Question 1:
The Warsaw Ghetto was home to over 400,000 Polish Jews during the 1940’s. Surrounding the ghetto was an eight foot tall wall with guarded gates built by the Germans to keep the Jews in. Everyone over the age of 12 in the ghetto was made to wear an armband with the star of David on it. The people of the ghetto were indirectly governed under the Germans, via the Judenrat who took orders from German authorities. Many of the Jews in the ghetto were unemployed and struggled to feed their families, which resulted in either deaths due to starvation or young children being sent out to smuggle in food.
Question 2:
The Jews in the ghetto learned about the final solution through accounts of eyewitnesses in early 1942. The Judenrat leaders,
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in particular Adam Czerniakow, and a large majority disregarded these ideas, believing that it was too extreme and ‘far-fetched’ and that they would never kill the people of the Warsaw Ghetto because of the large amount of people living there. Question 3: The role of the Umschlagplatz of the transport place was to was systematically, quickly, and effectively round up large amounts of Jews and send them to either Treblinka, a death camp not far from Warsaw, or to real work camps. A very small portion of the people from Warsaw were sent to work camps rather over Treblinka. In the end about 300,000 Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto were killed in Treblinka. After the great Deportation only 60,000 or so were left in Warsaw. Question 4: The resistance was organized originally by the Jewish youth leaders however after the decision to fight back had been made the many political organizations in the ghetto disagreed about how to go upon doing so.
So, as a result, two different resistance groups were created. The initial group being the ZOB who held the support of most political parties, and had around 500 members. The ZOB however, had very little military experience, and no weapons other than a few pistols and had handmade grenades. The second group, the ZZW was formed by form Jewish officers and soldiers, and unlike the ZOB did not require memberships, there was about 250 members of the ZZB. Members of the ZZB were provided training and weapons such as machine guns. The two groups failed to unify and ultimately agreed to protect different parts of the …show more content…
ghetto. Question 5: On January 18, 1943 the first event of the uprising began when the ghetto was invaded by the SS and Ukrainian troops.
Unlike previous invasions the Jews refused to obediently follow the orders of the Germans. Rather, the hid in their bunkers and when found and rounded up, would fire at the Germans, catching them off-guard. After four days, Germans retreated in defeat. Three months after their retreat, they returned, and once again were again forced to retreat. When the news of their second retreat reached Himler he replaced the commander with his one if his very own SS men. The new commander, Stroop moved into the ghetto with around 2,000 heavily armed men. Stoop dived the ghetto into sections and overthrew one at a time. Ultimately resulting, in only one major battle of the last remaining Jews. Eventually the Germans set the ghetto on fire and effectively killed the remaining Jews. The uprising of the Warsaw Ghetto itself was ultimately unsuccessful seeing as almost everyone in Warsaw was killed in the ghetto or Treblinka. However it did inspire many other uprisings that had a better outcome than the one at
Warsaw. Question 6: In the end the resistance fighters were many things, but to summarize them in just three words, they were tenacious, valiant, and heroic. They were tenacious because they never gave up hope in their religion, their rights, or their plan of action. No matter what they went through they held out and continued to try and overthrow the invading Germans. They were valiant because they showed an immense amount of bravery despite their knowledge of the barbaric treatment the Germans practiced so willingly on Jews. Along with this because they never gave up, even as the Germans poured poisonous gas into their bunkers many continued to fight for what they knew was right. The Jewish resistance fighters were heroic, not necessarily for the amount of people they saved, which was very little, but for the inspiration and hope that they filled many in both the Warsaw Ghetto and other ghettos all throughout Europe.
The scene for the event was created by several factors that include political tension during the prewar years, the exiting of the Soviet Union, and the new management of the entering Nazi party. Non-Jewish citizens understood the system of these the new occupiers and that they would not be punished if they committed violent deeds against Jews and took their property. They saw this as their chance to get revenge on their Jewish neighbors, without getting in trouble for the crimes against them. Microassaults by Non-Jewish Polish citizens started on June 25, 1941. By July 10, 1941, the whole Jedwabne's Jewish population became the next victim. The Jewish residents were called to the town square and individual acts of humiliation and violence erupted. The single largest event of that day was the forcing of 1,600 Jews, men, women, and children, into a barn and setting it on fire which killed all 1,600 individuals. The events after July 10, which Gross describes, incorporates the disposal of the corpses, the disbursing of Jewish property, and the fate of families who were caught hiding Jews. In 1953, a trial was held against those who participated in the murdering of Jews during World War II. By using the evidence of survivor testimony and court documents during the 1953 trial, Gross discovered that German police were present during the massacre and that the Polish citizens did it. Specified by Gross, he brings the idea that
At first, the Jews were not able to leave their house “for three days under, penalty of death” (Wiesel 10). After, the Jews were not able to “own gold, Jewelry, or any valuables” (Wiesel 10). A few days late, all Jews were forced to wear a yellow star. Because of that, the people were able to recognize who was a Jew or not one. After implementation of the yellow star, a new edict removed them the right to “frequent restaurants or cafes to travel by rail, to attend synagogue” (Wiesel 11). Slowly the Jew lost their right as a human being. Later on, all Jews were force to live in two ghettos that was created in Sighet (Wiesel 11). A few week after the creation of the ghettos, Elizer and his fellow Jews were forced to abandon their house and forced into extremely crowded wagons. Within a few months, the Jews slowly lost their rights, belongings and even their
The term ghetto, originally derived from Venetian dialect in Italy during the sixteenth century, has multiple variations of meaning. The primary perception of the word is “synonymous with segregation” (Bassi). The first defining moment of the ghetto as a Jewish neighborhood was in sixteenth century Italy; however, the term directly correlates with the beginning of the horror that the Jewish population faced during Adolph Hitler’s reign. “No ancient ghetto knew the terror and suffering of the ghettos under Hitler” (Weisel, After the Darkness 20). Under Hitler’s terror, there were multiple ghettos throughout several cities in numerous countries ranging in size and population. Ghettos also differed in purpose; some were temporary housing until deportation to the final solution while others formed for forced labor. Although life in the ghetto was far better than a concentration camp, it shared the commonality of torment, fear, and death.
They resisted in spiritual ways by going to the synagogues, by practicing religious beliefs even when they were not allowed and by not allowing the Germans to get into their heads. The Jews rebelled by starting underground groups, taking down SS soldiers and stealing their weapons. Another way the Jews rebelled was by escaping the ghettos and Nazi camps and joining the Partisans. The Partisans would plain attacks against the Germans, sabotage them, and would join with other countries to make themselves bigger so they could take down the Germans. Being put into the Jew’s position would be exhausting and would take so much strength just to survive. The brave Jews that chose to try and stand up to the Germans even though they already knew that their attempts would be useless they still to this day are considered heroes. It took great courage to try to escape a ghetto or Nazi camp and it would cause 10 to 25 other
At the start of Adolf Hitler’s reign of terror, no one would have been able to foresee what eventually led to the genocide of approximately six million Jews. However, steps can be traced to see how the Holocaust occurred. One of those steps would be the implementation of the ghetto system in Poland. This system allowed for Jews to be placed in overcrowded areas while Nazi officials figured out what to do with them permanently. The ghettos started out as a temporary solution that eventually became a dehumanizing method that allowed mass relocation into overcrowded areas where starvation and privation thrived. Also, Nazi officials allowed for corrupt Jewish governments that created an atmosphere of mistrust within its walls. Together, this allowed
Illegal organisations, Jewish militias and underground political groups also formed, planning and executing attacks and resisting the Nazi rule in occupied Europe. The biggest, most coordinated act of armed resistance took place in the Warsaw Ghetto in Poland in 1943. Planned by a group called the Zydowska Organizacja Bojowa (Z.O.B), which was Polish for Jewish fighting organisation, the ZOB refused to board railroad cars which they knew would take them to Treblinka, the killing centre where over 300,000 Jews from Warsaw had already been exterminated. However Jews prayed and held ceremonies in secret, hiding in cellars, attics, and basements, as others watched to make sure no Germans saw.
The phrase “Final Solution” referred to their plan to annihilate the Jewish population. This plan stated that all European Jews would be killed by shooting, gassing, or any way necessary (Final Solution). The article “The Wannsee Conference and the Final Solution,” documented that on January 20, 1942, the Nazis and Germans met to tell the non-Nazi Leaders what the Final Solution was, and that they were responsible for helping to get the Jews transported to the camps. The Final Solution was not the beginning for the elimination. This was already being accomplished by mobile killing squads that would shoot any Jewish men, women, or children. Later, on July 22, 1942 the gassing chambers were finished in the extermination or death camps. Camouflaging the chambers as large showers, the Jews would think they were going to bathe, when they were actually being gassed to death
"Gestapo Torture of Jews in Warsaw Prisons Reported, List of Guilty Nazis Published." . The Global Jewish News Source , 19 October 1942. Web. 10 Dec 2013. .
As the Ghettos (in Poland) were quickly filling in occupants, the Nazi Party started ‘Mobile Killing Squads’, which traveled from one neighborhood to another ripping Jews from their home and killing (using gas vans or guns) them in the street. But, this method proved inefficient with the number of Jewish People who ran, and the number of killers that were being affected by the gases. This then caused the anti-Semitic party to start sending Jews to the six extermination camps throughout Poland. Which according to Paul B. Kern was all a part of the Final Solution.
The Nazis were killing thousands of Jews on a daily basis and for many of the Jewish people death seemed inevitable, but for some of the Jewish population they were not going to go down without a fight as Jewish resistance began to occur. However, the Jewish resistance came in many different forms such as staying alive, clean and observing Jewish religious traditions under the absolute horrendous conditions imposed by the Nazis were just some examples of resistance used by the Jews. Other forms of resistance involved escape attempts from the ghettos and camps. Many of the Jews who did succeed in escaping the ghettos lived in the forests and mountains in family camps and in fighting partisan units. Once free, though, the Jews had to contend with local resident and partisan groups who often openly hostile. Jews also staged armed revolts in the ghettos of Vilna, Bia...
In particular, the Germans began ghettos like this one, in order to gather and contain Jews until the “Final Solution” could be further implemented. In particular, after the Germans invaded Poland, they knew that it would be necessary to get rid of the Polish Jews, knowing that with 30% Jews, Warsaw had the 2nd greatest Jewish population. An area was needed to contain the Jews as the concentration camps would take time to build and had limited human capacity. As a result, they chose to create a closed ghetto, as it was easier for the Nazis to block off a part of a city than to build more housing for the Jews. The Germans saw the ghettos as a provisional measure to control and segregate Jews while the Nazi leadership in Berlin deliberated upon options for the removal of the Jewish population. In essence, the Warsaw ghetto was a step from capturing and identifying the Jewish to deporting them to another location. So how exactly was the ghetto
“The Implementation of the Final Solution Auschwitz-Birkenau Extermination Camp” Yad Vashem. Yad Vashem The Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority. 2014. Web. 24 March 2014.
He declared the Ghetto as an area of the city in which the Jewish population was required to relocate to. There were high walls that surrounded it which segregated any activity between the Jews and the rest of the people who lived in Warsaw. Thus, approximately 350,000 individuals were designated to reside in one area which only took up approximately one square mile of the entire city. Quality of life was poor, morale was low, and people who were living there were left with minimal choices to make on their own; their independence had been completely stripped away from them. Nazi officials systematically manipulated the ghetto by increasing population numbers, decreasing food supply, and deflating the labor market, making almost 60% of the Jewish population unemployed. These events caused exhaustion, panic, fear, and, anger of the Jews who were forced to live in such poor conditions. Two years after the Ghetto was up and running, in the summer of 1942, the Jewish Fighting Organization, or Z.O.B., formed to devise a plan to rebel against the Nazi party, an unheard of movement of any Jew during the
The non Jews who did not want to fight back almost all of them were too scared to do anything. They were afraid that they would lose their freedom. They also did not want to be sent into the concentration camp too. They did not want to be tortured either so none of the non Jews stood up ; all of the reasons were too scary to them that they did not want to risk it. They were too terrified to do what was right there was too much risk. Many non Jews went into hiding; however, everybody else did to.
In September of 1939 German soldiers defeated Poland in only two weeks. Jews were ordered to register all family members and to move to major cities. More than 10,000 Jews from the country arrived in Krakow daily. They were moved from their homes to the "Ghetto", a walled sixteen square block area, which they were only allowed to leave to go to work.