|
|
|
The most famous was the Warsaw Ghetto. Warsaw was a city in which the 335,000 Jews represented about one third of the population.
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.
Read a personal account. There was no sanitation. Pestilence would sweep through. Life in the ghetto was intolerable. Listen to a RealAudio account by Mr. S. (3:45 min.)
If a person was not fit for work, then he did not get food tickets. That meant death by starvation.
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.
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.
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.
|
|
| ||
 |
|||
