Jewish Ghettos Essay - 1820 Words

Jewish ghettos: The basic history of the formation of the Jewish ghettos, including the everyday life and economic hardships faced by the communities. nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;By definition, a ghetto is an area, usually characterized by poverty and poor living conditions, which houses many people of a similar religion, race or nationality. They served to confine these groups of people and isolate them from the rest of the community because of political or social differences. However, the Jewish ghettos established throughout Europe were more than just a way for the Germans to isolate the Jewish community. They were the first step in making Hitler’s final solution possible. The ghettos were the means of organizing all of the Jews†¦show more content†¦However, there was no real uniformity to these ghettos. The ghettos usually varied with respect to the size of the city in which they were located. The ghettos in small towns were generally not sealed off, which was often a temporary measure used until the Jewish occupants could be sent to a bigger ghetto. Larger cities had closed ghettos, with brick or stone walls, wood en fences, and barbed wire defining the boundaries. In the larger ghettos, guards were strategically placed at gateways and other boundary openings for policing the area. In these larger ghettos, Jews were not allowed to leave the Jewish residential districts (Holocaust),under penalty of severe punishment, often including death. As mentioned earlier, all of the ghettos had the most appalling, inhuman living conditions. The smallest ghetto housed about 3,000 Jews. Warsaw, probably the largest ghetto, held close to 400,000 people. Lodz, the second largest, held about 160,000 (Phillips 304-12). Other areas (mainly Poland) with large Jewish ghettos included Bialystok, Czestochowa, Kielce, Krakow, Lublin, Lvov, Radom, and Vilna(a history 170). Many of the ghetto dwellers were from the local area; others were from neighboring villages. In October 1941, general deportations began from Germany to major ghettos in Poland and further east. Also, Jews from Austria and theShow MoreRelatedEssay on Theresienstadt: A Model Jewish Ghetto3188 Words   |  13 PagesHitler pinpointed the small town of Theresienstadt to be his paradise ghetto, his à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“giftà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬?. Located in a scenic community, Theresienstadt had broad streets and a large square surrounded by two large parks and two smaller ones. Here within an area five blocks wide and seven blocks long, over 140, 000 Jews would spend the last months of their lives, and only a few handfuls would survive. nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;The first Jewish prisoners entered Theresienstadt on November 24, 1941. In the beginningRead MoreThe Jewish Ghettos Of The Holocaust1715 Words   |  7 Pageslife was like in the Jewish ghettos. 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One of the biggest types of ghettos was the Warsaw Ghetto in Poland where more than 400,000 Jews were crowded into an area of 1.3 square miles and were living in harsh conditions. This was established On October 12 1940 after the decree the establishment of a ghetto in Warsaw. All