Life In The Ghetto Dbq

With the population of the Ghetto increasing to 400,000 by late 1940 and the beginning of 1941, spacing in the Ghetto became a major problem. The Ghetto took up a space of only about 3.5 square miles, covering only about 2.4 percent of the overall metropolitan area of the city of Warsaw. 400,000 people were living in an area that normally housed only 160,000 people. Eventually, many Jews had to start crowding within the Ghetto resulting in an estimated 7.2 people per room. As a result, life in the ghetto was completely unsanitary. Jews had almost no access to any forms of self-hygiene. Plumbing broke down, and human waste was thrown on the streets along with other garbage making a completely unsanitary environment. With the unsanitary environment

Two main causes of death in the Ghetto were starvation and disease. The average mortality rate between January, 1941 through May, 1942 alone was about 3,882 Jews per month. Between 1940 and mid 1942 about 83,000 Jews died due to rampant hunger and vicious diseases. Some of the diseases Jews suffered through were: Gastroenteritis, Anemia, Pneumonia, and Bronchiolitis. Another cause of deaths within the Ghetto was death from the weather. During the winter, Warsaw sees an average temperature of just 28°F (-3°C). Warsaw also sees a lot of snow during the winter time. Every winter there is an average of about 25-45 inches of snow. People within the Ghetto had nowhere near adequate clothing for these kinds of temperatures and conditions causing them to freeze. Most of the Jews in the Ghetto had only one pair of clothing. They had to wear the same clothes every day, and many of the clothes the Jews owned were not fit for extremely cold temperatures. Along with inadequate clothing, most Jews did not have boots in the Ghetto, making frostbite a serious

Though the Germans destroyed the organized military resistance just three days after the beginning of the uprising, individuals and small groups hid or fought the Germans for almost a month. The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising took place from April 19, 1943 through May 16, 1943. On May 16, 1943 German SS Officer Stroop ordered the destruction of the Great Synagogue on Tlomackie Street to symbolize the German victory. The Jewish people of the Ghetto (including the resistance fighters), suffered about 13,000 deaths, and 56,885 deportations. The Germans only suffered 17 deaths and 93 injuries. Although the Jewish people lost in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, it was the largest symbol of hope seen by the Jews throughout the Holocaust. One of the successes of the resistance was that it inspired other uprisings in different Ghettos where people had the same mission, to end the tyranny and oppression they were facing. Another success was that the resistance made some people question the power of the Nazis. Although the Nazis suffered few casualties, people wondered how the Jews could possibly steal weapons from them, and how the Jews kept the fighting going on for so