Holocaust Ghettos Essay Example

Holocaust Ghettos Essay Example Holocaust Ghettos Paper Holocaust Ghettos Paper In this paper, I will discuss what life would be like to be a Jew inside one of the 1,000 of ghettos within Poland and the Soviet Union. I will imagine myself a member of the Jewish council, describing the conditions of ghetto life and reflect on my role and relationships inside the ghetto. Ghettos were set up all over Poland and the Soviet Union, with some of the major ghettos Including Warsaw, Load, Love, Lubing, Krakow, and Bilabials. The German authorities were supposed to oversee the dally actively of the Jews Inside the ghettos. Instead, the Nazis appointed Jewish Councils or Juddered In each ghetto to implement Nazi policies. The Jewish Council served at the whim of the German authorities but also tried to be the voice for the Jews. In each ghetto the Jewish Council also distributed scarce resources, organized social life, set up charities, and tried to find ways to maintain some kind of human community (Genocide 1 15). As the book explains, They [Nazis] appointed recognized Jewish leaders-prominent people, businessmen, teachers, lawyers-to these boards and assigned them the task of carrying out German orders within the ghettos (Genocide 115). Living conditions Inside the Ghettos were absolutely horrendous with overcrowding, starvation, disease, little running water or electricity, lack of medical aid, and hard labor. Alternative ways to feed their females by smuggling In food or sending their children out to find food became prominent as the Jews sought any means possible to keep themselves fed. There was already famine at that time in the Ghetto, and the streets were littered with people dying of hunger (Images 137). Very little resistance was possible in most of the ghettos, as the Nazis kept a strict eye on everything. As we saw in the movie, The Pianist, a young boy was beaten to death limning through a small hole in the wall trying to bring food back into the ghetto (The Pianist). Jews were given small rations of food a week that could barely feed one person. Jews were made to contribute to the German war effort by working in German factories making uniforms, boots, bed linen, and underwear. The reason why working cards were so essential was because It was the only way the Jews could officially stay In the ghettos. They were given more of an opportunity to not be deported to the death camps by working. Jews who didnt have work cards frantically tried to get them. We saw that In the movie when Adrian Brood got his father a work card to save him. He believed that if he got everyone in his family a work card then teen would stay together ( plants). I nee wealthy Jews were Trace to live Walt poor Jews but they seemed to live a better life by buying what they wanted. Only the wealthy Jews could buy on the black market. The Pianist gave us an idea about the class divisions between the wealthy and poor Jews. Adrian Brood played a pianist, and in one scene he was playing in a cafe © where the wealthy Jews ate. While the poor Jews were on the streets dying, starving, and dirty, the wealthy Jews were smoking, ringing, laughing, and listening to good music (The Pianist). The Jewish Councils relationship with the Nazis was an uncommon one. To a lot of the Jewish leaders it was a burden. They were powerless to help but yet they were forced to do what the Nazis wanted. In cases when members of the councils refused to cooperate, German officials dismissed them or had them shot and then replaced with more compliant men (Genocide 115). Some believed that cooperating with the Germans would help them survive longer but they too eventually were killed. There was a love hate relationship with their fellow Jews. Above them loomed German orders; below them spread the ever more desperate needs of the Jewish communi ties (Genocide 116). Some of the Jews resented the Jewish Council, saying they should have warned them or done more. They didnt like the Council collaborating with the Germans. The Jewish Councils tried to help their people, to maintain order, save lives, and to feed, clothe, and doctor the Jews in the ghettos (Genocide 116). There was hostility from their own people and in some ways it pushed them to behave the opposite of their goal. They tried to mediate and plead on the Jews behalf. Some Council members helped with the resistance and some believed it would doom the entire ghetto. An example of the Jewish Council in the ghetto is, New proclamations from the Juddered have been hung up which have caused panic among the Jews. The families of those working are no longer protected (Images 161). The Jewish Council formed its own Jewish Order Police. The Jewish police were also made to enforce order and deport Jews following the commands of the Germans. Like the Council, the Order Police were also disliked among the ghetto tenants. The purpose of the police was to prevent crime, supervise notation, and direct traffic. The Jewish police delivered to the Germans exactly the number of people needed, rounding them up any way they could, beating and kicking those who didnt want to go (Images 141). They collected ransom payments, stole valuables, fetched people for forced labor, forced payment of taxes, guarded the gates, and rounding up Jews for deportations. One of the problems with the police was evident in, A Cup of Tears, The Jewish police have been looting, breaking open flats, emptying cupboards, smashing crockery and destroying property, Just for the UN of it (Images 158). Henry Gordon proclaimed, It wasnt long before the Jewish police had an opportunity to profit even more from our misery (Images 141). There were a lot of problems and tension with the Jewish police. Ghetto police carried out the orders of the Nazis, assisting with deportations, punishment and oppression. Deportation required organization on a massive scale with the help of many people and organizations. Jews would be rounded up from the Ghettos and made to prepare for their resettlement taking with them few of their most valuable possessions, IT teen were addle. I nee Germans uses Torrent Ana passenger trains for the deportations. The Germans demanded that members of the Jewish council assist in organizing the deportations. The Wannabes Conference was held to coordinate the deportation of Jews to killing centers. The Germans attempted to disguise their intentions. They sought to portray the deportations as a resettlement of the Jewish population in labor camps in the East. They were consumed by fear and anxiety, not knowing their fate. By now an ever-growing number of Jews tended to believe the horrible new rumors that all the German remises were false and that the so called resettlement actually meant only one thing-death (Images 145). In, The Pianist, we saw how Jews were rounded up in small areas waiting for the trains. Some of the Jews were questioning it and some didnt want to believe that they were being sent to their death. We also saw the family working, taking the valuables out of thousands of suitcases from the people who were deported. Obviously they never came back but no one really knew for sure what was happening (The Pianist). Every day children became orphaned, and many had to take care of even younger children. Orphans often lived on the streets, begging for bits of bread from others who had little or nothing to share. Many froze to death in the winter. They were broken full of despair. Simon tells us that, Little Eli in the Ghetto survived miraculously the many raids on the children, who were looked upon as non-working, useless mouths (Images 137). Women and children were usually the first to be deported because they werent as useful as the men. It looks like there is a policy to liquidate women and children (Images 156). The fear of keeping their wives and children fed and hiding them from the Germans consumed most men. Kristin Kern explains, My father was always looking for places to hide my little brother, Pale, and me because the Germans were intent on getting rid of all the Jewish children (Images 46). The way that families dealt with their fate and their families fate included giving up their children to save themselves, hiding, working, becoming part of the resistance, committing suicide, doing whatever you can to fed and clothe your family, and escape. Some people followed their families on the deportation trains even when they had work cards because they didnt want to leave heir family. I personally would hide, escape, and do anything to save my family and myself. Many Jews responded to the ghetto restrictions by forming Jewish resistance groups and engaging in illegal activities. Others believed that becoming part of the Jewish Council mediating between the Germans and Jews would help maintain order and save lives and some became servants to the Germans, with the power and cruelty of the Jewish Police. In the end, ghettos were used as a central step in the Nazi process of control, demutualization, and annihilation of Jews.