Ghettoisation and jewish responses to the holocaust- Holocaust key knowledge

key details of the structural ghettoisation

• structural completion of the ghettos was reactionary to war

• created a city within a city

• herding hundreds of thousands into small square mileage

key details of living conditions in the ghettos

• rough calorie allowance was 180-300

• 25% of residents died in the ghettos due to the susceptibility to illness

• children as major income of food, 80% of food in Warsaw was smuggled

• 6-9 people sharing rooms

average death rate in Warsaw

around 5000 per month

most common diseases within the ghettos

TB, typhus, dysentery; all of which had no medication for

what was a major reason for the lack of resistance against the nazis within the ghettos

• jews wanted to make their ghetto seem economically necessary so nazis felt less inclined to exterminate them

• by adding to the war effort, they could protect themselves; eg, Lodz ghetto became major provider for military equipment

who was the major leader of the warsaw ghetto who took part in jewish passive resistance

Czerniakow = judenraete; managed the ghettos welfare, sanitation and food distribution. Was a form of ‘amidah’ as he prioritised jewish welfare, killing himself when given order to deport 265,000 to Treblinka

what was ‘amidah’

was resistance against nazi laws whilst upholding jewish dignity

what was the main spiritual and cultural resistance

clandestine schools set up, synagogues, libraries and schools

concerts, theatre productions and art contests

existence of 600 prayer groups in Warsaw

what was the historical documentation kept within the ghettos

Oneg Shabbat group created a museum of ghetto archival collections, allowed them to tell their own story

what were the main armed ghetto resistance groups and uprisings

1) Vilna manifesto and Kovner

- articulated the Nazi plan of extermination, and formed and armed FPO group

- speech on ‘lambs to the slaughter’

2) Warsaw uprising 1943

- major revolt, 700-1000 fighters using guerilla tactics

- diverted nazi economy towards this as they had to use fire power to retaliate

- lasted around a month