Looking for the money: using bank accounts as a source on the history of deportations

At the end of one of the most prolific decades concerning the studies on the Litzmannstadt ghetto, the State Archive of Łódź (APŁ) became part of a massive project related to the digitization of its documents, especially the ones that dealt with the city’s past. Łódź was occupied by the Germans right after the beginning of the Second World War and was included directly into the newly founded district Warthegau, managed by Reichsstatthalter Arthur Greiser. Due to various reasons most of the documents, produced not only by the German administration but also by the Jewish ‘self-administration’, survived the war and are now part of one of the richest collections dealing with the tragedy of the Hol- ocaust. This article examines a peculiar type of source that is deeply connected to the deportation’s management in the ‘Warthegau’: the bank accounts of the ghetto administration. Thanks to this specific focus we will be able to look at the dynamics concerning not only the interests behind the ‘Final Solution’, but also the people and institutions involved.