Blog post for 11/20

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

The ghettos were created to confine and segregate the Jews. Essentially the established of ghettos were to expedite the practice of terror on a large and efficient scale. Within the time frame of October 1939 and April 1941, the Nazi regime began to forcibly place Polish Jews into these ghettos. The Nazi ghettos can be compared to prisons because of it lack a free will to leave. Each night a German guard would lock up the gates from the outside to ensure no one would escape. Typically, Nazi ghettos were constructed in the poorest sections of towns, while “the non-Jewish population was moved out and Jews were transferred in”.  Established to help survive in the ghettos, the Jewish social Self-help (ZETOS) was an organization that “…dealt with refugee affairs, housing, clothing, culture, and public kitchens...” They made a provisional school system, created religious services, and organized activities for the community. Though the ZETOS did as much as they could, it was not enough; “In Warsaw at least 75 percent of the 100,000 Jewish children under the age of fifteen required welfare assistance of some kind” and not all were being cared for. In addition, within the ghettos “Jews suffered from overcrowding epidemics, starvation, terror, and isolation from the outside world.” Overcrowding had spread disease; the typhus epidemic had taken the lives of 43,239 victims. Plumbing was dysfunctional and eventually overflowed the toilets. There was little heat offered to the Jews in the winter and water was infrequent. Parents were often forced to choose between using their water for cooking or for washing lice out of a child’s hair. In terms of starvation, the ration of their monthly food didn’t nearly equate to our consumption of food per month (in modern day). Within the Warsaw ghetto, the daily bread ration was less than 3.5 ounces. “In January 1941, the official total daily caloric intake granted Jews was 220” and by “august 1941, it was reduced to 177”! In 1941 august 5,560 perished from hunger and a total of 500,000 Jews died from starvation and disease.