List of Nazi-era ghettos
Encyclopedia
Jewish population
Jewish population refers to the number of Jews in the world. Precise figures are difficult to calculate because the definition of "Who is a Jew" is a source of controversy.-Total population:...
(and sometimes Gypsies) on territories they controlled. Most of the prominent ghettos listed here were set up by the Third Reich and its allies in the course of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. In total, according to USHMM archives, "The Germans established at least 1,000 ghettos in German-occupied and annexed Poland and the Soviet Union
Operation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa was the code name for Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II that began on 22 June 1941. Over 4.5 million troops of the Axis powers invaded the USSR along a front., the largest invasion in the history of warfare...
alone." Therefore, the examples are intended only to illustrate their scope across Eastern
Eastern Europe
Eastern Europe is the eastern part of Europe. The term has widely disparate geopolitical, geographical, cultural and socioeconomic readings, which makes it highly context-dependent and even volatile, and there are "almost as many definitions of Eastern Europe as there are scholars of the region"...
and Western Europe
Western Europe
Western Europe is a loose term for the collection of countries in the western most region of the European continents, though this definition is context-dependent and carries cultural and political connotations. One definition describes Western Europe as a geographic entity—the region lying in the...
.
German-occupied Poland
Following the 1939 Invasion of Poland, the new ghetto system had been imposed by Nazi Germany roughly between October 1939 and July 1942 in order to confine PolandPoland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
's Jewish population
History of the Jews in Poland
The history of the Jews in Poland dates back over a millennium. For centuries, Poland was home to the largest and most significant Jewish community in the world. Poland was the centre of Jewish culture thanks to a long period of statutory religious tolerance and social autonomy. This ended with the...
of 3.5 million for the purpose of persecution, terror, and exploitation. The Warsaw Ghetto
Warsaw Ghetto
The Warsaw Ghetto was the largest of all Jewish Ghettos in Nazi-occupied Europe during World War II. It was established in the Polish capital between October and November 15, 1940, in the territory of General Government of the German-occupied Poland, with over 400,000 Jews from the vicinity...
was the largest ghetto in all of Nazi occupied Europe, with over 400,000 Jews crammed into an area of 1.3 square miles (3.4 km²), or 7.2 persons per room. The Łódź Ghetto was the second largest, holding about 160,000 inmates.
A more complete list of over 260 ghettos with approximate number of prisoners, date of creation and liquidation, as well as known deportation route to Extermination camp, is available at Jewish ghettos in German-occupied Poland
Jewish ghettos in German-occupied Poland
This article presents a list of locations where the Jewish ghettos in German-occupied Poland were established during World War II. The ghetto system had been imposed by Nazi Germany roughly between October 1939 and July 1942 in order to confine Poland's Jewish population of 3.5 million for the...
.
- Będzin (Bendzin) GhettoBędzin GhettoBędzin Ghetto or the Bendzin Ghetto was a ghetto established for Jews by Nazi German authorities in occupied Poland during the Holocaust. A major ghetto in East Upper Silesia, it was created in May 1942...
, site of Będzin Ghetto Uprising - Białystok Ghetto, site of Białystok Ghetto Uprising
- Brest (Brześć) GhettoBrest GhettoThe Brest Ghetto or Brześć Litewski Ghetto was created on December 16, 1941, in occupied Poland six months after Nazi Germany entered the Soviet occupation zone under the codename Operation Barbarossa...
- Częstochowa GhettoCzęstochowa GhettoThe Częstochowa Ghetto was a Jewish ghetto set up by Nazi Germany in the city of Częstochowa in south-central Poland, for the purpose of persecution and exploitation of local Jews during the German occupation of Poland. The approximate number of people confined to the ghetto at its beginning was...
, site of Częstochowa Ghetto UprisingCzęstochowa Ghetto UprisingThe Częstochowa Ghetto Uprising was an insurrection in Poland's Częstochowa Ghetto against German occupation forces during World War II.The first Jewish Ghetto of Częstochowa was established by the German Nazis in April 1941.... - Grodno (Hrodna) GhettoGrodno GhettoGrodno Ghetto was created by Nazi Germans in November 1941, in the city of Hrodna , which was part of the Second Polish Republic until the Soviet invasion of Poland, and subsequently incorporated by the Soviets into the Belarusian SSR...
- Kraków (Cracow) GhettoKraków GhettoThe Kraków Ghetto was one of five major, metropolitan Jewish ghettos created by Nazi Germany in the General Government territory for the purpose of persecution, terror, and exploitation of Polish Jews during the German occupation of Poland in World War II...
- Lakhva (Łachwa) GhettoŁachwa GhettoLakhva Ghetto or Łachwa Ghetto was a World War II ghetto created on April 1st 1942 by Nazi Germany in the town of Łachwa in occupied Poland , with the aim of persecution, terror and exploitation of the local Jews. The ghetto existed only until September...
, site of Łachwa Ghetto Uprising - Litzmannstadt (Łódź) Ghetto
- Łomża GhettoŁomża GhettoThe Łomża Ghetto was created by Nazi Germans on 12 August 1941 in the vicinity of the Old Market in Łomża, Poland; following their attack on the Soviet Union. The Jews were ordered to move into it in a single day, resulting in panic at the main entry on ul. Senatorska. The number of Polish Jews...
- Lviv (Lwów, Lemberg) Ghetto
- Lubartow GhettoLubartów GhettoLubartów Ghetto was established by Nazi Germany and existed from 1941 until October 1942. The Polish Jews of the town of Lubartów were confined within it, amounting to 3,269 people or 53.6% of the town's population according to the 1921 census.. Its inmates also included Jews deported from other...
- Lublin GhettoLublin GhettoThe Lublin Ghetto was a World War II ghetto created by Nazi Germany in the city of Lublin in occupied Poland, on the Nazi-administered territory of the General Government. Its inhabitants were mostly Polish Jews, although a number of Roma were also present. The Lublin Ghetto, set up in March 1941,...
- Międzyrzec Podlaski GhettoMiedzyrzec Podlaski GhettoThe Międzyrzec Podlaski Ghetto was one of the ghettos established by the German Nazis for the local Jewish population in the General Government during the Holocaust in World War II....
- Radom GhettoRadom GhettoRadom Ghetto was a World War II ghetto set up in March 1941 by Nazi Germany in the city of Radom in occupied Poland, for the purpose of persecution and exploitation of the local Polish Jews...
- Sosnowiec (Sosnowitz) GhettoSosnowiec GhettoSosnowiec Ghetto or Sosnowitz Ghetto was a ghetto established for Jews by Nazi German authorities in the Province of Upper Silesia in occupied Poland during the Holocaust.-History:...
- Warsaw GhettoWarsaw GhettoThe Warsaw Ghetto was the largest of all Jewish Ghettos in Nazi-occupied Europe during World War II. It was established in the Polish capital between October and November 15, 1940, in the territory of General Government of the German-occupied Poland, with over 400,000 Jews from the vicinity...
, site of Warsaw Ghetto UprisingWarsaw Ghetto UprisingThe Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was the Jewish resistance that arose within the Warsaw Ghetto in German occupied Poland during World War II, and which opposed Nazi Germany's effort to transport the remaining ghetto population to Treblinka extermination camp.... - Vilna (Wilno, Vilnius) GhettoVilna GhettoThe Vilna Ghetto or Vilnius Ghetto was a Jewish ghetto established by Nazi Germany in the city of Vilnius in the occupied Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic , during the Holocaust in World War II...
- Zhetel (Zdzięcioł) GhettoZhetel ghettoThe Zdzięcioł Ghetto, Dzyatlava Ghetto or Zhetel Ghetto was a Jewish ghetto established by Nazi Germany in the town of Zdzięcioł in the occupied eastern part of the Republic of Poland during Holocaust in World War II...
Other occupied countries
- Beuthen (Bytom) Ghetto
- Budapest GhettoBudapest ghettoThe Budapest Ghetto was a ghetto where Jews were forced to live in Budapest, Hungary during the Second World War.- History :The area consisted of several blocks of the old Jewish quarter of the city surrounding the main synagogue, and was surrounded by a high fence and stone wall that was guarded...
- Daugavpils (Dvinsk) GhettoDaugavpils GhettoFollowing the occupation of Latvia by Nazi Germany in the summer of 1941, the Daugavpils Ghetto was established in an old fortress near Daugavpils. Daugavpils is the second largest city in Latvia and the principal city of the Latgalia region. Daugavpils was located in southeastern Latvia on the...
- Drohobych ghettoDrohobych ghettoDrohobych ghetto was a ghetto created by Nazi Germany for the local Jews following their take over of the region during the German invasion of Russia.-Drohobych:...
- Cluj (Kolozsvár) GhettoKolozsvár GhettoThe Kolozsvár Ghetto was one of the lesser-known Jewish ghettos of the World War II era. The ghetto was located in the city of Cluj , then part of Hungary and called Kolozsvár. Prior to the Second Vienna Award in 1940, Cluj was a part of Romania...
- Kovno (Kaunas) GhettoKaunas GhettoThe Kovno ghetto was a ghetto established by Nazi Germany to hold the Lithuanian Jews of Kaunas during the Holocaust. At its peak, the Ghetto held 40,000 people, most of whom were later sent to concentration and extermination camps, or were shot at the Ninth Fort...
- Marcinkance (Marcinkonys) Ghetto
- Minsk GhettoMinsk GhettoThe Minsk Ghetto was created soon after the German invasion of the Soviet Union. It was one of the largest in Eastern Europe, and the largest in the German-occupied territory of the Soviet Union...
- Riga ghettoRiga GhettoThe Riga Ghetto was a small area in Maskavas Forštate, neighborhood of Riga, Latvia, designated by the Nazis where Jews from Latvia, and later from Germany, were forced to live during World War II. On October 25, 1941, the Nazis relocated all Jews from Riga and the vicinity to the ghetto while the...
- Roman ghettoRoman GhettoThe Roman Ghetto was a ghetto located in the rione Sant'Angelo, in Rome, Italy, in the area surrounded by today's Via del Portico d'Ottavia, Lungotevere dei Cenci, Via del Progresso and Via di Santa Maria del Pianto close to the Tiber and the Theater of Marcellus...
- Theresienstadt Ghetto (concentration camp, sometimes referred to as a ghetto)
- Trochenbrod (Zofiówka) Ghetto
- Vitebsk GhettoVitebsk GhettoVitebsk Ghetto or Witebsk Ghetto was a short-lived ghetto in Belarus. It was created soon after the German invasion of the Soviet Union. It was created immediately after Germans took the town of Vitebsk on 11 July 1941....