By Des Quinn and Martin Williams This slide show will play automatically

In an attempt to separate the Jews from Aryans within Nazi occupied Europe the Nazis forced them into walled off areas known as ghettos. Once inside the Jews had little chance of escape. They relied on the Nazis for everything – for food, work and even the right to live. Conditions within the ghettos were awful and many people simply starved to death or were struck down by illness. Those who did survive were eventually rounded up and sent to concentration and death camps when the ghettos were ‘liquidated’.

People were forced to swap and exchange goods in order to survive. This ‘barter’ system meant that many Jews had to give up their belongings in an attempt to ‘buy’ food and clothing. The streets were filled with children dressed in rags, crying and dying of hunger. Image courtesy of Des Quinn

Some of the ‘luckier’ children smile for a German Officer… Image courtesy of Des Quinn

While their parents queue for food and to have their work permits signed and papers checked. Image courtesy of Des Quinn

In an attempt to make the Jews feel that at least some aspects of normal life existed within the ghettos the Nazis allowed postcards to be written to relatives and friends who lived elsewhere within Europe. This tolerance was just ‘for show’ however. The Nazis had no intention of allowing the Jews to have contact with the outside world. When the cards were posted within the ghetto the Nazis collected them, bagged them and either stored them in warehouses or simply destroyed them.

Image courtesy of Des Quinn

The longer the ghettos were in existence the more intolerable life became for the inhabitants. Confrontations with German soldiers were common with the penalty for answering back often being physical bodily harm or execution. The penalty for smuggling food into the ghetto was the same. Image courtesy of Des Quinn

As more and more Jews entered the ghettos the harder it became for the Nazis to control the people who lived there and to stop illness and disease from spreading. The Jews also began to realise that they would never be released and so escape attempts increased. The Germans therefore planned to get rid of the Jews once and for all. Image courtesy of Des Quinn

The inhabitants of the ghettos were rounded up and their names checked off on an official list. Those who hid from the soldiers were hunted down and many were shot. This was the ‘liquidation’ of the ghettos. Once the Jews had been herded together the buildings were torn down. Image courtesy of Des Quinn

Many people were put on lorries and others were made to walk. With few possessions they made their way under armed escort to the train stations where cattle trucks waited to transport them to an even greater nightmare - either concentration, or death camps. Image courtesy of Des Quinn

‘Special’ Groups who had murdered Jews as the German Army swept into Poland and Russia were now given the task of sifting through the remains of the ghettos in search of Jewish survivors that soldiers had missed. Image courtesy of Des Quinn

This was the beginning of the end for many of Eastern Europe’s Jews. Once on board the trains bound for the camps there was no way to escape the extreme hardships and death that was to come. Image courtesy of Des Quinn

We should never forget what happened to these brave people. This was a dark and terrible episode in human history and one that all generations to come should be made aware of so that nothing like it ever happens again. Image courtesy of Des Quinn

It is estimated that over 6 million Jews and ‘Undesirables’ lost their lives in Concentration Camps between