The+Ghettos+(1939-1941)

toc

=1939-The Ghettos are Made in Poland=

Ghettos were terrible places to live. They were dirty and cramped. One apartment may have had many families living in it. It was common for plumbing to break and waste was then thrown out into the streets. Because of the overcrowding and filthy conditions in the ghettos, diseases spread quickly. Many were often hungry. Germans intentionally made it so that Jews couldn't purchase much food, causing people to starve. Tenants who were fortunate to have valuables could trade them for food smuggled into the ghetto. Long winters were especially harsh. Fuel for heating was difficult to find and few had warm clothing. Every day children became orphans. It was common for many to be left responsible to take care of younger kids. These orphans lived on the streets, pleading for food from others that may have had only little or none at all. A great number of the children who were alone froze in the harsh winters. Although it was forbidden, young people tried to continue with their education through lessons taught by adults in the ghettos secretly. When necessary, the students hid books under their clothing to avoid getting in trouble. Even though horrible events occurred around them, children still continued to play with special toys they brought with them to the ghetto, such as dolls or trucks. They even made toys from scraps they found, like cloth or wood.

**Poland's First Ghetto** On October 8th, 1939, The first ghetto was ordered to be built in Piotrkow, Poland. Heydrich brought this to order for a place to keep all the Jews. Heydrich purposely made the ghettos unsuitable for living, because he did not believe that the Jews should be treated as equals.

=February 1940-Lodz Jews Ordered into Ghettos=

The Germans arranged the development of a ghetto in the north-eastern section of Lodz, a major industrial city in western Poland with the second largest Jewish population prior to World War II. More than 150,000 Jews, over one-third of the entire population of Lodz, were forced into a meager area of the city. This ghetto is secluded form the rest of the city by barbed-wire fences. The ghetto area is branched into three segments by the intersection of two roads, which are omitted from the ghetto. Footbridges are manufactured to connect the segments. Cars of the non-Jewish population are permitted to move through the area but are banned from stopping within it.

=1940-Jews Killed For More Space=

=
On January 14th, 1940, the Nazis captured 880 Jewish-Polish people, and imprisoned them in the recently built ghettos. Approximately three months later, 500 Jews were killed to make more room in the ghettos. After all these deaths, 40 escaped. As the punishment to the 40 that escaped, they killed 150 more.======

=
On November 19th, 1940, A Christian man was killed by the German soldiers for trying to feed the Jews in the Warsaw ghettos. The man threw bread over the fence, but was caught in the process and shot immediately. Even if the man had gotten the food to them, it would not have been enough. Approximately 400,000 Jews are contained in 37,200 apartments, or 11 Jews per apartment.=====



=Cyclon B Testing a Success= On September 3rd, 1941, the Germans soldiers experimented on all Poles and Jews in Poland's largest concentration camp, Auschwitz. They tested the effectiveness of a product called Cyclon B. All of them were killed, a successful test.

=1941- Several Jews Die of Starvation= On March 18, 1941 200 people died of starvation in the Warsaw ghetto. A week earlier 400 Jewish people died of starvation. Many others died of starvation that year.

= =

**January 16, 1942-Lodz Jews Transported to Chelmno Killing Center**

Transportations from the Lodz ghetto to the Chelmno killing center commence. Chelmno was a Nazi eradication camp in western Poland where a minimum of 150,000 Jews, around 5,000 gypsies, and many Polish people were murdered between December 1941 and March 1943 and between April and August 1944. The Gustapo, German police, carry out roundups in the ghetto. Many, mostly children, the elderly, and the sick, are exterminated on the spot during transportations to death camps. Near September 1942, more than 70,000 Jews and 5,000 gypsies will have been transported to Chelmno, where they're murdered in mobile gas vans, trucks with sealed compartments that served as gas chambers.



=June 23, 1944-Germans Continue Deportations from Lodz Ghetto=

Through September 1942 and May 1944, there aren't any considerable deportations from Lodz. This ghetto is similar to a forced-labor camp. In the spring of 1944, Nazis agree that Lodz needs to be destroyed, at which point Lodz is the final ghetto in Poland with a population of around 75,000 Jews. On June 23, 1944, deportations to Chelmno proceed. Approximately 3,000 Jews are sent to Chelmno and killed. These deportations continue through July and August. The remaining people are sent to the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp. After everyone, has been deported, the Lodz ghetto is eradicated.



= =

=References= -United States Holocaust Memorial Museum http://ushmm.org/outreach/tc.htm. Retrieved April 22, 2009, from United States Holocaust Memorial Museum -NAAF Project http://www.neveragain.org/time.htm. Retrieved April 22, 2009, from NAAF Project: An Online Memorial of the Victims of the Holocaust

Resources Want to learn more about the Ghettos? Watch Swimming in Auschwitz, a PBS movie

==