximately 180,000; the cemetery was established in 1892 and continued to receive burials until 1944 (the liquidation of the ghetto)); the condition (the cemetery survived WWII relatively intact because the Germans used it as a site for storing confiscated Jewish property; the cemetery is maintained by the Jewish Religious Community of Łódź (approximately 200–300 members) and the city of Łódź)): the most important graves: (1) Mordechai Chaim Rumkowski (the ghetto Chairman — buried in the Field of the Ghetto (a section of the cemetery where ghetto victims who died within the ghetto (not deported) were buried; Rumkowski himself died at Auschwitz but the memorial to his legacy is in the ghetto field)); (2) the Poznański family mausoleum (the mausoleum of Izrael Poznański and his family — the most elaborate Jewish tomb in Poland: a neo-Renaissance temple in white marble). Adults PLN 10.

Muzeum Miasta Łodzi (Museum of the City of Łódź — ul. Ogrodowa 15; the Poznański Palace (the palace of Izrael Poznański, built 1888–1903 directly adjacent to his Manufaktura factory complex)): the palace interior (the finest surviving private palace interior in Łódź: the grand staircase (a double flight of white Carrara marble with ornate bronze railings), the ballroom (the largest room in any private residence in Łódź, with a painted ceiling and pilastered walls in the Italian baroque style), and the winter garden (the glass-roofed botanical space that Poznański used for entertaining his elite Łódź social circle)). The permanent exhibition (the history of Łódź from the 1820s industrial foundation to the post-war communist period): the textile industry section (reconstructed Jacquard looms and power looms of the Łódź factory era; the Jacquard loom (invented by Joseph-Marie Jacquard in Lyon in 1804) was the first programmable machine in history (the punched card system that controlled the Jacquard loom's pattern weaving was the direct conceptual ancestor of the punch card programming used in early computers)). Adults PLN 15.

Żurek (the most popular Polish soup and the defining comfort food of Łódź and central Poland: a sour rye bread soup (the souring agent: the liquid produced by fermenting rye flour in water for 3–5 days (the natural fermentation produces lactic acid, giving the soup its distinctive sour flavour); the soup is combined with: smoked sausage (kielbasa), hard-boiled egg, white borscht, and often served in a round rye bread bowl; the 'żurek biały' (white żurek) uses whey instead of rye as the souring agent)); the Bar Mleczny (the Łódź milk bar tradition: the communist-era subsidised canteen that serves traditional Polish home cooking at prices that have not changed significantly since 1989 (a full 3-course meal for PLN 15–25); the milk bar is the most authentic and cheapest food experience in Poland; the Łódź milk bars are the best-maintained examples in Poland of this socialist food institution). A milk bar żurek and bigos (the Polish hunter's stew of sauerkraut, various meats, and mushrooms) for PLN 15–20. PLN 15–20 milk bar.

Muzeum Sztuki w Łodzi (ms¹ — ul. Więckowskiego 36; the original building of the Museum Sztuki (founded 1930 — the oldest museum of modern art in Poland; its founding collection was donated by international artists including Picasso, Léger, Man Ray, and Moholy-Nagy at the instigation of the Polish artist Władysław Strzemiński (1893–1952 — the most important Polish avant-garde artist (Strzemiński lost an arm and a leg in WWI; he developed the theory of 'Unism' — a non-relational, non-hierarchical abstract art that reduced the painting to its material substrate (the texture of the canvas, the flatness of the surface) without any compositional hierarchy); Strzemiński's 'Neoplastic Compositions' are the most important contribution of Polish art to the international Constructivist movement)): the museum also tells the story of Strzemiński's fate under Communism (the communist authorities stripped Strzemiński of his teaching position and ration card in 1950 because he refused to adopt Socialist Realist aesthetics; he died of tuberculosis in 1952 — the story was the subject of Andrzej Wajda's final film 'Afterimage' (2016)). Adults PLN 15.

Państwowa Wyższa Szkoła Filmowa (Łódź Film School — ul. Targowa 61/63; the most prestigious film school in Central Europe, and one of the finest in the world): the school (founded 1948 by the communist authorities who wanted to create a Polish national cinema (the school was modelled on the Moscow Film School (VGIK) but quickly established a tradition of artistic independence that produced films that challenged rather than supported the communist order)): the alumni: Andrzej Wajda (1926–2016 — the director of 'Kanal', 'Ashes and Diamonds', 'Schindler's List' (written by him) — the greatest Polish filmmaker; Honorary Oscar 2000); Krzysztof Kieślowski (1941–1996 — the director of 'The Double Life of Véronique', 'Trois Couleurs' — the most internationally celebrated Polish filmmaker (the Three Colours trilogy (1993–1994: Blue (France), White (France/Poland), Red (France/Switzerland)) was the most critically acclaimed European film project of the 1990s)); Roman Polański (1933 — the director of 'Chinatown', 'Rosemary's Baby', 'The Pianist' — Oscar winner 2002)). Guided tours of the school by appointment. Free exterior.

Księży Młyn ('Priest's Mill' — ul. Przędzalniana; the most intact surviving 19th-century factory workers' residential complex in Poland (the equivalent of a British factory town within a city)): the complex (built 1877–1889 by Karol Scheibler (1820–1881 — the second of the major Łódź textile magnates after Poznański; Scheibler was German-born (Düren, Germany); he moved to Łódź in 1854 and built the largest single textile factory in the Russian Empire (the Scheibler Factory — 40,000 workers at peak)); the Księży Młyn complex: the factory (the red-brick multi-storey mill complex, now being converted into lofts), the workers' housing (uniform rows of 2-storey brick cottages with small gardens — the Scheibler housing provides the most complete picture of how Victorian factory towns were built in Central Europe), the Scheibler Palace (the manager's palace, now the Museum of the History of the Textile Industry), and the park (the factory garden — a private park for the factory management now open to the public)). Free.

Bałuty district (the largest district of Łódź (the northern working-class district that became the Łódź Ghetto; the most historically significant neighbourhood in the city)): the Bałuty market (Plac Bałucki — the large street market in the centre of Bałuty district; an authentic local market (not tourist-oriented) selling: second-hand clothing (the Łódź second-hand clothing market is the finest in Poland — the city's textile heritage means that high-quality vintage and second-hand garments are available at very low prices), vegetables, and street food); the final dinner (the milk bar at Plac Bałucki or the Bałucki bar mleczny — the cheapest traditional Polish food in the city; or the new restaurants opening in the Bałuty regeneration zone (the Bałuty neighbourhood is the next area of Łódź urban regeneration after Manufaktura and Piotrkowska)). Final Łódź schnapps: the Żubrówka (Bison Grass Vodka — the most internationally famous Polish vodka outside the mainstream brands: a vodka infused with a blade of bison grass (Hierochloe odorata) from the Białowieża Forest (the last primeval forest in Europe); the grass gives the vodka a distinctive grassy, slightly sweet, almost coumarin-flavoured note; served chilled with a splash of apple juice (the Tatanka cocktail — the most popular vodka cocktail in Poland)). PLN 8 per shot.