We would like to thank Crown Family Philanthropies, Abe and Ida Cooper Foundation, the Claims Conference, EVZ, and BMF for supporting the ongoing work to create content and resources for the Holocaust Encyclopedia. View the list of donor acknowledgement.
![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)
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. Jews were forced to move into the ghettos, where living conditions were miserable. Ghettos were often enclosed districts that isolated Jews from the non-Jewish population and from other Jewish communities.
![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)
Learn more about personal experiences during the Holocaust
![Blanka Rothschild holds one of her prewar family photographs. [LCID: athbr039]](https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/images/thumb/11721704-922d-4af9-8e09-16ab9e4123c5.jpg)
Explore a timeline of events that occurred before, during, and after the Holocaust.
How and why was the Holocaust possible?
