Jews had been an important part of the population of Łęczyca since the late 1400s. At the beginning of the war in 1939, the Jewish population was more than 4000, about 30 percent of the community. The Germans began to terrorize, pillage, and humiliate the Jewish population from the beginning of the occupation. The Germans established a ghetto in late 1939, and later forbade any Jew to leave it on penalty of death. After the ghetto was enclosed, hunger and typhus ravaged the ghetto population. Periodically, hundreds of the community were expelled to other places, while Jews in other locations were brought to Łęczyca. In April 1942, the remaining Jews, about 1700 people, were sent to the Chełmno extermination camp where they were immediately gassed. The local Poles took over their houses and what meager possessions they left behind.