The Jews were forced to move to the ghettos because the Nazis wanted to limit Jews freedom (Blohm Holocaust Camps 10). The Nazi convinced people that the Jews were infectious and this was one of their favorite tactics to use (Altman The Holocaust Ghettos 9). They used that tactic to say that they were moving Jews into “quarantine” to protect the public from disease (Altman The Holocaust Ghettos 9). Unfortunately, the Jews were only moved to ghettos for the short-term solution of extermination (Altman The Holocaust Ghettos 13).
The Jews began to be moved to ghettos after Reinhard Heydrich gave the ghetto order (Altman The Holocaust Ghettos 11). On October 8, 1939, the first ghetto was established. The ghetto was named Piotrkow and was in Poland. This was the first time during the Holocaust that Jews were sent to ghettos (Altman The Holocaust Ghettos 17).
In the ghettos, living conditions were very harsh. There were ridiculous rules like “no hands in your pockets” (Altman The Holocaust Ghettos 42). The ghettos could be described as “crowded and unsanitary living conditions” (Blohm Holocaust Camps 10), with six to seven people living in each room (Adler 57). The ghettos were always sealed, with a wall, barbed wire, or posted boundaries (Altman the Holocaust Ghettos 14). Around the ghettos they were always guarded, if any Jew tried to escape, they would be killed (Adler 57). There were very small amounts of food and most people had to search the streets for any little food they