Born to Jewish parents in Poland, Gisha Galina Bursztyn moved to the city of Warsaw after she married. On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland. Warsaw fell four weeks later, and a ghetto was set up in November 1940. During a massive roundup in the ghetto that began on July 22, 1942, Gisha attempted to remain hidden but was caught. She was deported to the Treblinka killing center, where she was gassed.
These maps add geographic context to Gisha's experience.
Before World War II, Warsaw was a center of Jewish life and culture in Poland. During the war, the Nazis established ghettos where they forced Jews to live under crowded and miserable conditions. At its height, the ghetto in Warsaw—the largest in Europe—held over 400,000 Jews engaged in a constant struggle for survival.
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