The Role Of Jewish Ghetto In Warsaw

The Warsaw Ghetto By the middle of 1942, Jews in the ghettos realized that all their former residents were being murdered, not sent to labor camps. In the Warsaw Ghetto

was a World War II ghetto established by the Nazi German authorities for Polish Jews

When people think of the word ghetto today they think of an impoverished area of a city. The ghettos of World War II have a similar but nonetheless different definition. The ghettos of World War II were small parts of cities sectioned off to keep Jews in a confined area before eventual extermination. The Jews held there were more than just impoverished like today’s residents of ghettos. They were starved, beaten, and overworked. Ghettos were seen as just a step to Hitler’s final solution, or the extermination of Jews from Nazi occupied territory. The Warsaw Ghetto was the largest ghetto in Nazi occupied Europe. It held 400,000 Jews in 1.3 square miles. From the Warsaw Ghetto only 11,500 Jews survived. The Warsaw Ghetto was a place that

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

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).

“Jewish civilians offered armed resistance in over 100 ghettos in occupied Poland and the “Soviet Union”(Jewish resistance). The holocaust lasted from about 1939-1945. In that time frame, jews were forced to wear stars that labeled them as jews, lived in ghettos, and did labor. Many tried to escape this way of living but ended up being killed. During the Holocaust, Jews used armed, spiritual and unarmed forms of resistance in order to retain their humanity.

There were numerous resistance group but today I will be talking about the Jewish combat Organization, ZOB. It all began in July 1942, where 6,000 Jews per day were transferred to the Treblinka concentration camp. The Nazis told the remaining Jews that their relatives and friends were sent to work camps, but word soon reached the ghetto that deportation to the camp meant extermination.

A new SS and police force were outside the Warsaw ghetto on April 19th 1943, they intended to receive the rest of the jews inside but expected resistance from the last encounter to take the jews to forced labour camps. However the resistance the jews showed was organized.

    The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was organized by Jews in an underground group called the ZOB. The Jews were being held in the ghetto, and the Nazis began deportations to an extermination camp. The ZOB collectively organized an attack in order to stop the deportations. Then, “The resistance sprang into action. Jewish fighters could strike [the Nazis] quickly, then escape on rooftops,” (Berenbaum 4). Jews crowded the Nazis, using whatever weapons they could find to strike them. It had seemed like their efforts had been successful, because, “the German deportations effort ended within a few days… from then on the [ZOB] dominated the ghetto,” (Berenbaum 4). The Jews were in charge of their ghetto, and they felt freed. Unfortunately, a few days later the deportations to the extermination camps resumed, and the Jews could no longer fight.

Throughout the summer of 1942, nearly 300,000 Jews were deported from the Warsaw ghetto to the Treblinka death camp. During this summer, a resistance organization known as the Z.O.B. was formed. It was headed by the 23 year old Mordecai Anielewicz, and was comprised primarily of young men. The deportations halted in September, and the Z.O.B. began collecting whatever weapons they could manage to smuggle into the

The forced labor for which the Jews of occupied Poland were drafted took different forms and lasted from the beginning of World War II until its end. As soon as the German army entered Poland in September 1939, individual Jews and groups of Jews were forced to clear roadways (Encyclopedia of the Holocaust 1). The only purpose for subjecting Jews to forced labor was to degrade them. On October 26, 1939, labor was introducedby law, applying to Jewish males ranging from the age of fourteen to sixty, education was put into the hands of the SS command. The law was also applied to women, and to children from twelve to fourteen. As time went on, special labor camps were put up for Jews, who were called by name to report to them. In these labor camps the Jews had to work under very harsh conditions. In the Lublin district, twenty nine such camps were in operation by July 1940 (Encyclopedia of the Holocaust 1). In that August twenty thousand Jews ranging from nineteen to thirty-five were ordered to report to labor camps. (Encyclopedia of the Holocaust 1). As time went on, special labor camps were put up for Jews, who were summoned by name to report to them. In these labor camps the Jews were quartered in barracks and had to work under very harsh conditions. In the Lublin district, twenty-nine such camps were in operation by July 1940. (Encyclopedia of the Holocaust 2). In August of that year twenty thousand Jews in the nineteen to thirty-five age group were ordered to report to labor camps. Many people died in the camps, and other were left exhausted and disabled for life. . In certain ghettos, the entire population was on forced labor and the ghettos, in effect, became labor

The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was led by Mordecai Anielewicz. Mordecai was in his 20’s when he was named leader of the uprising. He led the Jews to resist going into the train cars and hiding in the houses. The uprising started in 1941.

The start of the Warsaw Ghetto started when 300,000 Jews were deported from Warsaw to Treblinka. The group was lead by a young man named Mordecai Anielewicz. His goal to have the Jews resist going on the railroad cars. In January 1943, fighters used the small amount of weapons they had to fight off German troops that were trying to deport them again. They were able to make them retreat and the resistance lasted for nearly a month but in May 16, 1943, the revolt was slowly stopped by the Germans. Nearly all members of the group were killed. Of the 56,000 that were captured, over 7,000 were shot and the rest were sent to

The ghettos in Nazi-occupied Europe — primarily Poland — were often closed off by walls, barbed-wire fences, or gates. Ghettos were extremely crowded and unsanitary.

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