The Ghettos Children eating in the ghetto streets. Warsaw, Poland, between 1940 and — US Holocaust Memorial Museum

Where did “ghetto” come from? During World War II, ghettos were city districts (often enclosed) in which the Germans concentrated the municipal and sometimes regional Jewish population and forced them to live under miserable conditions. Ghettos isolated Jews by separating Jewish communities from the non-Jewish population and from other Jewish communities. The term "ghetto" originated from the name of the Jewish quarter in Venice, established in 1516, in which the Venetian authorities compelled the city's Jews to live. Various officials ordered the creation of ghettos for Jews in Frankfurt, Rome, Prague, and other cities in the 16th and 17th centuries.

Fast Facts About the Ghettos The Germans established at least 1,000 ghettos in German- occupied and annexed Poland and the Soviet Union alone. The largest ghetto in Poland was the Warsaw ghetto, where more than 400,000 Jews were crowded into an area of 1.3 square miles.Warsaw ghetto Other major ghettos were established in the cities of Lodz, Krakow, Bialystok, Lvov, Lublin, Vilna, Kovno, Czestochowa, and Minsk.Lodz KrakowBialystokLvovLublin VilnaKovno Minsk The Germans ordered Jews residing in ghettos to wear identifying badges or armbands and also required many Jews to perform forced labor for the German Reich. The ghetto period is often referred to as the “bypass death,” for more than 80,000 Jews died in the Warsaw ghetto alone.

During World War II, the Germans established ghettos mainly in eastern Europe (between 1939 and 1942) and also in Hungary (in 1944). These ghettos were enclosed districts of a city in which the Germans forced the Jewish population to live under miserable conditions. The Germans regarded the establishment of Jewish ghettos as a provisional measure to control, isolate, and segregate Jews. Beginning in 1942, after the decision had been made to kill the Jews, the Germans systematically destroyed the ghettos, deporting the Jews to extermination camps where they were killed. — US Holocaust Memorial Museum

The Nazi’s goal Top 5 Reasons Why Jews Didn’t Escape the Ghettos 1.Jews did not know that they would be sent to extermination camps. 2. Many Jews were malnourished and ill, so they had little strength to fight or escape. 3. They had lost all possessions, and many felt a strong responsibility to care for family members living with them. 4. Non-Jews outside were not willing to help them, and hiding Jews was punishable by death. 5. Prior to WWII, Jews couldn’t leave Europe in some cases due to immigration quotes and strict policies towards refugees. Closing Jews in ghettos was not only to deprive them of their human rights, but to deprive them to their human dignity.

Daily Life in The Ghettos includes Forced Labor and Starvation

The Biggest Ghettos Warsaw Ghetto Lodz Ghetto

Deportations from Hungarian ghettos to Auschwitz — US Holocaust Memorial Museum