In 1939 there were 4,800 Jews in Zgierz (about 20% of the total population). Immediately after the German occupation, persecution of the Jewish people began. During War, only a few Jewish families remained in Zgierz. These belonged to craftsmen useful to the Germans. In the early years after the War, some 60 families of Jews who had lived in Zgierz at the outbreak of the War were found in Poland. A few returned to Zgierz.