By Des Quinn and Martin Williams This slide show will play automatically.

By Des Quinn and Martin Williams

This slide show will play automatically

In an attempt to separate the Jews from Aryans

within Nazi occupied Europe the Nazis forced them

into walled off areas known as ghettos.

Once inside the Jews had little chance of escape.

They relied on the Nazis for everything – for food,

work and even the right to live.

Conditions within the ghettos were awful and many

people simply starved to death or were struck

down by illness. Those who did survive were

eventually rounded up and sent to concentration

and death camps when the ghettos were

‘liquidated’.

People were forced to

swap and exchange goods

in order to survive.

This ‘barter’ system

meant that many Jews

had to give up their

belongings in an attempt

to ‘buy’ food and

clothing.

The streets were filled

with children dressed in

rags, crying and dying of

hunger.

Image courtesy of Des Quinn

Some of the ‘luckier’ children smile for a German

Officer…

Image courtesy of Des Quinn

While their parents queue for food and to have

their work permits signed and papers checked.

Image courtesy of D

es Quinn

In an attempt to make the Jews feel that at least

some aspects of normal life existed within the

ghettos the Nazis allowed postcards to be written

to relatives and friends who lived elsewhere within

Europe.

This tolerance was just ‘for show’ however. The

Nazis had no intention of allowing the Jews to have

contact with the outside world.

When the cards were posted within the ghetto the

Nazis collected them, bagged them and either

stored them in warehouses or simply destroyed

them.

Image courtesy of Des Quinn

The longer the ghettos

were in existence the

more intolerable life

became for the

inhabitants.

Confrontations with

German soldiers were

common with the penalty

for answering back often

being physical bodily

harm or execution.

The penalty for smuggling

food into the ghetto was

the same.

Image courtesy of Des Quinn

As more and more Jews

entered the ghettos the

harder it became for the

Nazis to control the

people who lived there

and to stop illness and

disease from spreading.

The Jews also began to

realise that they would

never be released and

so escape attempts

increased.

The Germans therefore

planned to get rid of the

Jews once and for all.

Image courtesy of Des Quinn

The inhabitants of the

ghettos were rounded up

and their names checked

off on an official list.

Those who hid from the

soldiers were hunted

down and many were

shot.

This was the ‘liquidation’

of the ghettos. Once the

Jews had been herded

together the buildings

were torn down.

Image courtesy of Des Quinn

Many people were put

on lorries and others

were made to walk.

With few possessions

they made their way

under armed escort to

the train stations where

cattle trucks waited to

transport them to an

even greater nightmare

-either concentration, or

death camps.Image courtesy of Des Quinn

‘Special’ Groups who had murdered Jews as the German Army swept into Poland and Russia were now given the task of sifting through the remains of the ghettos in search of Jewish survivors that soldiers

had missed.

Image courtesy of Des Quinn

This was the

beginning of

the end for

many of

Eastern

Europe’s Jews.

Once on board

the trains

bound for the

camps there

was no way to

escape the

extreme

hardships and

death that was

to come.

Image courtesy of Des Quinn

We should never forget what happened to these brave people.

This was a dark and terrible episode in human history and one that all generations to come should be made aware

of so that nothing like it ever happens again.

Image courtesy of Des Quinn

It is estimated that over 6 million Jews and ‘Undesirables’ lost their lives in Concentration Camps between 1939-

1945.