Ghetto Timeline by Amy Navarro

Establishing the Ghetto in Warsaw

anavarr86 — 2025-02-20 13:24:39 UTC

The Germans invaded on September 1, 1939, which caused Poland to suffer a large amount of air attacks and artillery bombardment. The German authorities created a ghetto with the largest Jewish population located in Warsaw, Poland. Before the Germans attacked, the city of Warsaw was known to be an area that had a large Jewish population. The Germans officially took control of Warsaw on September 27, 1939. Less than a week later, German authorities established a Jewish council, known as the Jundenrat, led by Adam Czerniakow, a Jewish engineer. The purpose of the Jewish council was to enforce Nazi policies and oversee the formation of a ghetto. On November 23, 1939, Governor Hans Frank issued a rule for all Jews to wear white armbands with a blue Star of David for identification. The Nazis also closed Jewish schools, confiscated property, forced Jewish men into labor, and disbanded Jewish organizations.

By October 1940, all Jewish residents of Warsaw were ordered to relocate to a designated ghetto, which was sealed off from the rest of the city in November. Enclosed by a 10-foot-high wall topped with barbed wire and heavily guarded, the ghetto became home to over 400,00 Jews, including those forcibly relocated from nearby towns. With only 1.3 square miles of space, living conditions were overcrowded, averaging 7.2 people per room.

The end of Warsaw

anavarr86 — 2025-02-21 01:33:45 UTC

On August 1, 1944, the Polish Home Army, the underground resistance aligned with the Polish government, launched an uprising against the German occupation in an attempt to liberate Warsaw. Although Soviet forces were nearby, they refused to intervene in support of the resistance. The city's civilian population joined the Home Army in battling the well-armed German military. After weeks of intense fighting, the Germans brutally suppressed the uprising and by October 1944, had reduced much of central Warsaw to rubble. Civilians faced severe persecution, with many deported to concentration and forced labor camps. Ten of thousand died, including an unknown number of Jews who had been hiding or taken to be apart of the resistance.

In January 1945, Soviet forces resumed their offensive, and on January 17, they entered a devasted and nearly empty Warsaw.

Deportations & Uprising

anavarr86 — 2025-02-21 01:34:44 UTC

Between the times of July 22 and September 21, 1942, German authorities, carried out mass deportations from the Warsaw Ghetto to the Treblinka killing center which was located 52 miles from Warsaw. During this period, approximately 265,000 Jews were deported to Treblinka, while another 35,000 were murdered inside the ghetto. Jewish council leader, Adam Czerniakow eventually took his own life on July 23, 1942, due to being faced with an impossible demand of filling daily deportation quotas.

In January 1943, the German police forces returned intending to deport thousands of the remaining 60,000 Jews to forced labor camps in the Lublin District. During this time, many Jews resisted, believing the deportations would once lead to Treblinka. Some armed themselves with smuggled weapons and fought back. After capturing approximately 5,000 Jews, the authorities unexpectedly halted the operation and withdrew.

On April 19, 1943, German forces launched a final assault to terminate the ghetto and deport the remaining inhabitants. Led by the Jewish Combat Organization, the ghetto fighters mounted an organized resistance, inflicting casualties on the heavily armed German police forces in the early days of the battle. For four weeks, resistance fighters and small groups of Jews fought back before the Germans crushed the uprising on May 16. In the aftermath, the German police deported about 42,000 survivors to forced labor camps in Poniatowa, Trawniki, and Majandek concentration camps. At least 7,000 Jews died in combat or while in hiding, and another 7,000 were sent to Treblinka.

Conditions in Warsaw

anavarr86 — 2025-02-21 01:35:11 UTC

The Jewish council offices were located on Grzybowska Street in the southern part of the ghetto, where Jewish organizations worked to support residents struggling to survive. Amoung these organizations, are the Jewish Mutual Aid Society, the Federation of Associations in Poland for the Care of Orphans, and the Organization for Rehabilitation through Training. Until 1941, they were primarily funded by the New York-based American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee and sought to sustain a population suffering from extreme starvation, exposure, and disease. Food rations provided by German authorities were extremely gross and unappetizing. In 1941, the average Jew in the ghetto survived on just 1,125 calories per day. In May of that year, Adam Czerniakow, head of the Jewish council, wrote in his diary "Children starving to death". Approximately 83,000 Jews died due to starvation and disease.

There was an extremely widespread smuggling of food and medicine to try and help people who were suffering and trying to prevent a higher death toll. However, conditions worsened after the Nazis sealed the ghetto in mid-November 1940, overcrowding and extreme food shortages caused mortality rates to soar. By August 1941, more than 5,000 people were dying each month from starvation and illness.