Jews from wide areas were rounded up and forced to live in unbearable conditions in cramped ghettos.

by Rabbi Eliyahu Ellis and Rabbi Shmuel Silinsky

THE GHETTOS

The most famous was the Warsaw Ghetto. Warsaw was a city in which the 335,000 Jews represented about one third of the population.

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Warsaw Ghetto

Warsaw Ghetto, 1940
photo courtesy of Yad Vashem

 

More Jews were herded into Warsaw, so the Jewish population rose to about 450,000. These Jews were thrown into the slum area of town, 2.3% of the city area, and walled off.

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Starvation Casualties

Starvation in Warsaw Ghetto
photo courtesy of Yad Vashem

 

Read a personal account.

There was no sanitation. Pestilence would sweep through.

Life in the ghetto was intolerable.

Child In Ghetto

Child On A Ghetto Street
photo courtesy of Yad Vashem

If a person was not fit for work, then he did not get food tickets. That meant death by starvation.

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Makeshift Ambulance

Being Taking To The Hospital
photo courtesy of Yad Vashem

 

Over 75,000 people died of disease and starvation.

The Jews of the ghetto had no idea what the Germans had in mind. At first, they thought the Nazis were trying to starve them to death or kill them off with plagues.

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Deportation

Standing In Line For Deportation
photo courtesy of Yad Vashem

 

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Hungry Child

Hungry Child In Ghetto
photo courtesy of Yad Vashem

 

The ghettos were run by Jewish councils, (Judenrat) who were responsible for carrying out Nazi orders.

Read a personal account.

The transports bound for Auschwitz and other concentration camps would come, and the Nazis would ask for 1,000 Jews. The Council's rationalization was, "If we did not send off the one thousand, they would ask for two thousand." In fact, not only the one thousand went, but the two thousand went, too. And not only the two thousand, but the council members went and their entire families went also.In the end, everyone from the ghettos was swept away.

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Lodz Ghetto

Moving Into The Lodz Ghetto
photo courtesy of Yad Vashem

Read a personal account.

It must be noted that in spite of the unbelievable ghetto conditions, Jewish life – to the extent that it could – went on. The Torah studies, circumcision, Shabbos and holiday observance – all still went on, in spite of the fact that getting caught could mean death.

 

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Deporting Children

Deporting Children From The Lodz Ghetto
photo courtesy of Yad Vashem

 

Published: December 31, 1969
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Visitor Comments: 100

(89) kilo, May 2, 2012 2:25 PM

great

this website is so helpful i love it

(88) Gracie Moore, May 2, 2012 12:40 PM

The ghettos were not created by the Nazis, but were created back in medievel times.

(87) Anonymous, April 30, 2012 3:21 PM

:(. This is horrible

(86) Mindlessperson, April 2, 2012 2:36 AM

Very Helpful for my english project

alyssag54, May 3, 2012 5:09 PM

same here

do you know any more disease in the ghettos? please help us(:

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About the Author

Rabbi Eliyahu Ellis

Rabbi Eliyahu Ellis studied biology and geology at Northern Illinois University. In addition, he spent time as a deep-sea diver in the oil fields in the North Sea between Scotland and Norway and has circumnavigated the seas of the world in a sailboat. Rabbi Ellis received rabbinic ordination from Aish HaTorah where he is a senior lecturer at the Discovery and Essentials programs.

Rabbi Shmuel Silinsky

Rabbi Shmuel Silinsky received his BS from Cornell with a major in Communication Arts and a minor in Archeology, and did post-graduate work at UCLA in the field of Desert Plants and Natural History. Prior to moving to Israel, he worked in the field of Urban Ecology including several years as a landscape designer in Beverly Hills. Rabbi Silinsky received rabbinic ordination from Aish HaTorah and the Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem. He currently teaches at the Yeshivat Aish HaTorah in Jerusalem.

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