Holocaust Ghettos

The unspeakable history of the Ghettos includes what they were for, life in the death box, and the harsh treatment from the Nazis.

The Ghettos were one of the cruel instruments used by the Nazis to torture the Jews. Ghettos hold ghastly stories of Jews in hiding, cruel Nazis, and the Ghettos purpose in the Holocaust. The Ghettos were city districts in which Germans forced the Jewish population to live miserably. The Ghettos had red brick walls with glass shards and barbed wire on top to prevent the Jews from escaping from atop (Stewart 47). They were made by Jews by force from the Nazis.

There were closed Ghettos, open Ghettos, and destruction Ghettos. (“Types of Ghettos”). For the Jews it was just another act of the Nazis to wipe them out. There were at least 1,000 Ghettos in German occupied (“Types of Ghettos”). Most of the Ghettos were in Poland. The largest Ghetto was the Warsaw Ghetto (“Ghettos”).

The smaller Ghettos were usually numbered and the Warsaw Ghetto was the most talked about in the streets. Ghettos come in different sizes (“Ghettos”). They come in small, medium, and large depending on the [Jews] capacity of the nearby city or town. The Ghettos were just holding pens for the Jews until the final solution occurred. Life in the Ghettos was terrible, people died of disease and hunger. Thousands of Jews died each month from starvation, exposure to the cold, and disease (Alder).

It got so bad that to the people it was an everyday thing to see a corpse lying in the street, young or old. It was forbidden to study in the Ghetto (Alder). The Nazis were afraid that the Jews would come up with a plan to rebel against them. It was hard for the people in the Ghettos to keep clean and their body odors poisoned the air (Stewart 50). The contaminated air is what caused the diseases. People went so hungry that they did things they normally would not do, such as “snatching” (Stewart 50).

If someone had food a “snatcher” would snatch it and eat it for them. Many children wanted to grow up to be a German so that they wouldn’t get cold, or go hungry and live a good life (Stewart 49). Some children resisted and knew that they had to be a strong Jew and die a Jew. People tore at any building in search and need of wood to start a fire (Stewart). They would even break their neighbors’ door down just for a splinter of wood. People went hungry and were cold.

Warmth was a rare thing. Coal was referred as “Black pearls” (Stewart 49). Anything that is able to catch aflame is precious to them. When things go bad so do people and they would do anything to make it good again (Bonnie). People did not stop smuggling for a moment, even when the police shot the people nearest the Ghetto walls (“life in the Warsaw ghetto”).

People would go to great heights just so they can get food into your family’s mouth. People in the Ghettos had very little food (“Life in the Warsaw ghetto”). They will put their hands on anything that is edible. Germans found out that Jews smuggles food in the Ghettos and ordered to make the Ghetto walls even higher when the broken glass and barbed wire failed to keep them in (“Life in the Warsaw ghetto”). To scare the Jews the German (and even Jewish) police would shoot people for no reason.

Nazis let very little food into the Ghettos (“Life in the Warsaw Ghetto”). Less and less food and supplies came in overtime and it took longer and longer to get there. There was secret school and libraries (“Life in the Warsaw Ghetto”) Many kids still studied in hopes that everything will go back to normal soon and not be behind when (if) they go back to school. There was also “smugglers”, people who smuggled food into the Ghettos (“Life in the Warsaw Ghetto”) People of many ages smuggled food into the Ghettos to feed their family or sell them. Life in the Ghettos was like being poor; you barely eat and get humiliated by the more powerful people.

The Jews in hiding had left diaries, Nazis became defeated, and the Ghettos were destroyed. Many Jews didn’t live long enough to see that they were free and those who have died have died in agony while those still alive are living like their supposed to… Equally.