Abraham here; I'm a Jew residing in Warsaw, Poland. It is the year 1943. I'm thirty years old. My wife and I have a son and a girl as children.
Right now, I'm residing in the Warsaw ghetto. It is Poland's biggest slum. Three hundred and eighty thousand Jews live there, roughly. It occupies an area of 1.6 miles2. With about 116 000 Jews, the Lodz ghetto ranks as the second-largest ghetto. Nazi Germany created the ghettos three years ago in the Polish capital's Muranow district. They used the ghettos to confine us and therefore make it easy for them to persecute and exploit us. Before they came, Warsaw was an economic hub. It was mainly occupied by Jews. By the end of 1938, the capital had a population of over three hundred thousand Jews. I was a merchant. I was successful by all standards. My two children went to the best schools in Warsaw. I was not born in Poland. My parents came here in search of greener pastures. They are both dead now. I have no siblings. My family was my everything. Life was good until the German invasion of Poland on 1st September 1939.
German Invasion of 1939 and the establishment of Warsaw Ghetto.
After Germans invaded Poland, there was an influx of refugees at Warsaw escaping the German – Poland war front. Within a year, Warsaw was now home to more than ninety thousand refuges. A partition was created between Germany and the invading Soviet Union and Adolf Hitler established a new government in Central Poland. The Jewish Council was formed on October 7th. The Germans started persecuting us almost immediately. They started by forcing us to remove the rubbles in the areas that had been bombed during the war. They then froze our bank accounts and ordered us to put Jewish stars on our doors. By December, all Jewish males were directed to always wear white arm bands. A few days later they banned us from using public transit. The District Governor of Warsaw directed that the infamous ghetto wall be constructed. It was three meters long with barbed wire on top. Anyone who tried to escape was shot on sight. German policemen took turns patrolling the wall. Settlements were built within the wall and Warsaw ghetto was born. The Germans also expelled the ethnic poles from the neighborhoods and left us in Isolation. More Jews were expelled from the Suburbs and dumped in the ghetto. At the moment, Warsaw has a population of more than four hundred thousand people. Life continues to get worse as time goes by.
Physical Environment in the Ghetto.
The Ghetto is divided into two; ‘Large’ ghetto in the Northern side and small ghetto in the South Eastern side. The two sides are divided by a street known as Chlodna. The small and large ghettos are connected by an intersection between Chlodna and Zelanza Street. A wooden footbridge has been built over the intersection. I live in the larger ghetto. The environment here is dirty. There is garbage everywhere. There are also scattered dead bodies located all over the ghetto. Some of this dead people were either shot by the police or died from illness. The ghetto is very crowded so there is nowhere to bury them. The family members of the dead people are unable to pay for the burial and so the bodies have been left out in the open to rot. The ghetto stinks of decaying bodies. The Germans have refused to remove them. The buildings are dilapidated. Hardly any repairs have been done since the settlement was constructed.
Ghetto Leadership
The ghetto is run by the Jewish Council. It was made up of twenty four members. It was formed on 21st September 1939 in a secret meeting of high police officials. It is the only body that the Germans are willing to engage with on matters concerning the Jews in the ghetto. Currently, the council has over six thousand members. There is also the house committee which is in charge of apartment affairs. It charges double rent for the houses; one for ‘self-help’ services and the rest for apartment affairs.
Economic Status of Jews in the ghetto.
My economic condition in the ghetto continues to worsen. The Germans have locked us out of the external world. We are not allowed any contact with anyone on the outside. Therefore, trade is not possible. Goods entering and leaving the camps are thoroughly searched by the police. My bank account has been blocked. The Germans blocked all accounts belonging to the Jews. At first, we were only allowed two hundred and fifty zlotys per week but now even that is gone. During the early stages in the invasion, the Germans also began confiscation of the Jewish firms. Those who were found to be unfriendly to the new owners have since been dismissed. We have no money to engage in any meaningful economic activities. Nowadays, we only trade within ourselves but people’s resources are slowly dwindling. We are crippled economically. The house committees nowadays charge double fees per house depending on the assets they own. The small amounts they get are used to take care of the poorest in the ghettos and maintain apartments. Burials have now become a rare thing. It costs money to bury loved ones and since most people are struggling to survive, it has become normal for bodies to be left lying out in the open. Generally, all of us in the ghetto are poor.
Health Crisis
The health situation in the ghetto is in a sorry state. As mentioned earlier, the environment is dirty. It is covered in garbage and dead bodies lie out in the open. As a result, we are exposed to all types of diseases. Typhoid is more common among adults. It is caused by the dirty water and food that we are eating out of desperation. Children and the aged are dying from Typhoid. Malaria too is more prevalent these days. This is because of the open sewers and stagnant water that are providing suitable environments for mosquitoes to breed. Children are the most affected. The number of children dying from malaria is increasing day by day. There are no preventive measures available to us in the ghetto. It has been very painful watching young children suffer and then die. Cases of Cholera have also been reported.
Hunger
Hunger is one of the most prominent issues that we are facing today. It has caused more deaths than disease. When the Germans blocked us from outside interactions, they also restricted free movement of goods in and out of the ghetto. As a result, it created a severe food shortage that worsens with every passing day. Therefore, we have been forced to find other methods of finding food. We have managed to secretly drill small holes through the wall through which food and medicine is smuggled. Smuggling is done by small children who are less suspicious. Parents are sewing many pockets in their clothes where they hide goods. The children are then sneaked out of the ghetto through the holes into the neighboring areas. Parents give them the things they don’t need to go and exchange with things that they need. Mostly, the children return with medicinal drugs and food. To curb this, the Germans have announced a death penalty for anyone trying to sneak out of the ghetto. As a matter of fact, it is said that there exists a trigger happy regiment of the German police who anxiously wait to shoot escapees. They are said to organize parties when they kill many people in a day.
Before the United States joined the Second World War, some humanitarian organizations were allowed inside the ghetto. The American joint Distribution committee used the ZTOS (Zydowskie Towarzystwo Opieki Spolecznej, Jewish Mutual Aid Society) to help the Jews during the 1940 Passover ceremony. The organization set up soup kitchens in the ghetto that provided starving Jews with bread and soup. More than one hundred soup kitchens were established during the program. However, it was cut short by the Germans when the United States of America joined the World War. In total, hunger alone has claimed the lives on one hundred thousand of us in the ghetto.
Education
Despite the severe living conditions, we have set up secret schools within the ghetto. The Soup kitchens that were established by the American joint distribution committee are now being used as schools. The children have a desire to learn and Jewish teachers are doing their best to make sure they don’t miss it. It has to be done in secret because the German police have prohibited it. The children are being taught bible studies and the Jewish culture and history. This is being done to avoid raising a generation of children who do not know their culture and history. There are no books in the ‘classes’ to avoid detection in case the Germans pop in.
Religion
Even though the suffering is great, I am still very religious. So are the other people in the camp. There have been talks that what we are going through was prophesied long ago. Many of us still believe that it is God’s plan. This is based on the similar events that befell ancient Israel during the biblical times. Some clergy men are speculating that the coming of the Messiah is now closer than ever. However, there exist a section of us who have lost faith and hope in God. Despite all this, the Great Synagogue of Warsaw is full during the Sabbath.
Deportations/ Mass murders
There have been numerous deportations in the ghetto in the last few months. The German police have been rounding up people street by street and marching them to Umschlagplatz holding area. The people are then ferried by Cattle trucks and trains to Treblinka. The trains have a capacity of seven thousand people while the cattle trucks have one hundred. The trains have been ferrying people every day for the last two months. Approximately three hundred thousand jews have been ferried out of the ghetto. However, we have learnt that our friends and family members are being taken to concentrations camps where they are being killed by monoxide gas, shooting and starvation. This realization has pushed us to form underground resistance movements.
The Warsaw Uprising
Since we learnt about the mass murders, the Jewish Combat Organization and the Jewish Military Union have begun armed resistance. It has been four months since the last ‘resettlements’. We have built bankers and fighting posts. The Ghetto is now under full Jewish control. I have witnessed the killing of some Jews who were said to be collaborating with the Germans. They were murdered in cold blood. We are expecting that Germans will storm the ghetto any time soon. Most of us are armed. We are ready for battle.
Final Round up
The Germans attacked today. There are houses burning all over the ghetto. The air stinks of burning property and dead bodies. It has been reported that about six hundred Jews have been killed. The Germans wanted to round up the rest of us and take us to their concentration camps. They did not expect us to put up an armed resistance. However, we successfully repelled them.
In conclusion, life is tough in the ghetto. Tens of thousands of Jews have died from hunger and disease. The Germans continue to starve us. Hundreds of thousands have been killed in German concentration camps. However, we have put up armed resistance that is helping us stop the mass transportations. We are still in dire need of food and medicine.
Works Cited
“WW2 People’s War.” BBC home. 21st Oct 2005. Web. 14th Nov 2017. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/stories/06/a6259106.shtml
“Warsaw Ghetto”. Wikipedia. Web. 14th Nov 2017. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warsaw_Ghetto
“Deborah’s Diary”. Collections.ushmm.org. Web. 14th Nov 2017. Retrieved from https://collections.ushmm.org/artifact/image/h00/00/h0000281.pdf
Renata, Zajdman “A Day in the Life in the Warsaw Ghetto.” Retrieved from http://www.dzieciholocaustu.org.pl/pliki/en_myionas_13.pdf
“The Warsaw Ghetto”. Holocust Education & Archive Research Team. Web. 14th Nov 2017. Retrieved from http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/ghettos/warsawghetto.html
