During the Holocaust, the creation of ghettos was a key step in the Nazi process of brutally separating, persecuting, and ultimately destroying Europe's Jews. Ghettos were often enclosed districts that isolated Jews from the non-Jewish population and from other Jewish communities. Living conditions were miserable.
![Jews carrying bundles of possessions before their deportation from the Kovno ghetto. [LCID: 10687]](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/images/thumb/1d5950dc-d9a7-47e4-903c-c3c135c46ef1.jpg)
![German forces enter Aachen, on the border with Belgium, following the remilitarization of the Rhineland. [LCID: 70032]](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/images/thumb/4d587734-0984-4f9f-9d7d-5e2b5e87dacc.jpg)
![Women survivors huddled in a prisoner barracks shortly after Soviet forces liberated the Auschwitz camp. [LCID: 31450b]](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/images/thumb/8fdec1b8-47fa-40f1-9a27-06e7262bad5e.jpg)
![At a rally, members of the Hitler Youth parade in the formation of a swastika to honor the Unknown Soldier. [LCID: 85513]](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/images/thumb/cdadf487-50d7-4b0c-a912-ce6d9001f52a.jpg)
![German troops parade through Warsaw after the invasion of Poland. [LCID: 80487]](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/images/thumb/6b473ced-71b7-474b-9519-969ed787dda8.jpg)
![Map titled "Jewish Executions Carried Out by Einsatzgruppen A" [LCID: 200509wu]](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/images/thumb/4912b059-5630-4ec5-b3c8-172fe908f148.jpg)
