November 20th Blog Questions

Why were the ghettos set up? What were the conditions in the ghettos?

The ghettos were set up after the ordering of the ghettoization of Polish Jewry by Heydrich in 1939. The inhabitants of Jewish communities smaller than 500 people were led out of their homes, and into camps along the side of the railroad. The end goal for the concentration camps was to exploit the Jews for the German war effort, and also a 'final aim' that would be determined later. 

One of the conditions of the Jewish ghettoes were that they would be let by the Judenrat, which was the "Council of Jewish Elders". Each Judenrat was comprised of 24 members of the Jewish community who were considered to be the religious and secular elite, before the war. Even though the Jewish Council sought out to provide things like welfare, housing, medical care, food, and education for the Jews, they were bound to Nazi orders. Instead of seeking out what was in the best interests of their people, the council was responsible for providing the Nazis with maps of the ghettos, records and lists of the Jews and their professions, labor, and property. They were also responsible for voting who would be sent to the gas chambers to be exterminated. 

Ghettos were fenced off toe the outside world, 

How did the Einsatzgruppen (the murder squads) proceed in killing the Jews of the Soviet Union?

The Einsatzgruppen sought out to find civilians from the Baltic States in the north to the Black Sea region in the south. They usually killed Jewish men, but later women and children were included. They would torture their victims by forcibly entering their homes in the middle of the night or the dead of the morning, when no one is awake. Using the element of surprise, The Einsatzgruppen would rob and strip the Jews, and then would kill them with machine guns. Sometimes they would make their victims dig their own graces. The group was often drunk during the killings, which would typically occur from dawn until dusk. Between July 23 and October 15, 1941, one of the divisions of the Einsatzgruppen killed 135,567 Jews.