1. The Ghettos
Children eating in the ghetto streets. Warsaw, Poland, between 1940 and 1943.
— US Holocaust Memorial Museum

2. Where did “ghetto” come from?
During World War II, ghettos were city districts (often enclosed) in which the Germans concentrated the municipal and sometimes regional Jewish population and forced them to live under miserable conditions.
Ghettos isolated Jews by separating Jewish communities from the non-Jewish population and from other Jewish communities.
The term "ghetto" originated from the name of the Jewish quarter in Venice, established in 1516, in which the Venetian authorities compelled the city's Jews to live. Various officials ordered the creation of ghettos for Jews in Frankfurt, Rome, Prague, and other cities in the 16th and 17th centuries.

3. Fast Facts About the Ghettos
The Germans established at least 1,000 ghettos in German-occupied and annexed Poland and the Soviet Union alone.
The largest ghetto in Poland was the Warsaw ghetto, where more than 400,000 Jews were crowded into an area of 1.3 square miles.
Other major ghettos were established in the cities of Lodz, Krakow, Bialystok, Lvov, Lublin, Vilna, Kovno, Czestochowa, and Minsk.
The Germans ordered Jews residing in ghettos to wear identifying badges or armbands and also required many Jews to perform forced labor for the German Reich.
The ghetto period is often referred to as the “bypass death,” for more than 80,000 Jews died in the Warsaw ghetto alone.

4. During World War II, the Germans established ghettos mainly in eastern Europe (between 1939 and 1942) and also in Hungary (in 1944). These ghettos were enclosed districts of a city in which the Germans forced the Jewish population to live under miserable conditions. The Germans regarded the establishment of Jewish ghettos as a provisional measure to control, isolate, and segregate Jews. Beginning in 1942, after the decision had been made to kill the Jews, the Germans systematically destroyed the ghettos, deporting the Jews to extermination camps where they were killed.
— US Holocaust Memorial Museum

5. Top 5 Reasons Why Jews Didn’t Escape the Ghettos
Jews did not know that they would be sent to extermination camps.
2. Many Jews were malnourished and ill, so they had little strength to fight or escape.
3. They had lost all possessions, and many felt a strong responsibility to care for family members living with them.
4. Non-Jews outside were not willing to help them, and hiding Jews was punishable by death.
5. Prior to WWII, Jews couldn’t leave Europe in some cases due to immigration quotes and strict policies towards refugees.
The Nazi’s goal
Closing Jews in ghettos was not only to deprive them of their human rights, but to deprive them to their human dignity.

6. Daily Life in The Ghettos includes Forced Labor and Starvation

7. The Biggest Ghettos
Warsaw Ghetto
Lodz Ghetto

8. Deportations from Hungarian ghettos to Auschwitz
— US Holocaust Memorial Museum

9. Homework: Read the follow-up article on the Ghettos for possible quiz

10. “The Ghettos” Quiz 4/16/15
This article is written from which point of view?
First person point of view C. Third person objective
Third person limited D. Third person omniscient
2. What is the author’s purpose for the inclusion of the memo correspondence from the death squads, the Einsatzgruppen?
To describe the inside of the ghetto
To express feelings about the cruel treatment of the Jews
To inform about the removal of Jews from the countryside
To persuade them to kill all of the Jews at once
3. At the end of the article, what does the word, “liberated” mean in the last sentence on pg. 141: “ By the end of the war when Europe was liberated, except in Budapest, not a single ghetto, neither in its entirety, nor in part, remained.”
Destroyed C. Isolated
Freed D. Occupied

11. 4. Read the following sentence from the article, “In the shadow of chaos and terror, Jews attempted to retain their humanity and operate relief organizations just as they had done before World War II broke out.”
Which literary device does this sentence contain?
A. Simile
B. Metaphor
C. Hyperbole
D. Personification
5. Which statement from the article is a fact?
The Germans invaded Poland in September 1941.
Jews were separated from the rest of the population.
Western Europe had numerous ghettos established.
No cultural activity took place within the ghettos.