What were ghettoes and why were they established by the Nazis?

This essay hasn't yet been marked by one of our teachers

You can view 10 essays on Germany 1918-1939 that have been Marked by Teachers

The first 200 words of this essay...

What were ghettoes and why were they established by the Nazis?

The ghettoes were exclusively Jewish districts which the Nazis established, which were walled off from the rest of the city. They were situated in the poorest districts in the larger cities of Poland, including Warsaw. The Jews were concentrated in these areas and, due to overcrowding, lived in squalid, terrible conditions. Many Jews thought that their lives could not possibly get worse than this. However, Heydrich, deputy leader of the S.S., described the ghettoes at the Wannsee conference as merely a "prerequisite stage" towards the "ultimate aim". However, he never made clear what exactly was meant by the "ultimate aim".

Source C is an extract from Martin Gilbert's book Final Journey: the Fate of the Jews in Nazi Europe (1979). It quotes the edict from the Nazis for the creation of the ghettoes; that all Jews living outside the walls must move in and all Poles living inside the ghetto must leave it.

Source B is an extract from Martin Gilbert's book Holocaust: The Jewish Tragedy (1986). It tells us that at the conference in Berlin, where the long-term future