![]() JanuLodz Jews deported to Chelmno killing center Deportations from the Lodz ghetto to the Chelmno killing center begin. Hard labor, overcrowding, and starvation are the dominant features of life. Most of the area does not have running water or a sewer system. Living conditions in the ghetto are horrible. Streetcars for the non-Jewish population of Lodz traverse the ghetto but are not permitted to stop within it. Footbridges are constructed to connect the three segments of the ghetto. The ghetto area is divided into three parts by the intersection of two major roads, which are excluded from the ghetto. The Lodz ghetto is separated from the rest of the city by barbed-wire fencing. ![]() The Jews of Lodz formed, after Warsaw, the second largest Jewish community in prewar Poland. Over 160,000 Jews, more than a third of the entire population of Lodz, are forced into a small area of the city. Key DatesįebruLodz Jews ordered into ghetto The Germans order the establishment of a ghetto in the northeastern section of Lodz. In the Lodz ghetto, children turned the tops of empty cigarette boxes into playing cards. Children also made toys, using whatever bits of cloth and wood they could find. Some had beloved dolls or trucks they brought into the ghetto with them. Since such classes were usually held secretly, in defiance of the Nazis, pupils learned to hide books under their clothes when necessary, to avoid being caught.Īlthough suffering and death were all around them, children did not stop playing with toys. Many young people tried to continue their education by attending school classes organized by adults in many ghettos. They did so at great risk, as smugglers who were caught were severely punished. Small children in the Warsaw ghetto sometimes helped smuggle food to their families and friends by crawling through narrow openings in the ghetto wall. In order to survive, children had to be resourceful and make themselves useful. Orphans often lived on the streets, begging for bits of bread from others who had little or nothing to share. Some individuals killed themselves to escape their hopeless lives.Įvery day children became orphaned, and many had to take care of even younger children. People weakened by hunger and exposure to the cold became easy victims of disease tens of thousands died in the ghettos from illness, starvation, or cold. During the long winters, heating fuel was scarce, and many people lacked adequate clothing. Some residents had some money or valuables they could trade for food smuggled into the ghetto others were forced to beg or steal to survive. Germans deliberately tried to starve residents by allowing them to purchase only a small amount of bread, potatoes, and fat. Contagious diseases spread rapidly in such cramped, unsanitary housing. ![]() Plumbing broke down, and human waste was thrown in the streets along with the garbage. One apartment might have several families living in it. ![]() Life in the Ghettos Life in the ghettos was usually unbearable. ![]()
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