Introduction to Jews in Lodz
The hosts of "In Mrs. Goldberg's Kitchen," Maria [Mania] Goldberg, née Piwnik (1919-2010) and Zenon [Zanvel] Goldberg (1914- 2004) were born and grew up in Baluty, the Jewish district of Łódź, just a couple of blocks away from each other. They lived in Łódź all their lives, except for the period of Nazi occupation of Poland when they were forced as Jews to seek refuge in Soviet Russia. During that time, Baluty became the site of the infamous Łódź Ghetto. In 1945, when the Goldbergs returned from their exile to Łódź, they settled in the central district of Łódź, in an apartment in which they remained until their deaths. Nearly all their loved ones, along with the majority of the inhabitants of Łódź Ghetto, had been murdered by the Nazis, and Bałuty forever lost its Jewish character. To the Goldbergs, the familiar streets of Bałuty were now filled with ghostly emptiness. For the rest of their lives, through their recollections, they would strive to recapture scraps of this lost world.
