EIU Teaching with Primary Sources

Teaching the Holocaust with Primary Sources

Introduction: Nuremberg Race Laws | Kristallnacht | Ghettos
Concentration Camps: Dachau | Bergen-Belsen | Auschwitz
Righteous Among the Nations: Gies | Schindler | Winton | Grueninger

Primary Source and Analysis Tools | Library of Congress Resources 
 Primary Source Sets | PDF Version

Ghettos

To separate the Jewish community from the non-Jewish the German government established ghettos. On October 8, 1939, the first Jewish ghettos were created in the Lodz district of Poland.⁶ The Germans established more than 1000 ghettos in Poland and the Soviet Union alone, which were small city areas enclosed by either a wall or fencing.⁷ Jews were forced to leave their homes and most of their possessions behind and what they left was sold to German citizens. Thousands of Jews lived in cramped, squalor conditions. Over 400,000 Jews lived in the 1.3 square mile of the Warsaw ghetto.⁷ In Budapest, about 63,000 Jews lived in a .01 square mile area.⁷ Overcrowded areas with no sanitation and little food led to disease.  

Citations:

7. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia,
   Ghettos, Accessed 8.3.12