Vanessa Mewborn

Modern World History P, Period 3

Mr. Hawkins
April 8, 2016
Inquiry question 2: The Ghettos
As we all know, Hitler was not a good person. He has done
terrible things that we hope never happens again. Among all the
terrible things he has done, building the ghettos was apart of it. The
ghettos in the Holocaust where a series of small buildings which
thousands of Jews put into them. The individual apartments where
overcrowded, and there was often not enough food for everyone to eat.
during the holocaust, the creation of ghettos was a key step in the
Nazi presses of separating persecuting, and ultimately destroying
Jews (ushmm.org 1). Sadly, to say, but Hitler at this time was winning.
In photos you can see how people would die on the street of starvation,
or overworking their body. The reason why Hitler did all this is because
he always hated the Jews because he didnt believe they where of pure
Aryan blood. He killed millions of Jews for this reason. These ghettos
that Hitler build where only supposed to be temporary, maybe for a
few week or a month, or until he was ready to brutally murder them.
Ghettos were set up to segregate Jews from the rest of the

Population. (ushmm.org 1). All though the Jews where living in the
ghettos in Germany at this time, this wasnt the first time the Jews
where segregated to their own little corner. In 1516 in Venice, Italy
venetian authorities mad the Jews live in the ghetto quarter when the
city was first made. When the ghettos where first made, there where
sickening thoughts on why to do this. They kept them in there
practically just to hold them until they can figure out how to kill them
all. They called this the Final Solution this begun in the late 1940s.
the Germans went from one ghetto to another destroying them and
everything in them one by one. While they went around destroying all
the ghettos they took some people and forced them to work in forcedlabor camps and concentration camps. As you can imagine it was
probably unbelievably dirty and there was a lack of food and resources.
Ghetto residents frequently smuggled food, clothes, medicine, or
intelligence across the ghetto walls (ushmm.org 1)
Within 2 months Hitler had sent more than two million Jews who
has survived the ghettos to death camps. There where about 300
thousand people left from one ghetto alone. That goes to show how
many people where cramped into one spot. Little did Hitler know, but
some people on one of the ghettos learned of Hitlers plan to kill them
all, so a young man at the age of 23 decided to get together a group

called Z.O.B (Zydowska Organizacja Bojowa) meaning Jewish Fighting

Organization. They decided that on the day hitler comes to kill them
they will resist to get on the trains. On a day in January they got there
chance. When the troops came to take them away the small group of
fighters attacked with little weapons that where smugged into the
ghettos. When they did this the troops retreated this victory inspired
them to do more. The population also used the interval to prepare and
equip a network of subterranean refuges and hiding places, where they
could hold out for an extended period even if they were cut off from
one another. In the end, ever Jew in the ghetto had his own spot in one
of the shelters set up in the central part of the ghetto
(jewishvirtuallibrary.org 1). The Jews where vary smart. What this is
saying is that they had there own hiding spots and palces to go if they
ever where attacked or they ever attacked the troops again. They
learned this an made this up after the first attack. On the morning of
April 19, 1943German troops and police entered the ghetto to deport
its surviving inhabitants. Seven hundred and fifty fighters armed with a
handful of pistols, 17 rifles, and Molotov cocktails faced more than
2,000 heavily armed and well-trained German troops supported by
tanks and flamethrowers. (jewishvirtuallibrary.org 1). Although the
Jews where ready the Germans came back bigger and better. After this

the Jews where forced to leave the ghettos and be killed in

consontration camps. As said earlier, we all know what Hitler did, and
we can all agree that it was bad, and we hope that that never has to
happen again.