Ghettos

The Nazis established ghettos all across the occupied countries from 1939 as a means to isolate the Jews from the general population and therefore control them more easily. They were usually established in the most run-down areas of a city and surrounded by barbed wire, walls or guards. The largest ghettos were in Poland.

People lived in overcrowded conditions and there were severe food shortages leading to mass starvation. Jews were forced to wear Yellow Stars or badges for identification purposes. Jewish councils called 'Judenrat' were established. They were appointed by the Nazis to execute their orders within the ghettos. Refusal to carry out their orders often meant death. The Jewish councils helped to alleviate the suffering of the Jews as much as possible by setting up soup kitchens, orphanages and hospitals. They set up Nutrition, Health and Housing Departments. They were, however, puppets to the Nazis. They had to supply fellow Jews for deportation to slave labour and to death camps. In Topic 2, Fela Bernstein and Ruth Foster talk about the acts of Jewish policemen, who were controversial figures in the ghetto.

Approximately 1.5 million children died during the Holocaust. They were often the most vulnerable of victims. In Topic 2, Ruth Foster describes the decree by the Nazis to murder an infant. In some ways, however, children were also very strong as they developed unique tools to survive including fantasy, creativity and play. Listen to survivor, Edith Birkin, describing children singing songs, making up plays and playing games in the ghetto.

Children had to adapt to many role changes during the Holocaust. They assumed adult responsibilities in the ghettos, they smuggled food, contributed to family finances, cared for younger siblings after the deportation of parents and even participated in underground activities. Thanks to their smuggling activities, the ghetto Jews were saved from total starvation, as official amounts of supplied rations were not enough to cover normal requirements.

Deportation

Railways were crucial to the killing process. Extermination camps were deliberately positioned next to major railway lines in Poland. Once ghettos were liquidated, inhabitants were transported to camps in German-occupied Europe by train.

The testimonies in Topic 2 clearly highlight the terrible journey to the death camps. People of all ages were crowded into trains. They had to endure long journeys with no sanitation, food and space. In summer the heat and stench were suffocating, whilst in the winter people froze. Thousands of people, including large number of old and very young, died on these journeys. Due to the immense weight of the people crowded into these carriages the speed of travel was slowed to around 30mph, thus prolonging the ordeal. The Jews were treated as freight and most travelled in cattle wagons. There was little room to sit down. Conditions were appalling, there was only one bucket for human waste and another bucket for fresh water. Journeys could take up to a week and many died on the way to the camps.

The Nazis or collaborating local police forces generally ordered their victims to pack some of their belongings, thus reinforcing the belief among victims that they were being resettled in labour camps. The Judenrat (Jewish Councils) in the Warsaw ghetto permitted every deportee to carry 15kg of luggage, including cash, valuables and provisions for three days. Some of the personal items found in the piles of belongings confiscated by the Germans include: Jewish religious items such as Sabbath candlesticks, jewellery, razors, toothbrushes, money, writing materials and cutlery.

Hitler's Final Solution, where he planned to murder all the Jews, was systematically organised. Six camps were built specifically to kill the Jews of Europe. Not all concentration camps were killing centres. Some served as hard labour camps whilst others were transit camps. Before victims were gassed at the death camps (Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka, Chelmno, Majdanek and Auschwitz -Birkenau), the SS confiscated all personal belongings. Money and valuables were taken first, followed by clothes. Even glasses, false teeth, hair and artificial limbs were removed and placed in huge, mountainous piles. Bones and ashes from the victims were also utilised by the Nazis as fertiliser. The clothes and items were distributed among German settlers in Poland and non-Jewish inmates of other camps. The Final Solution produced over 2,000 freight carloads of stolen goods.

Click on the map button to see the location of the death camps.