2. Ghettos and their types. General plan of the ghetto

Ghetto (from Italian Getto) - a part of the city allocated in the Middle Ages in the countries of Western and Central Europe for the isolated life of Jews. Sometimes the term was used to refer to the area of the city where the discredited population lived. During the Second World War, the concentration camp, created by the Nazis to exterminate the Jewish population, was part of the occupation regime of the policy of genocide and racism.

Modern research There are two main types of ghetto: "open" and "closed". The characteristic features of the first are the presence of the Jewish Council (Judenrat) and its departments, the registration and identification of the Jews of the corresponding locality, the performance of labor functions by the Jewish community, the organization of the collection of contributions. Its difference from the "closed" type of ghetto is the absence of a Jewish quarter specially designated for living, fenced with wire or a stone wall from the rest of the world. The first type is characterized by the isolation of the Jews from the rest of the world, the second - their complete isolation. The “closed” type ghetto, in addition to internal guards (Jewish security service or Jewish police), also had external guards ( German troops). The "closed type" of the ghetto was also called "transit". It can be seen as a convenient place before destruction. If before the start of the war ghettoes of the “open type” prevailed, then after that the “closed type ghettos” began to lead, since the second type was more convenient as a transit place before destruction. It is not surprising that only closed ghettos existed in the occupied territory of the USSR. The German historian Helmut Krausnick wrote: "There is no doubt that as Hitler's idea of destroying Russia, his last adversary on the Continent, developed, he became more and more taken with the idea that he had long formulated as the "final solution". ", the extermination of the Jews of the occupied territories. In March 1941 (at the latest) he openly announced for the first time his intention to shoot the political commissars of the Red Army and at the same time issued an order for the extermination of all Jews, which, although never recorded, is mentioned repeatedly under various circumstances.

Secondly, in a closed ghetto, it became possible to increase the length of the working day by organizing production on the territory, completely excluding contact with outside world and the local population; it also eliminated the need to deliver prisoners to a new place of work.

As a rule, the ghetto consisted of several dozen streets and lanes (large ghettos; ghettos created in regional centers, as a rule, consisted of 2-5 streets and 4-6 lanes) with a square. Sometimes the ghetto was fenced off so that the Jewish cemetery was in the center, but if the terrain plan did not allow this, then the ghetto was completely fenced off from the cemetery). At the end of the street (usually the central one) there were central gates, which were guarded German soldiers and Jewish police. Over time, several more passages could be made in the fence for Jews working outside the ghetto. In connection with the construction plan of the ghetto, one feature can be distinguished: if the ghetto, in addition to the central gate, had side gates, as well as a Jewish cemetery and a huge square, the ghetto, as a rule, existed for more than six months, but if the ghetto had only one gate, not If there was a Jewish cemetery, then the ghetto, as a rule, did not exist for more than six months. For example: the Smolevichi ghetto - consisted of 3 streets and 3 lanes, was fenced with barbed wire, had only a central gate, did not have a cemetery and a large area - lasted about 3 weeks; The Kovno ghetto consisted of several dozen streets with a square and a Jewish cemetery in the middle, there was also a huge wasteland in the northern part of the ghetto - it existed for more than a year.

3. Everyday life ghetto prisoners

The surviving documents and memoirs make it possible to reconstruct the model of life in the ghetto.

In addition to the Jews of this settlement, Jews from neighboring settlements were also placed in the ghetto, as well as mixed families, where only one of the spouses was a Jew. All this led to the fact that the tightness in the ghetto was unbearable. Each inhabitant accounted for 1.5 square meters. m, and this is provided that children were not taken into account.

From the memoirs of a prisoner of the Kovno ghetto:

We had to stay in a separate room measuring 3x4 meters, in which there was nothing but 4 beds and a toilet. Outside, there was a small kitchen and shower at the end of the corridor.

From the memoirs of Yushchenko (Petrovskaya) Nadezhda Ivanovna, a resident of the city of Smolevich:

There were about 3-3.5 thousand Jews in Smolevichi. When the war began, the Germans allocated 2 streets for the Jews, where before that 500 people had lived at most.

From the memoirs of Leonid Gershonovich Melosher, a former prisoner of the Minsk ghetto:

The whole family moved to the ghetto ... It was very crowded - each bed housed a family.

From the very first days of the occupation, Jews were restricted in their movement. This concerned, first of all, their movement around the place of residence. In some cities, a special curfew was set for them. Bans were imposed on the creation of Jewish communities, a ban on evacuations, a ban on access and communication with Jews:

We were forbidden to leave the ghetto. Regardless of the size of the family, we were supposed to have one room for housing. We found ourselves cut off from the rest of the world, deprived of contact with other Jewish communities; we were left with absolutely no protection. There were no impartial courts or independent government to turn to. We did not have any political power, as well as access to what is today called the mass media. We were surrounded by German troops.

As noted earlier, the Jews were not considered people in the Nazi ideology, therefore they had to be destroyed. But it was practically impossible to destroy everyone at once, in addition, there was a war, therefore, free laborers were needed, which could be sent to the dirtiest and hard labor, and health care, which you didn't have to worry about. The local population of the occupied territories aged 18 to 50 was subjected to labor conscription. For Jews, these limits were different: Jews were considered workers from 14 (later from 12) to 60 years old. Prisoners were used in the most difficult and unhealthy work, and under an hour with and aimless, for the purpose of bullying.

We worked every day except Sunday and those days when the Germans carried out actions (reprisals). The work we had to do was the dirtiest and most humiliating. My mother and I worked at the Kriegslazerett hospital for wounded German soldiers, which was located in a village near Kovno. Our job was to put things in order in the showers and toilets. The dirtiest work was ours: spitting, puddles of urine and Nazi feces, festering bandages and the like - all this we had to clean, clean, launder.

If we talk about the Minsk ghetto, then here (as elsewhere) the use of the Jewish labor force went in two ways: by hiring the Jewish labor force to organizations or private enterprises, or by exploitation in production facilities subordinate to the Nazis. But, what is even more terrible, the workforce of the Jews was considered by the Germans as movable property, it is natural that they should have been sanctioned as movable property. What once again shows that the Jews did not have a human face in Nazi ideology. They were treated like ancient Roman slaves or American Negroes.

It was impossible not to work in the ghetto. Because otherwise the person would simply die of hunger. The Germans issued ration cards for basic foodstuffs, which were completely insufficient to sustain life: a few grams of bread or flour, a few tubers of vegetables, not a stalk of greens, not to mention fruits, meat or fats.

And there is nothing surprising here. The system of food distribution in the occupied territory for the local population was organized according to the residual principle: first of all, the upper materiel was supplied, then German subjects, Volksdeutsches, and the non-Jewish population. The Jews occupied the last place in this hierarchy. When distributing products on cards, many of their types (meat, cereals, fats) were not available to Jews at all. The norm of bread for the Jews was 2 times less than for the rest of the population. If we consider the Minsk ghetto, then the food problem was even more acute. Food here depended more on chance than on the order of the occupying authorities. But the enterprises of the city compiled lists of workers to receive food cards.

There were no shops in the ghetto. Working Jews received meager rations, or coupons, or cash payments, which were 2-3 times less than that of the non-Jewish population. This fact is confirmed by the memoirs:

There were no shops, shops, and similar establishments in the ghetto. If we had something to buy for (and this was only the first 2 months of life in the ghetto, when we still had some savings from past life.), then we had to buy food from the local population, who, rejoicing at the opportunity to get rich, took us at exorbitant prices. The Germans did not pay us, and if they did, then occasionally, in such meager sums that even in peacetime it would be difficult to buy anything with them.

For these reasons, the famine in the ghetto was terrible: pancakes made from potato peels were considered the most delicious dish.

Leaving the ghetto, we carefully looked around in the hope of finding something to eat. It could be a half-rotted turnip lying on the field, or a crust of bread dropped by someone by accident - absolutely everything. We grabbed it instantly, trying only not to notice the convoy. If we were very hungry, we swallowed it on the spot, but mostly tried to bring it home. Sometimes, in the hospital, we could get lucky: some poor fellow with amputated legs, or a nurse with a kind heart, could give us a piece of bread, which in itself was already a great success. And the day when I managed to eat a sandwich with sausage, donated by some wounded soldier, was remembered for a long time. The hunger was so terrible that many girls, renouncing all the canons and vows, gave themselves up to German soldiers in the hope of getting at least a crust of bread.

Many, especially children, died of hunger, from a lack of vitamins and minerals. But those who managed to avoid a terrible fate, to die of hunger, were not insured that they would not die from diseases. In conditions of absolute unsanitary conditions, constant fear and hard labor, it was not possible for an organism weakened by hunger to survive. But, what was even more terrible, if someone fell ill, no one could help him. From the very first weeks of the occupation, divisions of medical and sanitary institutions into "Aryan" and "non-Aryan" were introduced. All equipment and medicines of any value were confiscated from the latter. When supplying hospitals with food, the norms for Jews were much lower. Jewish doctors (with the exception of especially valuable ones) were expelled from "Aryan" hospitals and deprived of the right to have private offices in the ghetto. As a result, the death rate among the Jewish population from exhaustion and epidemics was several times higher than that of the rest of the population.

In Minsk, the situation was almost the same as in all of occupied Europe. Approximately in the middle of December 1941, V. Kube signed an order on the payment of assistance to the population of the occupied territories in case of illness. By the last point of the order, the Jews were denied assistance. But in order to prevent the spread of diseases, already in the summer of 1941, the occupying authorities planned to open 2 hospitals in the Minsk ghetto (only Jews worked in them).

In addition to hunger and disease, the Jews were persecuted by the eternal stigma in the literal and figurative sense. In the common people they were called "armor" or "shields", but their purpose did not change from this. The yellow star of David, which was sewn on the shoulders and chest, a sign that was a sacred symbol of all Jews, and now has become a stigma that deprives a person of any dignity, rights and freedoms. "Armor" was sewn on immediately after moving to the ghetto. From that moment on, it was strictly forbidden to appear on the street in clothes without a corresponding sign.

The clothes were also a pitiful sight. They were rags, miserable scraps of fabric that vaguely resembled clothing. During the resettlement to the ghetto, you could take only the most necessary things with you. Jews also suffered greatly from moving from one street to another. They always resettled at lightning speed, so that no one had time to grab their things. After several such resettlements, people had nothing left except what they had on during the next action.

The Jews were driven into the ghetto so quickly that they did not even have time to take anything with them, except for gold and especially valuable things that they always carried with them, - recalls Klavdia Nikolaevna, a resident of the city of Smolevich, Pavlovskaya (Petrovskaya).

Another example can be given from the memoirs of a resident of the city of Smolevich Yushchenko (Petrovskaya) Nadezhda Ivanovna: “After the Jews were herded into the ghetto, the cleaning of Jewish houses began. Carts went along the street, accompanied by German soldiers and policemen, who unloaded all the Jewish property into carts and sent them to the station.

But even if the prisoner managed to avoid starvation, illness and freezing did not mean that he went through everything. There was still the most cruel and inhuman facet of existence in the ghetto - Aktionen, or the action-selection of the able-bodied and incapacitated population, which actually turned into a sweepstakes.

Life in the ghetto was grim, depressing, routine and monotonous, punctuated by violent tragedies. The daily routine of our life consisted of periodic killings, formations and selections, which the Germans called Aktionen (shares). They systematically dealt with those who were unable to work. But no one could feel safe, even if he was quite fit for the job, because he could equally become a victim of a completely unmotivated murder. They liked to kill us. They had a daily quota for killing - a certain number of Jews had to be liquidated every day. The Nazis simply grabbed people on the street or dragged them out of their homes for no reason. Many documents and memoirs testify that the Nazis did not spare anyone. They seized women and children.

From the memoirs of Moses Iosifovich Brudner, a former prisoner of the Minsk ghetto:

... In front of my eyes, Gottenbach (head of the Minsk ghetto) hanged 9 Jewish women because they exchanged things for food from the Russians. They were hanged publicly in the square... Gottenbach walked around the ghetto and chose the most beautiful Jewish girls, then raped and killed them. He gathered groups of people, made them sing, dance or fight among themselves. And then he shot them with his own hands. In 1942, he ordered everyone to turn in their watches, and then, after the expiration of the term, he went around the ghetto and examined left hand. Whoever found a watch, shot on the spot ... On Sundays, Gottenbach gathered people near the Jewish cemetery, tied their hands, set dogs on them. Then, tormented to a pulp by dogs, people were shot.

It is a well-known fact that the intelligentsia, the most educated and socially vulnerable class, was always the first to be repressed. In the case of the ghetto, there were no exceptions. First of all, people with university education were shot. People with higher education have always been respected, and during the war years they were afraid (in the occupied territories). Such people, possessing oratorical abilities and lively thought, could lead the masses, organize them to revolt and, as a result, seize power. And since the uprisings in the rear of the upper mat were undesirable in the conditions of intense hostilities, then possible instigators were exterminated. But it is not easy to separate several thousand people with higher education from several tens of thousands of prisoners. The solution was found very quickly. A few days after the settlement, an announcement was broadcast over the loudspeakers, which said that jobs were allocated for university students and people with diplomas. There are several hundred of them, and therefore those who claim them on the appointed day must appear at the appointed place. On the appointed day, hundreds of young Jews gathered on the site with their diplomas. They were all loaded into trucks and taken away somewhere. For several days nothing was heard from them. And only a week later, rumors reached the ghetto that they had all been shot. This was the unified plan for the "cleansing" of the Jewish population, or it could also be called the "Plan to eliminate the potential threat."

The capital of Belarus, Minsk, had a significant Jewish population. In 1926, it numbered 53,700 people, which accounted for 41% of the city's population as a whole (130,000 people). In 1941, the Jewish population of Minsk was 80,000 people (about a third of the city's population). German troops entered Minsk on June 28, 1941. Only a few Jews managed to leave the city before it was captured by the Germans or take refuge in its "Aryan" part. Several thousand Jews who fled from Minsk were intercepted by German paratroopers (who landed east of the city) and brought back. The Germans turned Minsk into the capital of the regional commissariat (Generalkomissariat) of Belarus. A veteran of the Nazi Party, Wilhelm Kube, was appointed regional commissar.

In the very first days of the occupation, several Jewish pogroms took place in the city. On July 8, about 100 Jews were killed, and over the following weeks, massacres of Jews became a daily event. On July 20, an order was issued to create a ghetto in the city. All Jews of Minsk were ordered to move within five days to the part of the city intended for the ghetto, and its non-Jewish residents were ordered to immediately leave these houses. The ghetto included several dozen streets with a square and a Jewish cemetery in the center. The ghetto area was not surrounded by a wall, as its construction would have taken a long time. Instead, it was surrounded by a barbed wire fence. At the end of Shornaya Street was the central entrance gate, which was guarded by German police and ghetto police officers. Over time, passages were made in the fence for Jews working outside the ghetto. In November 1941, two "actions" were carried out in the ghetto. The first of them took place on November 7 (apparently, the anniversary of the October Revolution was not chosen by chance). During it, 13,000 Jews were killed. The second "action" took place on November 20, and was accompanied by the extermination of 7,000 Jews.

One can imagine what fear and horror gripped people who saw such atrocities every day. It was especially difficult for parents who resigned themselves to their own fate, but did not agree with such a fate for their children. Sometimes they tried to negotiate with the local population so that they would take the child, even if for a lot of money. Mothers would wrap their babies in swaddling clothes and then in coarse burlap and pass them through a wire fence. A lot of people actually managed to survive that way.

My aunt told me, - recalls Yushchenko (Petrovskaya) Nadezhda Ivanovna, a resident of the city of Smolevichi, - that one day, passing by the ghetto, she heard a quiet cry. Turning, she saw a woman with a child in her arms on the other side of the fence. The woman asked to take the child for a few days until they come for him. My aunt was a very kind woman. She agreed and did not even take any payment. Mother last time looked at her child, put on him a gold chain and passed him through the wire. The next day, all the Jews were shot, and a few days later a man came for the child, called the girl's name and thanked her and took her away. The aunt never saw this man or this girl again.

A similar story was told by Pavlovskaya (Petrovskaya) Claudia Nikolaevna:

“My mother told me that one evening there was a knock on the window. When my mother went out onto the porch, she saw a man holding a bundle in his hands. Mom immediately knew that it was a child. The man asked to take the child for a couple of days until everything was over (what he meant, no one asked then). Mom agreed. The man gave money for food and clothes and left. A few days later the Jews were shot. And a week later, at night, someone softly knocked on the window again. It was the same man who gave up the child. He thanked for the help, gave some money and left. Nobody saw him again."

In addition to everyday work and selection, Jews were required to pay indemnities: all valuables, gold, jewelry had to be handed over on a certain day, otherwise - execution.

In September 1941, the Germans issued an order according to which all Jews of the Kovno ghetto were ordered to hand over all their valuables. Persons who ventured to hide gold should know that for each such concealment, one hundred Jewish hostages will be shot .... On the appointed day, the Germans made a round of all the apartments and took everything they had, and they did it with bureaucratic meticulousness: 2 pairs of gold earrings, one necklace ... But this was not done in order to give us at least some hope, but so that the soldier could not pocket anything.

Cold, hunger, cramped conditions, filth, slave labor, daily executions - all this was conceived by the Nazis to deprive people of all human dignity. Diseases and violence were rampant in the ghetto. Every day it became more and more empty. Naturally, no one reported that the Nazis were going to massacre the Jews. They said that they only wanted to separate the able-bodied population from the non-working population. Some ghettos had a long life; like the Minsk and Kovno ghettos, they existed for several years. As a rule, the population of such ghettos exceeded 20-25 thousand people (it is simply physically impossible to shoot such a number of people at one moment). And another important factor that played a significant role in determining the duration of the ghetto was the location of the ghetto in relation to large concentrations of industries. For example, the Minsk ghetto was located in one of the largest production centers where there was a severe shortage of manpower. Therefore, the shortage of labor was replenished from the "movable property" of the German nation, the free labor of the Jews. Others did not live for more than a few months, such as the Smolevichi one: around September, under the pretext of transferring to the Smilovichi ghetto, all the prisoners were taken out of the ghetto, including the elderly, women and children. The number can be judged by the fact that a column of 5 people in width crossed the railway crossing from morning to afternoon. In the area of the village of Aputok, the column was turned. After walking about 20 meters from the road, the Jews saw pits dug in advance. People were forced to undress to their underwear, then they were led to the pits in a line of 20-30 people and shot. This blasphemy lasted until late at night. After that, peasants from the neighboring village of Chernitsa were brought in to bury the graves.

Conclusion

The problem of the Holocaust is always difficult to study, and even more difficult to describe. When you read what happened in the ghetto, you are involuntarily horrified at how you could survive it. When you listen to the stories of eyewitnesses who saw everything with their own eyes, you cannot believe how it could be endured. Today it is impossible to imagine our life without human rights, social assistance, healthcare. When you study the problem of the Holocaust, you involuntarily admire people who found the strength to endure all the nightmares and hardships, not to drop dignity and realize themselves after the war. The problem of the Holocaust is, of course, the extreme to which fanaticism and misanthropy can lead. The problem of genocide and race-hatred has always captured progressive minds and delighted the masses with its cruelty.

People with extraordinary abilities and the ability to lead the masses have always tried to hide their mistakes, transferring responsibility to others. Sometimes such "others" became individuals, sometimes groups of people, and sometimes entire peoples and nations. Human nature has always been defined a little by imperialism, by the desire to be superior to others. But in order to become higher than others, you need to prove to others that you are higher. As a rule, this desire results in rivalry: violent and non-violent. And if the second path is chosen, it inevitably leads to slavery, genocide and war. Therefore, our task is to preserve this page of history in the memory of peoples, in the memory of nations, to convey to present and future generations the whole harsh truth, so that in the future not a single people of the world will face the same problem.

List of used literature

1. The catastrophe of the Jews Soviet Union.Jechiam Weitz 2000 Open University. Israel. publishing house open university. Tel Aviv 61312 -187s.

2 Jundenfrei! Free from Jews: The History of the Minsk Ghetto in Documents / author-compiler R.A. Chernoglazova. - Mn. Asob. dah, 1999-395s.

3. Belarus at Vyalikay Aichynnay Vaine 1941-1945 / Encylapedia. Minsk, 1990.

4. The Nazi policy of genocide and "scorched earth" in Belarus. - Minsk, 1984

5. Memory. Historical-documentary chronicle of Garado and the butcher of Belarus. Smalyavitsky district and Zhodzina-Minsk: Belta, 2000

6. Memory. Historical-documentary chronicle of Garada and the butcher of Belarus. Maladzechan. Maladzechanski district, Minsk: Belarusian encyclopedia, 2002

7. Memory. Historical-documentary chronicle of Garado and the butcher of Belarus. Minsk / in four books /, - Minsk: Belta, 2005

8. Bibliyateka Prapanue No. 1, 2002

9. From the memoirs of a resident of Smolevich Yushchenko (Petrovskaya) Nadezhda Ivanovna (date of birth - August 1931) / / Personal archive of the author.

It was. Already in Poland, the Wehrmacht lost the right to claim to be considered German soldiers not guilty of crimes against humanity. On January 20, 1942, one of the most famous meetings of the Second World War period took place in the suburbs of Berlin. It was entirely devoted to the annihilation of an entire people - "the final solution of the Jewish question." Subsequently, this meeting was called "...

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2. Ghettos and their types. General plan of the ghetto

Modern research distinguishes two main types of ghettos: "open" and "closed". The characteristic features of the former are the presence of a Jewish council (Judenrat) and its departments, registration and identification of the Jews of the corresponding settlement, the performance of labor functions by the Jewish community, and the organization of the collection of contributions. Its difference from the "closed" type of ghetto is the absence of a Jewish quarter specially designated for living, fenced with wire or a stone wall from the rest of the world. The first type is characterized by the isolation of the Jews from the rest of the world, the second - their complete isolation. The ghetto of the "closed" type, in addition to internal guards (Jewish security service or Jewish police), also had external guards (German troops). The "closed type" of the ghetto was also called "transit". It can be seen as a convenient place before destruction. If before the start of the war ghettos of the “open type” prevailed, then after that the “closed type ghettos” began to lead, since the second type was more convenient as a transit place before destruction. It is not surprising that only closed ghettos existed in the occupied territory of the USSR. The German historian Helmut Krausnick wrote: "There is no doubt that as Hitler's idea of destroying Russia, his last adversary on the Continent, developed, he became more and more taken with the idea that he had long formulated as the "final solution". ", the extermination of the Jews of the occupied territories. In March 1941 (at the latest) he openly announced for the first time his intention to shoot the political commissars of the Red Army and at the same time issued an order for the extermination of all Jews, which, although never recorded, is mentioned repeatedly under various circumstances.

Secondly, in a closed ghetto, it became possible to increase the length of the working day by organizing production on the territory, completely excluding contact with the outside world and the local population; it also eliminated the need to deliver prisoners to a new place of work.

As a rule, the ghetto consisted of several dozen streets and lanes (large ghettos; ghettos created in regional centers, as a rule, consisted of 2-5 streets and 4-6 lanes) with a square. Sometimes the ghetto was fenced off so that the Jewish cemetery was in the center, but if the terrain plan did not allow this, then the ghetto was completely fenced off from the cemetery). At the end of the street (usually the central one) there was a central gate, which was guarded by German soldiers and Jewish police. Over time, several more passages could be made in the fence for Jews working outside the ghetto. In connection with the construction plan of the ghetto, one feature can be distinguished: if the ghetto, in addition to the central gate, had side gates, as well as a Jewish cemetery and a huge square, the ghetto, as a rule, existed for more than six months, but if the ghetto had only one gate, not If there was a Jewish cemetery, then the ghetto, as a rule, did not exist for more than six months. For example: the Smolevichi ghetto - consisted of 3 streets and 3 lanes, was fenced with barbed wire, had only a central gate, did not have a cemetery and a large area - lasted about 3 weeks; the Kovno ghetto - consisted of several dozen streets with a square and a Jewish cemetery in the middle, there was also a huge wasteland in the northern part of the ghetto - it existed for more than a year.

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To explain what a ghetto is, one must turn to history. In Europe and the Muslim world, Jews were treated with great prejudice. Since the XIII century, they were obliged to live in the places designated for this, but for the first time the name "ghetto" for such zones appeared in Venice in 1516, and has survived to this day.

Ghetto - what is it?

From that moment until the twentieth century, the meaning of the word ghetto was as follows: a fenced-off part of the city in which Jews are obliged to live. In the twentieth century, the meaning expanded to allow for the possibility of a separate residence of any ethnic, religious or cultural group. The main feature of any ghetto is poverty, the laws of life in such a separate place may conflict with the laws of the state in whose territory it is located.

Ghetto during World War II

Initially, the era that allowed for a Jewish ghetto ended in Europe with the onset of the Napoleonic conquests. In each conquered state, the emperor claimed civil rights and freedoms that made the idea of racial segregation impossible. But this concept was revived by Hitler. In the Third Reich, ghettos began to appear in 1939 in Poland. The concept of "death camp, ghetto" did not appear immediately; initially, these allocated zones in cities remained places for separate residence of Jews. But these urban ghettos were the first step in the preparation of massacres, as they allowed:

to concentrate in one place all to be destroyed;
to simplify the organization of massacres;
avoid the possibility of escapes or resistance;
exploit the inhabitants of the ghetto as labor force.

In total, during the Second World War, there were more than a thousand ghettos, in which about one million Jews lived. The largest of them were Warsaw and Lodz, together there were more than half of all isolated Jews. Not only the inhabitants of the city and adjacent territories became prisoners of the ghetto, but prisoners who appeared as the Nazis seized new areas were brought there.

Modern ghettos

With the defeat of Hitler, the ghettos did not disappear from the face of the planet. The United States is characterized by such a concept as a colored, often African-American, ghetto. The shape of modern isolated urban areas began to take shape in the 70s and 80s of the last century, when white Americans began to move from cities to suburbs to avoid living next to African Americans. The purchase of country houses for the majority of the Negro population was not available and they remained in the cities, forming entire ethnic areas.

Scholars disagree about what a ghetto means in modern world according to what laws it is formed. There are two main theories.

Colored (mostly Negro) ghettos are the product of deliberate racial segregation designed to separate national minorities and the white population according to the level of available opportunities and place of residence. Proponents of this theory believe that the ethnic majority of the country has the tools to circumvent the 1968 law "On the Prohibition of Discrimination in Housing."
Some researchers answer the question of what a ghetto means in terms of social rather than racial division. They say that after 1968, the black middle class, who had the opportunity to live in respectable areas, moved out, and the lower class were isolated from both all whites and more affluent blacks. Oscar Lewis's theory says that after a long stay below the poverty line, the chances of social and economic success are significantly reduced. Therefore, the situation in the ghetto only worsens with time.

Ghetto types

Modern ghettos are subdivided only in their own way. ethnic composition. The following types of ghettos existed during World War II:

open ghetto area characterized by the isolation of the Jews from the rest of the population. Judenrat (Jewish Council) or other Jewish self-government bodies operated on its territory, residents were required to register and not change their place of residence. There were also labor obligations. Formally, the inhabitants of such a ghetto did not have a ban on communication with the non-Jewish population.
closed ghetto- a protected residential area, fenced off from the rest of the city. Exit outside this ghetto was limited and carried out only through the checkpoint, in the future, residents were forbidden to leave their place of residence. The Jewish population was moved to such an area after it had already been sentenced to extermination.
Ghetto behind desks. Even before the outbreak of World War II, in 1935, in the Polish educational institutions there was an initiative to create dedicated areas for representatives of national minorities in classrooms and auditoriums. Since 1937, this measure has become mandatory.

Ghetto Rules

Life in the World War II era ghetto proceeded according to the following rules:

a ban on buying and selling something;
inability to use public transport, cultural and leisure institutions, religious buildings and structures;
wearing identifying bandages (lat);
ban on movement on major streets.

Books about the ghetto

Many books have been devoted to such processes as the creation of the ghetto and life in it. Here is some of them:

"Sell Your Mother" by Ephraim Sevela. The story of a boy who emigrated to Germany from the Kaunas ghetto, whose mother was killed by the Nazis.
"Give me your children!" Steve Sam-Sandberg. A story about what a ghetto is through the story of the head of its Judenrat.
"Born in the Ghetto" Ariela Sef. The story of a Jewish girl who miraculously escaped from the Kaunas ghetto.

Series about the ghetto

Ghettos and concentration camps also inspired the creation of series:

"Ghetto". A story about an African American family who moved to a white neighborhood.
"Shield and Sword". two part film, main character whom is a Russian intelligence agent working in Nazi Germany

Modern research distinguishes two main types of ghettos: "open" and "closed". The characteristic features of the former are the presence of a Jewish council (Judenrat) and its departments, registration and identification of the Jews of the corresponding settlement, the performance of labor functions by the Jewish community, and the organization of the collection of contributions. Its difference from the "closed" type of ghetto is the absence of a Jewish quarter specially designated for living, fenced with wire or a stone wall from the rest of the world. The first type is characterized by the isolation of the Jews from the rest of the world, the second - their complete isolation. The ghetto of the "closed" type, in addition to internal guards (Jewish security service or Jewish police), also had external guards (German troops). The "closed type" of the ghetto was also called "transit". It can be seen as a convenient place before destruction. If before the start of the war ghettoes of the “open type” prevailed, then after that the “closed type ghettos” began to lead, since the second type was more convenient as a transit place before destruction. It is not surprising that only closed ghettos existed in the occupied territory of the USSR. The German historian Helmut Krausnick wrote: "There is no doubt that as Hitler's idea of destroying Russia, his last adversary on the Continent, developed, he became more and more taken with the idea that he had long formulated as the "final solution". ", the extermination of the Jews of the occupied territories. In March 1941 (at the latest) he openly announced for the first time his intention to shoot the political commissars of the Red Army and at the same time issued an order for the extermination of all Jews, which, although never recorded, is mentioned repeatedly under various circumstances.

As a rule, the ghetto consisted of several dozen streets and lanes (large ghettos; ghettos created in regional centers, as a rule, consisted of 2-5 streets and 4-6 lanes) with a square. Sometimes the ghetto was fenced off so that the Jewish cemetery was in the center, but if the terrain plan did not allow this, then the ghetto was completely fenced off from the cemetery). At the end of the street (usually the central one) there was a central gate, which was guarded by German soldiers and Jewish police. Over time, several more passages could be made in the fence for Jews working outside the ghetto. In connection with the construction plan of the ghetto, one feature can be distinguished: if the ghetto, in addition to the central gate, had side gates, as well as a Jewish cemetery and a huge square, the ghetto, as a rule, existed for more than six months, but if the ghetto had only one gate, not If there was a Jewish cemetery, then the ghetto, as a rule, did not exist for more than six months. For example: the Smolevichi ghetto - consisted of 3 streets and 3 lanes, was fenced with barbed wire, had only a central gate, did not have a cemetery and a large area - lasted about 3 weeks; The Kovno ghetto consisted of several dozen streets with a square and a Jewish cemetery in the middle, there was also a huge wasteland in the northern part of the ghetto - it existed for more than a year.

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