The Jewish Ghettos Of The Holocaust

The Jewish ethnic population of the world was reduced by one-third in the world’s most worst and known genocide, the Holocaust. Night by Elie Wiesel describes his firsthand experience going through multiple concentration camps that systematically murdered individuals of Jewish cultural heritage, and while groups such as queer people, Romani ethnic groups, individuals with disabilities, black people, as well as the Slavs, were persecuted, Night explains being apart of the Ashkenazi Jewish ethnic group. Eliezer Wiesel discusses the theme of racial inequality in his memoir Night, through his use of descriptive, vivid, yet simple statements that use foreshadowing to trope different experiences. Wiesel is expressing to the readers of his personalized traumatic experience, as well as urging it never happen to any marginalized group, not in the future or present.

Holocaust ghettos; these are the over looked places where the Jews, in Nazi controlled lands, awaited their future.

In Night, Elie Wiesel descriptively shares his Holocaust experience in each part of his survival. From the ghettos to the Death March and liberation, Elie Wiesel imparts his story of sadness, suffering and struggle. Specifically Wiesel speaks about his short experience in the Sighet ghettos. Ghettos were implemented early on in the Holocaust for the purpose of segregating and concentrating the Jews before deportation to concentration camps and death camps. Depending on the region, ghettoization ranged from several days to multiple years before deportation. All Jews in ghettos across Europe would eventually face the same fate: annihilation (“Ghettos”). Wiesel’s accurate account of the Sighet ghettos illustrates the poor living conditions, the Judenrat and Jewish life in the ghetto as well as the design and purpose of the two Sighet ghettos. Wiesel’s description of the Sighet ghettos demonstrates the similar characteristics between the Sighet ghettos and other ghettos in Germany and in German-occupied territories in addition to the differences between the various ghettos.

Life in the ghetto was subjected to death. Many took their own lives, and others tried to escape.

The Jewish Holocaust is often described as the largest, most gruesome holocaust in history. It began in 1933 with the rise of Adolf Hitler and lasted nearly twelve years until the Nazi Party were defeated by the Allied powers in 1945. The expression “Holocaust” originated from Greece which is translated to “sacrifice by fire”. This is a very proper name considering the slaughter and carnage of Jewish people inflicted by the Nazis. In addition to the Jewish, Gypsies, Jehovah’s Witnesses, homosexual, and physically and mentally disabled were targeted by the Nazis. Although the numbers are not exact, it is estimated that approximately eleven-million people were killed during the Holocaust. This includes about six-million Jews and one-million children. The persecution begins on April 1, 1933 when Nazis initiated the first action against Jews. It began with a boycott of all Jewish businesses and only became more extreme as time went on. In September of 1935 Jews were excluded from public life and stripped of citizenship and marriage rights. This was an unprecedented action that was enforced by the German government through the Nuremberg Laws. Several other anti-Jewish laws were established during the buildup of World War II. During these dismal years, countless Jews were sent to “camps”. These “camps” ranged from concentration camps, extermination camps, labor camps, to prisoner of war camps. Nevertheless, all of these camps treated Jews inhumanly. Dachau, Germany was the home of

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

In the book, Night, the two reasons why Jewish people would not accept their fate because they were surrounded by loved ones and their community. Self-consciously denying they're fate, in the ghetto everything was the same as before, children playing, running, neighbors having joy, and fun.

While in many places ghettoization only lasted a brief period of time, ghettos had a profound impact as they isolated Jews from society, served as a crucial role in Hitler’s Final Solution, and left thousands living in inhumane conditions.

In 1939, Hitler was unsure of what he was going to do with the Jews; the Nazis were tossing around options and ideas with the goal of removing Jews from the population. The German invasion into Poland, allowed for the first ghetto, regarded as a provisional measure to control and segregate Jews. Ghettos were enclosed, isolated urban areas designated for Jews. Living under strict regulations, with unthinkable living conditions, and crammed into small areas, the ghettos destroyed all hope of retaliating. In this paper, I will discuss what life would be like to be a Jew inside one of the 1,000 of ghettos within Poland and the Soviet Union. I will imagine myself a member of the Jewish council, describing the

One day, word went around the neighborhoods that they would be transported. People started to worry. No one knew where they were going. Rumors spread about going to Hungary to work in the “brick factories” there. People began to pack all they could. When the day came for people to start leaving people had to leave their belonging behind that they couldn’t carry. The streets were full of the things that had to be left behind. They were forced to leave pieces of themselves behind. Memories, Valuables, and everything else that help make them human. Homes were abandoned, left open like an old deserted warehouse. The ghettos started to resemble graveyards. Full of the ghost of who they once were. Taking away the objects that were most important to them helped to dehumanize them by taking away the things that represented their lives as humans.

The provision of food in the ghettos was inadequate, causing many people to starve or become harshly ill. Source One discusses experiences from life in the Lodz ghetto. It describes the way of how ‘it is hard to get bread; Jews are driven away from all the “queues”.’ This quote reveals that the Jews were treated harshly and prevented from receiving food. The level of sanitation and hygiene in the ghettos was appalling. Many Jewish men, women and children died from starvation and diseases such as typhus and typhoid. These diseases were a result of the Final Solution procedure and majorly impacted the lives, not only of the ones who died from them, but their families too. Jewish people were also beaten and forced to work while living in the ghettos. Source One talks about how ‘they were seized, hauled off to labour, and beaten to a pulp.’ This quote shows that the Jewish men, women and children were forced to do whatever the German officers wanted of them and if they disobeyed, they were severely punished. Women in the ghettos were often abused sexually. The German men would rape the Jewish women, and then generally kill them with the unborn child inside. This shows that Jewish men, women and children had their physical wellbeing impacted during the Final

Eleven million people died during the Holocaust of these eleven million people 2.4 million died from medical experiments conducted by German forces. These experiments were conducted mainly for three reasons. The first of which was to help the Germans gain knowledge that would help them better understand things that would have been viewed as threats or weaknesses to their military (Holocaust Museum). For example the Germans knew little of hypothermia and the weather located on the eastern front, so freezing experiments were conducted at Auschwitz concentration camp where most of their medical experiments occurred (Remember ). The second reason the Germans did medical experiments was to further their knowledge on how to pharmaceutically

During the ghettoization process of the Holocaust, the constant mistreatment received from authoritarian figures wore down the spirit of the Jews. After having their citizenship revoked as a result of the Nuremberg laws, the Jews were susceptible to physical, emotional, and psychological harassment and abuse. In Elie Wiesel’s case, a majority of the pain inflicted on him and his community was conducted by the Hungarian police. By being segregated into ghettos -- and at the end of constant abuse -- the Jew’s spirits were defeated and they had their hope whittled down to nothingness. In his book, “Night”, towards the end of living in the ghetto, Wiesel details how “weariness had settled into our veins, our limbs, our brains, like molten lead” (Wiesel 16).

Theresienstadt, A gift from Hitler. A place of hope and happiness for Jews and Jewesses alike. Theresienstadt was somewhere they could wait the war out without fear until the shadow of Nazism passed. It was a place filled with the most prosperous artists and musicians, daily shows and operas, lectures and seminars, gardens and coffee shops. A place with grace and character. An entire town that was given to the Jews as a gift from the Fuehrer. A paradise for Jews. That is at least, what the Nazis wanted people to believe.