Hannah Meyer
Mrs. Halloran
English IICP
25 April 2016
Ghettos During World War 2
The ghettos idea originally popped up during 1179, when it was decided that Christians shouldn’t live with Jews, therefore making the ghettos an invention before the Nazis came into place. The word itself, ghetto, comes from the Latin word “gettare” which means to pour or to cast.
In the year 1526, a section of Venice was closed off by walls and gates and was the only part of the city open to Jewish settlement. The first ghetto established by Germans was in Poland in October 1939, also being the largest ghetto in Poland. It was established on October 12 of that month. It was cut off from the rest on the city in November 1940, making the Jews belittle to their own section. The ghetto had a wall that was ten feet tall topped with barbed wire and sharp objects. (“Warsaw”) Lodz, Krakow, Bialystok, Lvov, Lubin, Vilna, Kovno, Czestochowa, and Minsk were some of the other major ghettos established. Some large amount of European Jews were sent to ghettos in the east. (“Ghettos History”)
The ghettos were a smaller, more grotesque part of the city where Jews were put to live temporarily until they are transported to a work camp. Ghettos were established to keep the Jews from the rest of the German population. They’re typically isolated from the rest of the city by a wall beside a numerous amount of openings, but would be bolted shut at night. The ghettos were a key part in the separation and eventual near-demolishment of the Jewish population. Ghettos were established to keep the Jews from the rest of the German population. Although they were supposed to be temporary, while some did only last for a short time, others did for several years. The majority of the people living in the ghettos died from disease or starvation or were even killed via Nazis by being sent to designated killing centers. (“Ghettos History”)
Life in the ghettos was mostly unbearable, it was incredibly crowed, and some homes had several families living in it at some times. The plumbing wasn’t very fantastic, there was either one or no bathroom and human waste was thrown into the street along with the garbage. Disease spread like a brush fire in a dry forest due to unsanitary living conditions. Germans purpousely tried to starve the people living in the ghettos. They allowed them to purchase only a small amount of bread, potatoes, and fattening foods. Some people had very little money or valuables they were willing to, or even could trade for food smuggled into the ghettos. During the winters, heat was scarce, and many people didn’t have appropriate clothing, because some traded their jackets and blankets for food. People became weak, because of their lack of food and the cold weather they endured. They easily became victims of diseases; tens of thousands died in the ghettos from illness, starvation, or cold (“life in the ghettos”). Some committed suicide to escape the hopeless life they were living.