`they were begging and putting their hands out`
These people have stooped to beg this shows that they must be starving with hunger. These people have no shame, as they do not care what they get as long as it would fill their stomachs.
`to give them any food`
In source C we learn from the sketches of Prof. Ludwik Hirszfeld that the ghettos were overcrowded with people.
`The streets are so over-populated, `
Secondly there is lack of clothing in the ghettos; many people do not even have a shirt to their name.
`Everyone is ragged, in tatters. `
The ghettos are not pleasant places as they are unsettled and noisy. They are much like a prison as they are very well guarded. The German rule is extremely strict. There is disrespect in the ghettos for the Jews. Even the Jewish police are disrespected by the German police. This we learn from Source C.
“The last are slapped in the face if they do not carry out their orders properly.”
The events which take place inside the ghettos are inhumane. It seems like the Germans are allowed to do anything yet the people are repressed.
`children are taken to hospital with gunshot wounds`
Source C emphasises how big the lack of food was .The people inside the ghetto were so hungry and desperate for food that they were even reduced to risking their own children’s lives for food.
`children also climb over the wall this must be done very quickly`
The conditions in the ghettos were disgustingly bad as the people are not startled or surprised to see dead bodies in the streets. There was a high mortality rate so death was common in the ghettos.
`One sees people dying, lying with arms and legs outstretched, in the middle of the road. `
The amount of disrespect and hunger had driven the people to loss of human dignity. The people were treated worse than animals.
`”What would you like to be?” “A dog”, she answered,” because the sentries like dogs”`
In my last source, source D, the title of the photograph `Begging for a crust of bread`, helps give an impression of the atmosphere in the picture. `a crust`this emphasises how hungry these people are that they will eat anything they are so hungry. In the photograph we can see that the people have a lack of clothing and the clothes that they do have are extremely shabby and tattered.
The woman’s physical appearance is grave. She has sunken cheekbones and has black circles under her eyes. I don’t think the woman is that old .I think she is early teens yet malnutrition has aged her.
The woman dose not look interested in the camera as she is not looking at it, the woman looks more detached from what is going on than the other people in the photograph, were the other to young children are looking directly at it. The people in the photograph do not look too startled by the fact that they are sitting beside a body of someone who may be injured as there is a large black stain beside the body or may even be dead. They are probably so used to seeing death in the ghetto that they no longer care.
In conclusion I can learn a lot from these sources about the conditions in the ghetto. I found out that there was a severe lack of food, clothing and clean water. The people in these ghettos were not even aloud basic human rights. They lived in extreme poverty and hunger and death became two conditions that had become part of everyday life in the ghetto.
