A ghetto is a city district where jews were forced to live under horrible conditions. These were first established in the 16th and 17th centuries by the venetians, where they forced jews to live; but was then used again by the germans in order to segragate the jews from the non jewish population. There are three main types of ghettos: an open, closed, and destruction ghettos. At these ghettos when they were living under horrific conditions the jews had to preform forced labor, and would be killed for basically no reason if they disobeyed in any way shape or form. These ghettos help the nazi's keep control over the jews.
"Ghettos." United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Web. 15 Feb. 2010 .
This was one of the questions I had when reading. Its really horrible the way these people were treated, but no matter how unpleasant it is, I think its important that we understand all of these terms, so we can understand the story better. Its hard to imagine living under these conditions, especially after the had been told that this was for their own good, that they would be protected from the war because of these. This must have really put things in perspective for the Jews, in the worst way possible. They were warned months before, and even on their way there, but refused to believe, and because of this they were subjected to the torture, that they never believed existed.
ReplyDeleteI had asked the same question on my blog. I also think that the Jews at the time should have been a little more worried about what was going on in the ghettos. Your research about the three different kinds of ghettos also shows how much the nazis had controll over them.
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