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| The Warsaw Ghetto! |
German guard stopping a Jew at the Warsaw Ghetto checkpoint
Warsaw became the capital of Poland in 1596, the city flanks both sides of the Vistula River, two thirds of the cities area lying on the west bank and one third on the east bank. Jewish people lived in Warsaw from the 15th century, and during the 19th century the Jewish population of Warsaw grew rapidly, becoming the largest Jewish community in Europe, and by the 20th century the world’s second largest behind New York.
Jews were to be found in every part of the city, but predominantly in the Northern part, with many apartment houses and certain streets inhabited exclusively by Jews. In 1935 the city limits covered an area of 54 square miles with a population of 1.3 million people.
On the eve of World War Two the Jewish population in Warsaw numbered 337,000 about 29% of the total population of the city, this figure rose to 445,000 by March 1941.
Jewish Life in Warsaw
Following the German invasion of Poland on 31 August 1939, the German “Blitzkrieg” swept through Poland, and reached the southern and western parts of the city on 8 and 9 September 1939. Within a few days (until 28 September) the Germans had surrounded the city from all sides, and launched deadly air attacks, and artillery shelling, which caused heavy damage to buildings, and significant loss of life.
Adam Czerniakow who was to become the Chairman of the Warsaw Jewish Council (Judenrat) wrote in his diary on 14 September 1939 – “At the Jewish cemetery, 130 bodies burned by incendiary bombs on 13 September” and on 15 September: “Heavy artillery fire mainly in the area where I live. Blazing fires lit up the city” On 23 September 1939 Mayor Stefan Starzynski appointed Czerniakow as Chairman of the Jewish Community in Warsaw. Czerniakow wrote in his diary “ A historic role in a besieged city. I will try to live up to it”.
Adam Czerniakow
From the first days of the occupation the Jews were subjected to attacks and discrimination, such as being driven from food lines, seized for forced labour and violated for their traditional clothing and hairstyles. Teachers, craftsmen, professionals and members of welfare and cultural institutions lost their positions, without any compensation, or little prospect of obtaining similar positions.
On 23 November 1939 Hans Frank the Governor- General issued a decree that all Jewish men, women and children over 10 years of age were required to wear in public a white armband with a blue Star of David. In addition Jewish shops were to be marked, restrictions proclaimed on travel by train, and radios were confiscated from Jews and Poles from 1 December 1939.
The harshest measures came with a number of decrees on economic affairs, such as the prohibition of non-Jews buying or leasing Jewish enterprises without obtaining a special permit for this purpose, decreed by Dr Ludwig Fischer, the District Governor of Warsaw on 17 October 1939.
In place of the many pre-war institutions, only two frameworks were allowed to function under the Germans, these were the Jewish Council (Judenrat) and the Jewish Self-Help welfare organisation. The Jewish Council was a new body, set up as per Reinhard Heydrich’s edict as a first part of the Final Solution of the Jewish problem outlined at a secret conference of high police officials on 21 September 1939. that each community is to select a Jewish Council of not less than 24 members.
Read more here:
http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/ghettos/warsawghetto .html
The Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team
www.HolocaustResearchProject.org
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