You searched for: Ghettos

A building burns during the suppression of the Warsaw ghetto uprising

A building burns during the suppression of the Warsaw ghetto uprising. The photograph was taken through the window of a building adjacent to the ghetto. Warsaw, Poland, May 1943.

Abraham Lewent describes hunger and death in the Warsaw ghetto

Like other Jews, the Lewents were confined to the Warsaw ghetto. In 1942, as Abraham hid in a crawl space, the Germans seized his mother and sisters in a raid. They perished. He was deployed for forced labor nearby, but escaped to return to his father in the ghetto. In 1943, the two were deported to Majdanek, where Abraham's father died. Abraham later was sent to Skarzysko, Buchenwald, Schlieben, Bisingen, and Dachau. US troops liberated Abraham as the Germans evacuated prisoners.

Jews captured during the Warsaw ghetto uprising

Jews captured during the Warsaw ghetto uprising. Poland, April 19–May 16, 1943.

Lucine Horn describes conditions in the Lublin ghetto

Lucine was born to a Jewish family in Lublin. Her father was a court interpreter and her mother was a dentist. War began with the German invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939. Lucine's home was raided by German forces shortly thereafter. Soon after the German occupation of Lublin, Jews there were forced to wear a compulsory badge identifying them as Jews. A ghetto in Lublin was closed off in January 1942. Lucine survived a series of killing campaigns and deportations from the ghetto during March and…

Leo Schneiderman describes conditions in the Lodz ghetto

The Germans invaded Poland in September 1939. Leo and his family were confined to a ghetto in Lodz. Leo was forced to work as a tailor in a uniform factory. The Lodz ghetto was liquidated in 1944, and Leo was deported to Auschwitz. He was then sent to the Gross-Rosen camp system for forced labor. As the Soviet army advanced, the prisoners were transferred to the Ebensee camp in Austria. The Ebensee camp was liberated in 1945.

Abraham Lewent describes conditions in the Warsaw ghetto

Like other Jews, the Lewents were confined to the Warsaw ghetto. In 1942, as Abraham hid in a crawl space, the Germans seized his mother and sisters in a raid. They perished. He was deployed for forced labor nearby, but escaped to return to his father in the ghetto. In 1943, the two were deported to Majdanek, where Abraham's father died. Abraham later was sent to Skarzysko, Buchenwald, Schlieben, Bisingen, and Dachau. US troops liberated Abraham as the Germans evacuated prisoners.

Ghettos (Abridged Article) - Animated Map/Map

Beno Helmer describes conditions in the Lodz ghetto

As a young man, Beno used his foreign language skills to land small movie roles. He and his family were deported to the Lodz ghetto, where they struggled daily to find food. In the underground, Beno became an expert at derailing trains. The family was sent to Auschwitz and was separated. All but Beno and one sister, whom he found after the war, died. Beno survived a series of camps and later helped to track war criminals.

Charlene Schiff describes escaping from the Horochow ghetto

Both of Charlene's parents were local Jewish community leaders, and the family was active in community life. Charlene's father was a professor of philosophy at the State University of Lvov. World War II began with the German invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939. Charlene's town was in the part of eastern Poland occupied by the Soviet Union under the German-Soviet Pact of August 1939. Under the Soviet occupation, the family remained in its home and Charlene's father continued to teach. The Germans…

Footbridge that joined the two parts of the Lodz ghetto

The footbridge over Zgierska Street that joined the two parts of the Lodz ghetto. The street itself was not part of the ghetto. Leon Jakubowicz's model of the Lodz ghetto recreates, on a small scale, the physical appearance of the ghetto, creating the shape of the model to mimic the exact boundaries, streets, and buildings that had a major impact on daily life in the ghetto. Lodz, Poland, ca. 1941. During the Holocaust, the creation of ghettos was a key step in the Nazi process of brutally separating,…

House used by members of the Vilna ghetto resistance

Located on Ulica Stara (Old Street), outside the Vilna ghetto, this building was used as a safe house by the ghetto resistance. Vilna, after July 1944.

Benjamin (Ben) Meed describes the burning of the Warsaw ghetto during the 1943 ghetto uprising

Ben was one of four children born to a religious Jewish family. Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939. After the Germans occupied Warsaw, Ben decided to escape to Soviet-occupied eastern Poland. However, he soon decided to return to his family, then in the Warsaw ghetto. Ben was assigned to a work detail outside the ghetto, and helped smuggle people out of the ghetto—including Vladka (Fagele) Peltel, a member of the Jewish Fighting Organization (ZOB), who later became his wife. Later, he went into…

Ghettos in occupied Europe, 1939-1944, Vilna indicated

Two men standing in a doorway in the former Budapest ghetto

Portrait of two men standing in a doorway in the former Budapest ghetto, one of whom is wearing a painted yellow star on his jacket. Photograph taken by Yevgeny Khaldei. Budapest, Hungary, 1945.

Nesse Galperin Godin describes the formation of the Siauliai ghetto

Nesse's family had a dairy business. The Germans occupied Lithuania in 1941 and established a ghetto in Siauliai. Nesse lived in the ghetto until 1943 when she was old enough to work. In 1944 Nesse, her mother, and a brother were deported to the Stutthof camp near Danzig. Nesse worked in several Stutthof subcamps until January 1945, when the inmates were put on a death march. She was liberated by the Soviets in March. Nesse, her mother, and two brothers survived, and she arrived in the United States in…

Jewish armed resistance in ghettos and camps, 1941-1944

Between 1941 and 1943, underground resistance movements developed in about 100 Jewish ghettos in Nazi-occupied eastern Europe. Their main goals were to organize uprisings, break out of the ghettos, and join partisan units in the fight against the Germans. The Jews knew that uprisings would not stop the Germans and that only a handful of fighters would succeed in escaping to join with partisans. Still, Jews made the decision to resist. Further, under the most adverse conditions, Jewish prisoners succeeded…

Captured Jews during the Warsaw ghetto uprising

German soldiers arrest Jews during the Warsaw ghetto uprising. Poland, May 1943. The Warsaw ghetto uprising began on April 19, 1943, after German troops and police entered the ghetto to deport its surviving inhabitants. By May 16, 1943, the Germans had crushed the uprising, deported surviving ghetto residents, and left the ghetto area in ruins. 

Sam Itzkowitz describes forced labor in the Makow ghetto

The Germans invaded Poland in September 1939. When Makow was occupied, Sam fled to Soviet territory. He returned to Makow for provisions, but was forced to remain in the ghetto. In 1942, he was deported to Auschwitz. As the Soviet army advanced in 1944, Sam and other prisoners were sent to camps in Germany. The inmates were put on a death march early in 1945. American forces liberated Sam after he escaped during a bombing raid.

Hiding place discovered during Warsaw ghetto uprising

Two Jewish men captured by the SS pull a woman from an underground bunker during the suppression of the Warsaw ghetto uprising. Warsaw, Poland, May 8, 1943. 

Jews captured during the Warsaw ghetto uprising

SS personnel capture two Jewish resistance fighters who were pulled from a bunker during the suppression of the Warsaw ghetto uprising.  Warsaw, Poland, April 19-May 16, 1943.

Jews captured during the Warsaw ghetto uprising

Members of the Jewish resistance are captured by SS troops on Nowolipie Street during the suppression of the Warsaw ghetto uprising. Warsaw, Poland, April 19-May 16, 1943.

Leah Hammerstein Silverstein describes starvation in the Warsaw ghetto

Leah grew up in Praga, a suburb of Warsaw, Poland. She was active in the Ha-Shomer ha-Tsa'ir Zionist youth movement. Germany invaded Poland in September 1939. Jews were forced to live in the Warsaw ghetto, which the Germans sealed off in November 1940. In the ghetto, Leah lived with a group of Ha-Shomer ha-Tsa'ir members. In September 1941, she and other members of the youth group escaped from the ghetto to a Ha-Shomer ha-Tsa'ir farm in Zarki, near Czestochowa, Poland. In May 1942, Leah became a courier…

Blanka Rothschild describes deportations from the Lodz ghetto

Blanka was an only child in a close-knit family in Lodz, Poland. Her father died in 1937. After the German invasion of Poland, Blanka and her mother remained in Lodz with Blanka's grandmother, who was unable to travel. Along with other relatives, they were forced into the Lodz ghetto in 1940. There, Blanka worked in a bakery. She and her mother later worked in a hospital in the Lodz ghetto, where they remained until late 1944 when they were deported to the Ravensbrück camp in Germany. From Ravensbrueck,…

Kovno ghetto jail

Scene photographed by George Kadish: Jewish prisoners behind a barred window in the Kovno ghetto jail. The Jewish council administered its own jail in the ghetto. Kovno, Lithuania, 1943.

Jewish children in the Theresienstadt ghetto

A photograph of Jewish children in the Theresienstadt ghetto taken during an inspection by the International Red Cross. Prior to this visit, the ghetto was "beautified" in order to deceive the visitors. Czechoslovakia, June 23, 1944.