In 1940 the Nazis forced the 200,000 Jews of Lodz, Poland, into a sealed ghetto, creating a huge work camp for the German war effort. In 1941 they were joined by more than 20,000 Jews from Austria, Germany, Czechoslovakia, and Luxembourg. Most of them died from starvation and exhaustion or were sent to perish in death camps. Much has been written about the ghetto, including The Chronicle of the Lodz Ghetto, 1941-1944 (1987), edited by Lucjan Dobroszycki, and Lodz Ghetto: Inside a Community under Siege (1991), edited by Alan Adelson and Robert Lapides. Horwitz first offers background statistics; then examines ghetto life, the role of Mordechai Chaim Rumkowski (the ghetto's leader), and that of the Jewish police; the tragedy of Jewish children; deportations; and much more.