Everyday life in the ghettos - An overview

[Music] on september 21st 1939 reinhard heydrich who less than a week later would become head of the reich's security men's office in the ss sent a schnellbriefe a directive that laid out the procedures and treatment toward the jews in the areas of occupied poland it declared that jews living in towns and villages would be transferred to join largest population of jews in the bigger cities and the jewish councils known as the juden rats should be established whose purpose was to carry out the orders of the german authorities how would this concentration of jews be executed what would be the nature of these concentration points neither this document nor any other central and high-ranking nazi decree answered these questions as a result various type of ghettos were established in occupied poland the nazi ghettos were segments of a city or a town to which jews were forced to move from all around they were usually located in the poorest of neighborhoods the lack of systematic or central guitarization policy in poland in which all jews were forced into ghettos helps to explain why the dates and condition of the ghettos varied so widely and why no ghettos were established in at least half of the jewish communities in poland especially in the small communities a large hermetically sealed ghetto was established in lodge poland in the spring of 1940 and in the autumn of 1940 the largest of the ghettos was established in warsaw where nearly half a million jews were interned following operation barbarossa and the initial mass killing of the jews in the soviet areas occupied by the germans beginning in june 1941 ghettos were established in these regions as well even though the germans intended to imprison the jews in them for a short time only before murdering them the largest of this ghetto was established in minsk belarusia which held approximately one hundred thousand jews in all the germans established more than one thousand ghettos in eastern europe and the few ghettos in central and southern europe no ghettos were established in western europe this is not to say that the ultimate german policy toward the jews of these areas was different from that of other european regions however different methods were employed in western europe each and every ghetto was a different story and its history was influenced by multiple factors such as when the ghetto was established some in 1939 some much later in 1943 and in 1944 its size condition the type of border some had high brick walls around them other just signs in some ghettos only a few hundred jews lived others contains hundreds of thousands of people who were the german forces who acted in it civil administration ss military or civilians or as in the soviet union in hungary the extent of involvement of local forces the character of the jewish community to be enclosed in it and others the german authorities attend several goals by establishing the ghettos they gathered a large number of jews together under condition of severe overcrowding and close supervision deprived them of their property exploited their labored isolate them from the rest of the world made them vulnerable and unprepared at critical moments and incited the local population against the jews jews were permitted to take only a few personal items with them into the ghettos being stripped in the process of the homes and property that they had left behind the ghettos were extremely crowded and often lack basic infrastructure and essential sanitary condition in addition the food rations were severely insufficient in the large ghettos warsaw lodge and minsk conditions gradually worsened and therefore starvation became a common phenomenon in the smaller and medium ghettos the situation was dire as well jose zelikovic writer and intellectual member of the lodge ghetto archive and of its chronicle who's also kept a diary give us a glimpse into the prevailing despair situation however constricted people's throats are and however hardened their hearts their stomachs demand their jew hunger is a merciless beast especially in the ghetto it forces you to be forever alert and vigilant the germans employed brutal measures including both public and private executions against those who attempt to smuggle food nevertheless eighty percent of the food requirements of the varsi ghetto came from smuggling even small children stole in and out of the ghettos in various ways to do their best to contribute to the family's substance and survival these children were in constant danger dr emmanuel ringenblum historian community figure and head of the onyx shabbat archives includes in the archive a special study of the smugglers and their methods of operation ring bloom wrote several times smugglers were shot among them some jewish children five and six years old shot near the passengers and at the walls and despite that without paying attention to the victims the smuggling never stopped for a moment when the streets were still slippery with the blood that had been spilled other smugglers already set out the smuggling took place through the walls through the gates through underground tunnels through sewers and through houses on the borders the extreme and inhuman condition that prevailed in the ghettos led in many cases to the dismantling of the basic framework of life the constant hunger overcrowding disease death eroded the very stability of the family unit social tensions that existed before the war in jewish society be they economic cultural or religious persisted often worsening under the harsh conditions creating social and communal divisions and instability at the same time despite the horrific situation communal institutions and voluntary organizations were established in many ghettos striving to instill life with meaning and to provide for the public's needs many risk their lives for higher values such as the education of the children preservation of religious tradition and fulfillment of cultural activities book music and theater serves as escape from the harsh realities surrounding them and as a reminder of their previous life these activities enable many to rise about the degradation and humiliation that they suffered despite the murderous reality in which the jews were forced to live many enlisted in helping the weak among them and founded organization for mutual aid and welfare many jews placed themselves in grave danger in order to save their lives in those of others though there was no systematic murder system in the ghettos huge number of jews imprisoned in them died among other causes of starvation disease despair and sporadic killing by the germans and their collaborators you

Channel: Yad Vashem

Views: 92,250

Keywords: Yad Vashem, Holocaust, Shoah, Jewish life, yt:cc=on, Ghetto, World War II, Poland, Warsaw Ghetto, Deportations, The Final Solution

Id: 9AHG-w6cjI8

Length: 9min 24sec (564 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 30 2021