Editing Chaim Rumkowski (section)

== Deportations ==
In January 1942, some 10,000 Jews were sent aboard [[Holocaust trains]] to [[Chełmno extermination camp|Chełmno]] based on selections made by the {{lang|de|Judenrat}}.<ref name="jewishgen/timeline" /> An additional 34,000 victims were sent to Chelmno by 2 April, with 11,000 more in May, and over 15,000 in September 1942, for a total of 71,000 for 1942 as a whole. The children and the elderly as well as anyone deemed "unfit for work" in the eyes of the {{lang|de|Judenrat}} would follow them.<ref name="jewishgen/timeline">{{cite web | url=http://kehilalinks.jewishgen.org/lodz/statistics.htm | title=Lodz Ghetto Deportations and Statistics | publisher=JewishGen Home Page | work=Timeline | date=2007 | access-date=26 March 2015 | author=Shirley Rotbein Flaum | quote=''Source:'' Encyclopedia of the Holocaust (1990), Baranowski, Dobroszycki, Wiesenthal, Yad Vashem Timeline of the Holocaust, others.}}</ref>

Rumkowski actively cooperated with German demands, hoping to save the majority of the ghetto inmates. Such behaviour set him at odds with the Orthodox observant Jews, because there could be no justification for delivering anyone to certain death. Following the creation of the extermination camp at [[Chełmno extermination camp|Chełmno]] in 1941, the Nazis ordered Rumkowski to organize several waves of deportations. Rumkowski claimed that he tried to convince the Germans to reduce the number of Jews required for deportation and failed.<ref name="ushmm10007282" />

=== ''Give Me Your Children'' ===
[[File:Rumkowski.JPG|thumb|260px|Chaim Rumkowski delivering a speech in the ghetto, 1941{{ndash}}42]]
On German orders Rumkowski delivered a speech on September 4, 1942, pleading with the Jews in the ghetto to give up children 10 years of age and younger, as well as the elderly over 65, so that others might survive. "Horrible, terrifying wailing among the assembled crowd" could be heard, reads the transcriber's note to his parlance often referred to as: "Give Me Your Children".<ref name="ushmm10007282">[http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007282 "Transcript for "Give Me Your Children""]. ''United States Holocaust Memorial Museum'', Washington, D.C., 6 January 2011. Retrieved: 1 October 2011.</ref> Some commentators see this speech as exemplifying aspects of the [[Holocaust]].<ref name="Schweber" />

{{blockquote|A grievous blow has struck the ghetto. They [the Germans] are asking us to give up the best we possess – the children and the elderly. I was unworthy of having a child of my own, so I gave the best years of my life to children. I've lived and breathed with children. I never imagined I would be forced to deliver this sacrifice to the altar with my own hands. In my old age, I must stretch out my hands and beg: Brothers and sisters! Hand them over to me! Fathers and mothers: Give me your children! | Chaim Rumkowski, September 4, 1942 <ref name="Schweber">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mco3ldVWNL8C&q=%22They+are+asking+us+to+give+up+the+best+we+possess%22 |title=Teaching the Holocaust |publisher=Torah Aura Productions |chapter=Ghettoization |date=2007 |access-date=24 March 2015 |author1=Simone Schweber |author2=Debbie Findling |page=107 |format=Google Books, preview |isbn=978-1-891662-91-1 }}</ref>}}