The Warsaw Ghetto Research Paper

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

​According to dicitonaity.com, a ghetto is “a section of a city, especially a thickly populated slum area, inhabited predominantly by members of an ethnic or other minority group, often as a result of social or economic restrictions, pressures, or hardships” (“Ghetto”). The five major ghettos were established in Warsaw, Lodz, Krakow, Lublin, and Lvov (“Holocaust Timeline: The Ghettos”). The Nazi Party used three different types of ghettos to isolate Jews from society. The three types were closed, open, and reconstruction ghettos (“Types of Ghettos”). Closed ghettos were the most common and often had high mortality rates as they were closed off with stone or brick walls, wooden fences, and barbed wire. The largest ghetto, Warsaw, was a closed ghetto and had over 400,000 people in an area of 1.3 squared miles (“Holocaust Timeline: The Ghettos”). Open ghettos had no physical barriers, but restrictions on entering and were often only in small towns used for temporary housing before relocating to a larger, often closed, ghetto. The majority of open ghettos were located in small towns, and in the countries of Poland, the occupied Soviet Union, and Transnistria. Lastly, deconstruction ghettos were tightly sealed off and only

This was the Nazi’s policy to murder Jews in Europe. The Nazis believed that the Aryan German race were superior to Jews, which were a threat to German community. There were however other victims including the Roma(Gypsies), disabled, Slavic, Jehovah’s witnesses, war prisoners, etc. Ghettos were created to segregate the Jews from the rest of the world. There were three different types of ghettos; closed, open and destruction. Most ghettos were temporary, but some lasted for several years. Inside the ghetto people were forced to wear badges to be easily identified. Many died inside the ghetto from either disease, or starvation. The ghettos also were used to temporarily hold Jews, and they would later be deported to either a concentration camp or a killing center (ushmm.org).

The ghettos were used as a means to hold the Jews captive, and isolate what Heydrich had termed the “plague” until they could find a what to eradicate the problem. This made it appear that the Nazi’s were helping the Jews, and was a way to cover up the “final solution.”

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

The Holocaust was a dark period of time, occurring in the 20th century. It had began in the early 1930’s, and grew to become increasingly gruesome up until the mid-fourtees. The Holocaust was a mass murder of Jewish people, Romas, homosexuals, mentally and physically disabled, Jehovah’s witnesses, trade unionists and many other classes of people. Though the Holocaust was a very important part of history, there were many things distracting the German population, along with the rest of the world, leaving the Holocaust in the dark and left unknown.

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

In the beginning, Germany as a whole was in a state of depression. Money had become worthless and there was no true hope for the citizens of Germany until Adolf Hitler came into power. Adolf Hitler was able to obtain power with the help of the Nazi party through promises and ideas that gave aspiration to the people of Germany. As a result, after Adolf Hitler became chancellor of Germany, along with the Nazi party, they began implementing anti-Jewish legislation. These anti-Jewish legislations would restrict Jewish people of many things and excluded them from German life. Because of this, Hitler and the Nazi regime was able to spread fear, especially towards the Jewish communities in Germany. As a result, to achieve their final solution, the Nazi regime created the ghettos and concentration camps where Jews would be sent. The ghettos and concentration camps would be what the Nazis used to control the Jewish population. The concentration camps were the most horrific aspect of the Holocaust. The Jews were forced to strip naked and do hard labor with little food and medical care. The crematorium and the gas chambers became the most inhumane way to massacre vast amounts of people. In the end, when the Holocaust ended in May 8, 1945, the deaths of the Jewish people in Europe had accumulated to a tragic, 6 million. To this day, the Holocaust, referred to as the greatest sin against humanity, remains the most traumatic and heart-breaking event in

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").

During World War II when the Nazis would conquer a European city, they would force all of the Jews into just one area of the town called a ghetto. This area was guarded and was fenced with barbed wire. The jewish people had access to very little water, food, and medicine. All Jewish people were told they were being relocated to a newer and better place; then would eventually be brought into concentration camps. These camps were like prison. The people there were forced to do hard labor and the weak either were killed or died of starvation. Some of these camps included gas chambers. Large groups of people would be led into these chambers and killed with poisoned gas.

The Warsaw Ghetto held over 400,000 Jews, starving them and ravaging them with disease. After two years of persecuting and executing Jews, an uprising ended the reign of terror, killing hundreds of thousands of rebellious prisoners and leaving the rest to be sent to other death camps. The story of the Warsaw Ghetto gave many, many Jews hope that they could indeed fight back against Hitler and survive.

The population of the ghetto increased by Jews gotworse to move in from close towns, it was estimated to be 4000,000 Jews or more.(Warsaw, 2017.) German police made Ghetto people live in a space of 1.3 square miles, with the

Good morning / afternoon Mr Retsos and 10HT today I will be speaking to you about the Warsaw ghetto uprising but before that I will give you a brief summary of the Warsaw ghetto. When Poland was invaded by Germany in September 1939, more that 400,000 Jews in Warsaw, the capital of Poland, were imprisoned in an particular area of the city which was no more than 2 square miles. In November 1940, this ghetto was sealed off by brick walls, barbed wire and armed guards. If anyone was caught leaving the ghetto they would be shot on sight. The amount of food that was brought into the ghetto was controlled by the Nazis. Each month more than thousands of Jews died due to disease and starvation.

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.

On October 26 Jews were persecuted and forbidden to use public transit nor holding communal prayers because people thought that they would spread epidemics. The Ghetto wall construction started on April 1, 1940. It surrounded the area of the Warsaw that was inhabited predominantly by Jews. This area was divided into two sections; the southeast of Chlodna, also called “Small Ghetto”, and the north part, also known as the “Large Ghetto”. Ghetto Administration