Write An Essay On The Warsaw Ghetto

What happened to the Jews during the Holocaust was unthinkable; millions of people were persecuted. Jews were asked to vacate their homes and were shifted to specific areas in cities known as ghettos. In these ghettos, several families had to live under one roof in cramped and unhealthy manner. About 6 million Jews were sent to concentration camps. Jews were transported in freight trains to these camps under inhumane conditions, and many perished on the way. They were hardly given any food. They were also made to work long hours, some times 12 to 14 hours without a break. The Nazis did not spare women or children. According to estimates, the Nazis killed 1.2 millions Jewish children and thousands of gypsy and disabled

According to Merriam-Webster a ghetto is, “ a part of a city in which members of a particular group or race live usually in poor conditions (ghetto).” This paper will focus, however, on what daily life was like in the ghettos, what Jews did or didn’t do to prevent their fate, and how Holocaust survivors are doing now. I chose this topic because when Elie and his family were living in the ghetto in the beginning of Night, it seemed as though they had plenty of opportunities to escape that they didn’t take. It also seemed much closer to pleasant than I imagined, and I was curious to see if that was completely true.

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.

Throughout the Holocaust, Jews organized resistance movements in ghettos, concentration, and extermination camps. Although they had virtually no weapons and faced one of the largest arsenals in the world, the Jewish people fought for their honor and freedom. Without any hope victory and in the face of death, resistance fighters found the courage to take on evil in its purest form. Their efforts must not go in vein; to them we must accord our respect. This is a brief testimony of their fight against the Nazi regime.

A city in southern poland that was turned into the largest concentration camp of world war 2

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

Adolf Eichmann began planning ways to get rid of the Jewish race. One of his earlier plans was presented in July of 1940. He proposed that all of the Jews should be deported to Madagascar. However, the plan was never implemented. In poland there were 3.5 million Jews. They were all gathered into small ghettos such as Warsaw (The History Place). Warsaw was one of the biggest and overcrowded ghettos in Poland. In 1941 Eichmann was deporting Jews out of Germany and Bohemia, in accordance with Hitler 's orders to make the Third Reich free of Jews as quickly as possible (Wistrich). The ghettos were chosen based on how close they were to railway junctions, which was preparing them to implement their final goal.

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

When the Germans invaded Poland, they processed ghettos in several Polish cities, where Jews were in hiding. The living conditions in the ghettos were: hunger, disease, and overcrowding killed tens of thousands. The Germans transported Jews from all over occupied Europe to these ghettos, modeled after the ghettos the Catholic Church had established all over Europe since the Middle Ages.

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.

As part of Adolf Hitler’s final solution for ridding Europe of Jews, the Nazis established ghettos in areas under German control to confine Jews until they could be executed. The Warsaw ghetto, enclosed at first with barbed wire but later with a brick wall 10 feet high and 11 miles long, comprised the old Jewish

The Jews were able to keep up the resistance for about a month, but the fight was officially ended on May 16 with the destruction of Warsaw’s great synagogue (ushmm.org). About 7,000 Jews were killed during the uprising, and another 7,000 deported, but a few hundred German soldiers fell as well (history.com).

Warsaw Ghetto General info Nazis imprisioned Jews in Warsaw, Poland between October and November 16, 1940 until its destruction. Warsaw was the capital of poland and the greatest city. Nazis killed thousands of of Jews, some were killed by gas or by bullets (300,000), and others died because of hunger (92,000). There were about 400,000 imprisoned Jews in the city. They were taken to Treblinka extermination camp (a mass-killing center) and were told to be translated to the East.

The German military and Jewish Ghetto Police deported 265,000 Jews to the Treblinka Killing Center and 11,580 to the forced labor camps. While being moved to the new locations, the Jews needed to obdeditenly listen and follow the Nazi’s instructions very carefully. If they disobeyed in anyway, the Germans shot them to death. The soldiers starved the Jews, in a form of torture, as “starving the Jews to death was cheaper than shooting them or gassing them and all available foods and other survival necessities were needed at the front for military personnel” The sick and injured could not work and because of this were not given any food as a punishment. The Jews were tricked because the military would take advantage of their vulnerable state; when many of them hid, the Germans pretended like the deportations ended and offered food and other resources to the remaining survivors. When the Jews left their hiding, the Germans beat them or they were dragged with force to death camps. One described watched the Nazi torment of the Jews, “ “Silently the Jews stood there, hands elevated. The dog trainer raised his whip and struck their faces, left, right, and left again, leaving bloody welts on their cheeks.” The military also enforced the rule of all Jews to wear David’s star to “humiliate Jews and to mark them out for segregation and discrimination.” The Nazis and Jewish Police, under their influence,