| Nazi Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, and, aided by a Soviet invasion from the east, conquered the country before the month was out. More than a million Polish Jews were now at the mercy of the Nazis. In late 1940 the Germans established a walled Jewish ghetto in Warsaw and herded Jews from the city and the surrounding region into it. Over the next two and a half years hundreds of thousands of Jews were forced into the ghetto and then sent to concentration camps. Atrocious living conditions, including overcrowding, lack of proper health services, and meager food rations, resulted in a high death rate among the inhabitants of the ghetto. For example, in 1941 more than 20 percent of the population of the Warsaw ghetto died of starvation or disease. In April 1943 the Jews of the ghetto staged a heroic month-long resistance. After the Nazis put down the uprising they destroyed the ghetto, killing or sending to camps all of the remaining inhabitants. In all, some 500,000 Warsaw-area Jews died. Here a survivor of the Warsaw Ghetto recounts the establishment of the ghetto and some aspects of life there. |
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