Schindler's Ark

Some of the Jews were able to hide out in the ghettos. Others were able to escape from the concentration camps. In some cases organized resistance was formed in the ghettos amongst the Jews. For example, in the Polish capitol of Warsaw, individual Jews continued to hide themselves in the ghetto ruins for many months after they were forcefully told to leave by the Nazis. These resistance fighters often attacked German police officials on patrol. Approximately 20,000 Warsaw Jews continued to live in hiding in Warsaw long after the liquidation of the ghetto.

More than 30,000 Jews were arrested to go to these ghettos. Once they had everything ready for all of the undesirables. SS guards were hired to do the dirty work of putting all of the prisoners to do forced labor until they died. No one cared how all of the undesirables were treated. It became an amusement to watch one die or get killed. Considering that's all they wanted was for all the innocent people to die. Every Day would be the same watching friends and families die, working for the Nazi getting nothing in return, digging their own graves, and only getting one cup of black coffee with soup that was just broth a day. Women even got raped by SS guards during this time considering the women were separated from the men to different camps. No one did anything to stop it because of the fear of death. In 1939 the Nazi had figured out a way to make sure there will never be a Jew again they called it the final

“The ghetto was to be liquidated entirely. Departures were to take place street by street, starting the next day” (Wiesel 13). Days later after they felt safe again, they would be taken to the camps, to be worked to death. They were dehumanized from that

When the ghettos were first developed, the Jews presumed it was a safe place free of the oppressing outside world: “In Poland, the Jews . . . resigned themselves to the establishment of ghettos and hoped that living together in mutual cooperation under self-rule would make it easier for them to overcome the period of repression until their country would be liberated from the Nazi yoke.” (Berenbaum 3). Most of the Jewish people were cooperative, believing they would be freed soon: “If within the ghetto, they presumed they would somehow be safer, as they would no longer interact with non-Jews in quite the same way and be freed of daily humiliations and dangers.” (Berenbaum 4). They tried to live their normal lives as each day passed by. Tragically, the Jews had no idea of the Nazis true plans for them. When the truth of the “final solution” for the Jews was revealed to the community, revolts against the police and officials

However, this would all change due to the brave individuals in one Ghetto. The Warsaw Ghetto was home to nearly 445,000 in 1941 and measured about 1.3 square miles (Meed). This Ghetto was by far one of the largest in population during the Holocaust. The Warsaw Ghetto was eventually going to be “liquidated” as nearly 1,000 Jews were loaded on trains to be liquidated each day (Goss). Throughout 1942 the Warsaw Ghetto was slowly “liquidated” and by the end of that year, it left 55,000 Jews in that camp nearly 80% of the Ghetto's original population (Goss). Many who were left in these Ghettos were without their family and all alone. Guilt spread and many felt responsible for not saving their loved ones. This guilt would turn into resistance and lead to the creation of groups such as ZOB, which translates to the Jewish Fighting Organization, and ZZW, which translates to the Jewish Military Union. These organizations gathered weapons to fight back against the Nazi regime. By 1943 Nazi officials ordered the transfer of 8,000 more residents of the Warsaw Ghetto. This would lead to the very first resistance in January of that year. When guards came to collect Jews, many openly attacked these guards and even hid so as not to be taken. By the end of four days, the guards left with only 5,000 Jews. This was seen as a success for those who lived there and spread the idea of resistance

Some tried to escape from the Germans. While inside the Warsaw concentration camp, some Jews were deported in 1940. "During 1940 approximately 11,000 Jews were sent to labour camps in Warsaw, Lublin and Krakow, some were faked to Belzec labour camps, building fortifications on the soviet border" ("The Warsaw Ghetto").

The Germans kept them in these enclosed city district and made them live under miserable conditions. There were at least 1 000 ghettos established in German-occupied and annexed Poland and the Soviet Union alone. Daily life for the Jew's in the ghettos was administerd by Nazi- appointed Jewish councils. Each person who lived in the ghetto's were forced to wear identifying badges and also required to perform forced labor for the German Reich. A ghetto police force enforced the orders of the German authorities and the ordinances of the Jewish councils, including the facilitation of deportations to killing centers. There was no hesitation to kill Jewish policeman who were perceived to have failed to carry out orders. The Germas forbade any form of schooling or education. Medicine, food and weapons were usually smuggled in since there was lack of in the ghetto's. These ghetto's were used as a measure to control and segregate the Jewish population while Nazi leadership decided on their options to realize their final goal of removing the Jewish population. Some ghetto's existed for years, while others only existed for a few days. But once the "Final Solution" was implemented in 1941, the Germans destroyed all ghettos. The Nazi's either shot ghetto residents into mass graves located nearby or had them deported by rain to killing centers where they were murdered.

When the Nazis first took the Jews from their homes, many had no idea what tragic fate

Jews were soon put into hard labor. In 1940, the Germans closed off part of Warsaw with a wall topped with barbed wire. Jews were forced to live inside these walls. On average, the were 7 Jews living in each room. Jewish organizations

They had also enlisted for help in the Polish military underground movement, they had obtained a large amount of firearms and flammable explosives from this organization. As the Nazis called for an operation to liquidate the Jews, the organizations were ready to fend off the German troops. However, they did not succeed. The Nazi troops started going through all of the Ghettos buildings to force all of the Jews out of hiding. As for in that period of time approximately three-hundred thousand Jews were murdered or deported to the Treblinka death

42,000 Warsaw ghetto survivors were captured during the uprising and taken to forced labor camps at Poniatowa and trawniki and to concentration camps. Through the attempt of the resistance around 7,000 jews died fighting or hiding in the ghetto, while another 7,000 was sent to treblinka killing center.

After a couple months of the Jews being stolen from and all that kind of stuff, all of the Jews where ether told to get outside or get pulled out of their homes. Therefore, some people had found hiding places and had hid their hoping to not be found by the Germans but some people had been found. After the German got all the Jews they were taken to a concentration camp where they had to do really hard work or they would be punished some had even been killed for not working fast enough or not making them right. Others had to go and do lots of physical work like digging and building. However, before

Nonetheless, following the German invasion and occupation of Poland, Schindler moved to Krakow in October 1939. Making good use of the German occupation program to “Aryanize” and “Germanize” Jewish-owned and Polish-owned companies in the so-called “General Government” he bought a Jewish-owned enamelware manufacturer and converted its plant to establish the Deutsche Emalwarenfabrik Oskar Schindler also known as Emalia, in November 1939. At Emalia, he employed Jewish workers who resided in the nearby Krakow ghetto. At its peak strength in 1944, Emalia employed 1,700 workers; at least 1,000 were Jewish forced laborers, whom the Germans had repositioned from the Krakow ghetto after its liquidation in March 1943 to the forced labor camp and later concentration camp Krakau-Plaszow. Although, the prisoners deployed at Emalia were still subject to the ruthless conditions of the Plaszow concentration camp, Schindler intervened constantly on their behalf, through bribes and personal diplomacy, both for the wellbeing of Jews threatened on an individual

On May 1, 1940 The Lodz Ghetto was sealed and enclosed 164,000 Jews (the ones that never fled). They then had to wait for their fate under the control of the German Rulers. They were put to work, and all of their belongings were then taken by the Germans. Many people died from

of thousands were soon being deported to the Polish ghettoes and German-occupied cities in the