What were ghettos during World War Two? How were they established? What was it like to live there?

Question

How were they policed? Where were they located?

Answer 1

They were walled in areas of towns and cities (such as Warsaw) where Jews, Gypsies, etc were locked in under military supervision and only allowed to leave with permission. In essence, they were imprisoned within the city and were awaiting deportation without knowing it. People were rounded up and forcibly moved into other people's homes. Medical care was intermittent and usually without supplies. Children were mistreated. Men were sent into forced labor. Anyone could be shot on the spot. It was a precursor to even harsher things to come.

Answer 2

During World War II, the Nazi party wanted to seperate the Jews from everyone else. To that end, they took sections of many of the large cities and forced all the Jews to move to that area. Usually, the Nazis would build a large wall, fence or some type of barricade around that area to keep the Jews from escaping. The Jews were not allowed to leave these "ghettos" to go to other parts of the city. Any Jew caught trying to escape was shot on sight.

The ghettos were built in the old side of the cities, so the buildings were in disrepair. This would have been a huge change for some as the standard of living was far below what the wealthier Jews would have been used to. Incidently, the nicer homes of these forced to move to the ghetto were confiscated by members of the Nazi party. It was not uncommon to see a wealthy merchant and his family get forced from a mansion to a one room apartment. Typically, the ghettos were so small multiple families were forced to share one room.

Provisions in the ghettos were also poor. They were given food by the army, but it was usually was not much. There was no running water or sewage in the ghettos, so it was dirty and unsanitary. This lead to outbreaks of diseases and without a supply of medicine, many died. There was no police in the ghetto, but I've not seen any accounts of lawlessness.

As the war started to intensify the Nazis changed their policy on the Jews and started moving them out of the ghettos to concentration camps away from the city.

Answer 3

They were basically Germany's first concentration camps except that they walled Jews and Gypsies into the center of crowded Polish cities. The Polish were particularly anti-semites and didn't object. Prisoners were shot if they tried to escape; they were dependent upon the Nazi's meager food supply, weakening resistance; and finally shipped them off to the ovens. There was a Warsaw revolt where rebels smuggled in arms and fought the Germans, but I think it was all for naught. All the millions over the course of the Nazi control were killed eventually, including Christians. Mentally ill patients, retarded were also eliminated.