Ghettos
On September 21st,1939 Reinhard Heydrich, head of the Reich Main Security Office of the SS, issued an order that Jews were to be concentrated in separate areas within ghettos.This was to be a short-term measure to contain and control Jews. The Nazi leadership would then decide what to do with them, sending them to concentration camps or sometimes even just killing them on the spot. The Nazis set up ghettos everywhere. Every country they invaded and took control of had many ghettos spread out across the country. The Nazis had over 1,000 in just Poland and the Soviet Union alone. Once a ghetto was set up the Jews were moved in very quickly, they were only allowed to bring any possessions that they could carry. That meant many meaningful family possessions had to be left behind.
Living in the ghettos was terrible. Often three or four families would be living in a place where before there had been one family.This meant very cramped spaces and as you can imagine tempers flared. Fights broke out between family members and friends. But living in the ghetto was much better then living in the concentration camps where they would all most likely die of starvation or diseases. In the beginning ghettos were open but the Germans feared to many Jews were escaping or attempting to escape so many ghettos put up barbed wire fences and gated off the ghetto. Jews were then not allowed to leave or have any contact with the outside world. Food rations were at starvation level and disease was rampaging through the ghettos because of lack of clean water
and proper sanitation. Hundreds of thousands of Jews died in the ghettos.
Living in the ghettos was terrible. Often three or four families would be living in a place where before there had been one family.This meant very cramped spaces and as you can imagine tempers flared. Fights broke out between family members and friends. But living in the ghetto was much better then living in the concentration camps where they would all most likely die of starvation or diseases. In the beginning ghettos were open but the Germans feared to many Jews were escaping or attempting to escape so many ghettos put up barbed wire fences and gated off the ghetto. Jews were then not allowed to leave or have any contact with the outside world. Food rations were at starvation level and disease was rampaging through the ghettos because of lack of clean water
and proper sanitation. Hundreds of thousands of Jews died in the ghettos.