Disadvantages Of Ghettos

The Ghettos of the Holocaust Suffering; “To experience severe pain, illness, or injury,” (Merriam Webster). Throughout the holocaust, many definably inhumane atrocities took place. Among the lesser acknowledged are the fates of those in the ghettos. Ranging from a small, restricted street corner, to more than a square mile large, ghettos ‘housed’ thousands upon thousands of people that had committed no crime (USHMM). Ghettos of the holocaust caused great suffering, and were a basis for the deportation and mass murder of millions, for the reason that living life in the ghettos was not only unsanitary but surrounded by anti-semitic violence, adding to the death toll of Jews and other discriminated against peoples.

Beginnings After the German

Widespread throughout all forms of ghettos were starvation, disease, exposure, brutality, and suicide. Broken or lack of plumbing led to unsanitary conditions, further continuing the spread of disease, and with no heating or ventilation exposure to the cold and elements was detrimentally harmful. Little clothing or cloth to protect against the cold led to weakening people, as well as being starved and not provided food or resources. These ghettos were packed full of people, with an average of 7 to any one room in a more than likely bombed-out shelter. Close quarters, lack of food, and intense cold caused the death rate to be exponential (Altman). Despite these lethal conditions, many tried to continue life as normally as they could. Toys and books among other things were stolen or smuggled into the ghettos to give children a chance to be educated and have an actual childhood. A kind of welfare system was set up by the Jewish council, similar to a government for the ghetto, for the numerous and growing number of orphans. Orphans and children commonly became smugglers, squeezing through gaps in walls or being able to out maneuver the gestapo, also known as the german police. Begging on street corners, stealing from others or people more fortunate, children in the ghettos despite the best efforts of parents and council, grew up suffering similar or the same fates as the adults around them. Suicide was no longer considered to be a “coward 's escape”, it was a viable option to escape these terrible events. (Life in the Ghettos USHMM)Some were able to endure these, but living conditions varied from ghetto to