Ghetto Life

Forced by the Nazis to relocate to the Krakow Ghetto,

Jews move their belongings in horse-drawn wagons.

Jews at forced labor constructing the wall around

the Krakow Ghetto that will seal them in.

Polish laborers seal off the doors and windows of

buildings on the outer boundary of the ghetto.

A group of Jews

chop up furniture to

use as fuel

in the Krakow

ghetto.

(1940-1943)

Jews wearing

armbands are

forced to shovel

snow from the

pavement in

Krakow.

A German policeman checks the identification

papers of Jews in the ghetto.

A member of the German police kicks a Jew who is

climbing onto the back of a truck during a round-up for

forced labor as two other Germans look in amusement.

A photo identification card,

bearing the official stamps of

the Krakow labor office.

Tiny Victim of Starvation -

Ghetto Life

Ghettos were a means to “contain”

all Jewish people in one area to

further “ease” their deportation to

camps later.

However, the ghettos were also

used to decimate the Jewish

population. If the Jews could be

killed before they had to be moved,

so much the better.

There was little or no food or fuel

and the Jews could not leave their

walled portion of the city without

risk of death.

Death was everywhere.

And if they

did not die of

starvation,

disease and

the cold took

them…

A Jewish woman and

her two young children

await deportation from

the Krakow ghetto.

Deportation usually meant to an

extermination camp, though they

wouldn’t know that at the time.

Jews from the

Krakow ghetto, who

have been rounded-

up for deportation,

are crowded onto

the back of a truck.

A column of Jews marches through the streets of

Krakow during the final liquidation of the ghetto. An

SS unit oversees the deportation action.

March, 1943. SS guards oversee a column of Jews with bundles

walking down a main street in Krakow during the final liquidation of

the ghetto.

April 19, 1943 - Waffen SS attacks Jewish Resistance in Warsaw Ghetto.

One of the most famous photos taken during the Holocaust shows Jewish

families arrested by Nazis during the destruction of the Warsaw Ghetto in

Poland, and sent to be gassed at Treblinka extermination camp. This picture

and over 50 others were taken by the Nazis to chronicle the successful

destruction of the Ghetto.

Assignment

• React to the photos of ghetto life – what are youremotions? Your thoughts? Etc.

• Why did Hitler want to consolidate Jews in onearea?

• How did ghettos contribute to Hitler’s “FinalSolution” of the Jewish problem? (ie: How didthe ghettos help to kill the Jews?)

• Why didn’t the Jews fight back?