Ghettos in Europe during the Holocaust

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**In the Holocaust,** Nazi Germany set up **ghettos across Europe**. These were separate, closed-off areas where the Nazis forced Jewish people to live, apart from everybody else. Some Roma people, Greeks, and Soviets were also forced into ghettos.  

Nobody was allowed to leave the ghettos without special permission. Living conditions were so terrible that they killed many people. Tens of thousands of Jews died in ghettos from starvation, disease, freezing to death, and the terrible conditions. In some ghettos, one in every five people died. Eventually, the Nazis used the ghettos to collect people before deporting them to concentration camps. 

The Nazis established around 1500 ghettos during the Holocaust. They liquidated nearly all of these ghettos between the 1930s and 1945. Sometimes this meant sending everyone to concentration camps and shooting people who resisted.

* To segregate people (almost always Jews)
* To persecute and mistreat people
* To make people do forced labor
* To gather and hold people before deporting them to concentration camps
* To starve and kill people

## History 
Jewish people had often been forced to live in ghettos in Europe, with the first one being set up in Venice in the 1500s.

The first Nazi ghetto was established in Beuthen, Germany, in the 1930s. Between that time and the end of World War II in 1945, the Nazis and their collaborators established about 1500 ghettos. They stretched as far west as Amsterdam in German-occupied Netherlands; as far north as Pushkin in partially German-occupied Russian SFSR; as far east as Krasno-Vostochnyi, also in partially German-occupied Russian SFSR; and as far south as Kalavyrta in partially German-occupied Greece. (1940; from a Nazi propaganda film)|left]]In 1939 Nazi Germany invaded Poland, and took control of areas where two million Polish Jews lived. This was four times as many Jewish people as Germany had in 1933. Two years later the Nazis invaded the Soviet Union, where another few million Jews lived. To control this new population of Jewish people, the Nazis forced Jews into ghettos (also called "Jewish residential quarters"). By the end of the war, almost every person who had lived in a ghetto had died or been executed by the Nazis.

The last ghetto to exist was the Theresienstadt "camp-ghetto" in the town of Terézin, in German-occupied Czechia. It was liberated on 8 May 1945, while the Nazis were liquidating the ghetto (deporting everyone inside, shooting anyone who resisted, and destroying the ghetto.)

## Conditions 
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Conditions in the ghettos were terrible. They were often extremely crowded, and there was not enough food for everyone.

In Poland, there were open ghettos in Dąbie and Zdunska Wola. In Ukraine, the Tuczyn and Uman Ghettos were open. So were the Bielefield Ghetto in Germany; the Mainewicze Ghetto in Volhynia; and the Gnivan Ghetto in GK Zhytomor.

In Eastern Belorussia, open ghettos existed in Beshenkovichi, Ostrovno Ghetto, and Chasniki. The Chasniki Ghetto was liquidated in mid-February 1942, six months after it was established.
### Partial ghettos 
In a few places, only part of the Jewish population had to live in ghettos. These included the Domaczewo, Horochow, Byten, and Letichev Ghettos., the Nazis burnt the ghetto to the ground (April 1943)|left]]
### Destruction ghettos 
According to the Holocaust Encyclopedia:

There were several destruction ghettos in Ukraine. The Berdichev (Berdychiv), Zhytomor (Zhytomyr), and Vysotsk Ghettos existed for just a few weeks. 

There were also ghettos in:

* Bobrka
* Brailov
* Chelmnik
* Kalinovka
* L'vov
* Medzhybizh
* Mogliev Podolski
* Proskurov

* Zhornishche

### Other areas
In Lithuania, there were ghettos in Wilno, Kaunas, and Siauliai. There was a ghetto in Liepaja, Latvia. The Red Army liberated the Il'ino Ghetto (in modern-day Russia on January 25, 1942, saving 200 Jews.

## References