Ghetto

[[File:Stroop Report - Warsaw Ghetto Uprising 06b.jpg|thumb|right|165px|Jews captured by Nazi troops during the suppression of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in 1943]]
{{Race}}
The term '''ghetto''' is used to refer a [[poor]] and undeveloped part of a city where members of an oppressed minority group are forced to live, due either to brutal force used by [[totalitarian]] regimes, or by social and economic pressures in [[Democracy|democratic society]].<ref>Merriam Webster; [https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ghetto Definition of Ghetto].</ref> The term originated in 16<sup>th</sup> century Venice, where [[Jewish]] people were segregated and lived in the {{wpl|Venetian Ghetto||.}} Other cities in Europe formed segregated Jewish areas, and by the 19<sup>th</sup> century ghetto was the common term for these areas. After [[World War 2]], the word ghetto became highly stigmatized due to the [[Nazi]] regime use of ghettos as concentration camps as part of the [[Holocaust|genocide of millions of Jewish people]]. Although Jewish segregation is no longer practiced, ghettos still exist today, in the [[United States]], [[Europe]], and worldwide, occupied by other marginalized groups.

==Venetian Ghetto==
The {{wpl|Venetian Ghetto}} was the first Jewish area where [[segregated|compulsory segregation]] was enforced to be called a "ghetto."  It is commonly incorrectly believed it was the first segregated Jewish area. This is a misconception, as these areas had existed in Europe for three hundred years before. After [[WW2]], the Venetian Ghetto was renamed because of [[Nazi]] associations of the word.<ref>''[[The New York Times]]''; David Laskin, March 9, 2016: [https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/13/travel/venice-italy-jewish-ghetto.html 500 Years of Jewish Life in Venice].</ref><ref>''[[The Guardian]]''; Marie-José Gransard, March 20, 2016: [https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2016/mar/30/500-years-venetian-ghetto-jewish-italian-history 500 years of the Venetian ghetto: commemoration and history].</ref>

==Nazi ghettos==
During WW2, the [[Nazi]]s setup a system of mass [[discrimination]] against Jewish people and others deemed undesirable for racial reasons. Officially the {{wpl|Nazi ghettos}} were designated as {{wpl|Jewish quarter (diaspora)|Jewish Quarters|,}} and Jewish people were forcibly relocated to the ghettos from other areas of [[Germany]].  This process of the "Ghettoization" of the Jews also took place in countries in which the Germans had gained military or political control, such as in [[Poland]].  <ref name="ushmm">The Holocaust Encyclopedia; [https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/ghettos Ghettos].</ref>

There were several distinct types of Nazi ghettos, and they were used for different purposes in the [[Holocaust]]. Initially, the Germans organised "open ghettos", which despite the name were not fully open. This later moved to increased numbers of walled "closed ghettos", where escape was a capital offense. The final solution involved extermination camps, where Jewish people and others were murdered, and the eventual mass murder of almost all occupants of the Nazi ghettos in {{wpl|Operation Reinhard||.}}<ref name="ushmm" />

== External links ==
* {{wpa|Ghetto}}
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2En0ZyjQgU4 In The Ghetto], sung by [[Fun:Elvis Presley|Elvis Presley]] on [[YouTube]]

== References ==
{{reflist}}

[[Category:Crimes against humanity]]

Categories: Crimes against humanity