The Ghettos in Poland were designated areas that contained Jews for a period of time. The Jews would be forced to work in factories to produce quantities of German materials.
Lodz is located around 75 miles southwest of Warsaw, Poland.The Lodz Ghetto was the second largest Jewish community in Poland. Shortly after the Nazi invasion, the Germans created a ghetto in Lodz, and all of the Jews living in Lodz were forced to live there. Before Lodz was transformed as a ghetto in 1940, it was a city. Germans renamed the city of Lodz, Litzmannstadt, after a German general, Karl Litzmann. The Germans isolated the ghetto from the city with a barbed wire fence with police unites guarding the perimeter. The Ghetto was divided into three parts from the intersection of two major roads. May 1940, the Germans established factories in the ghetto and used people living in the ghettos for workers. The factories produced textiles and uniforms for the German army. Living conditions in the ghetto were terrible. Most homes consisted of no running water or sewer system, hard work, little room, and starvation. 20 percent of the citizens living the Lodz ghetto died from the living conditions alone.
http://www.fold3.com/page/286160716_the_lodz_ghetto_1940_1944/
Warsaw is the capital of Poland with 1.3 million inhabitants. Before World War II, the city was a major center of Jewish life and culture. After the German invasion of Poland, Warsaw suffered heavy air attacks and artillery attacks. German Troops entered Warsaw on September 29th. On November 23rd, 1939, German authorities required Jews living in Warsaw to wear a white armband with the Star of David to identify them. Afterwards, German officials closed all Jewish schools, took over Jewish-owned property, and forced men into working. On October 12, 1940, Germans decreed the establishment of a ghetto in Warsaw. The decree required all Jews living in Warsaw to move to a designated area. Food rations were not sufficient to sustain life. Jewish citizens living the ghetto took in around 1,125 calories a day. In January 1943, SS and policemen deport thousands of remaining Jewish citizens, and liberated Warsaw in 1945.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warsaw_Ghetto
In May, 1940, Germans invaded Krakow and kicked the Jewish people to the neighboring countryside. By 1941, more than 55,000 Jews remained in Krakow. The Ghetto was established in early March 1941. The Ghetto boundaries were enclosed with barbed wire fences and stone. The Germans established many factories inside this Ghetto that created German Enamel products. In 1943, the Krakow ghetto began its liquidation and more than 2,000 jews and the surviving Jews were forced into labor camps . There was a resistance lead by Heshek Bauminger and Bejamin Halbrajch in this Ghetto that later aided in the liberation of the Krakow Ghetto.
http://kehilalinks.jewishgen.org/krakow/kra_ghetto_map.htm
http://kehilalinks.jewishgen.org/krakow/kra_ghetto_map.htm
Lublin/Majdanek
The Lublin concentration camp received its more widely known nickname “Majdanek” (“Little Majdan”). The original intent of the camp was to hold up to 50,000 prisoners. This camp would provide forced laborers, mostly Jews, to work on various projects for the SS. These were to be military and industrial complexes.
Starting in October 1941 until February 16, 1943, Majdanek had the official title of “Prisoner of War Camp of the Waffen SS in Lublin.” On February 16, 1943, the SS renamed Majdanek “Concentration Camp Lublin.” Nevertheless, Majdanek was unique among concentration camps in that Major General Odilo Globocnik, kept an unusually close eye on the operations of the camp, especially for his project “Operation Reinhard."
“Operation Reinhard,” implemented under Globocnik’s supervision between October 1941 and November 1943, had four goals:
1) the physical annihilation of the Jews residing in the Generalgouvernement;
2) the exploitation of some Jews selected to survive temporarily as forced laborers;
3) the seizure, evaluation, and recycling of clothing, personal property, valuables, and currency taken from the murdered Jews at the killing centers;
4) the identification of so-called hidden assets of the Jews in the Generalgouvernement.
The camp also occasionally functioned as a killing site to murder victims who could not be killed at the Operation Reinhard killing centers: Belzec, Sobibor, and Treblinka II. These groups were members of the Polish resistance, hostages taken from the Security Police prison in Lublin, and prisoners in the camp itself who were deemed no longer capable of work.
Though originally planned for the incarceration of 50,000 prisoners, it never held that many concentration camp prisoners at one time. Majdanek was eventually divided into six compounds. Construction was nearly complete on the last compound when the Allies liberated the camp.
The Lublin concentration camp received its more widely known nickname “Majdanek” (“Little Majdan”). The original intent of the camp was to hold up to 50,000 prisoners. This camp would provide forced laborers, mostly Jews, to work on various projects for the SS. These were to be military and industrial complexes.
Starting in October 1941 until February 16, 1943, Majdanek had the official title of “Prisoner of War Camp of the Waffen SS in Lublin.” On February 16, 1943, the SS renamed Majdanek “Concentration Camp Lublin.” Nevertheless, Majdanek was unique among concentration camps in that Major General Odilo Globocnik, kept an unusually close eye on the operations of the camp, especially for his project “Operation Reinhard."
“Operation Reinhard,” implemented under Globocnik’s supervision between October 1941 and November 1943, had four goals:
1) the physical annihilation of the Jews residing in the Generalgouvernement;
2) the exploitation of some Jews selected to survive temporarily as forced laborers;
3) the seizure, evaluation, and recycling of clothing, personal property, valuables, and currency taken from the murdered Jews at the killing centers;
4) the identification of so-called hidden assets of the Jews in the Generalgouvernement.
The camp also occasionally functioned as a killing site to murder victims who could not be killed at the Operation Reinhard killing centers: Belzec, Sobibor, and Treblinka II. These groups were members of the Polish resistance, hostages taken from the Security Police prison in Lublin, and prisoners in the camp itself who were deemed no longer capable of work.
Though originally planned for the incarceration of 50,000 prisoners, it never held that many concentration camp prisoners at one time. Majdanek was eventually divided into six compounds. Construction was nearly complete on the last compound when the Allies liberated the camp.
In early November 1941, the Germans established a ghetto in the north near the city of Lvov. German police shot thousands of elderly and sick Jews as they crossed the bridge on Peltewna Street on their way to the ghetto. In March 1942, the Germans began deporting Jews from the ghetto to the Belzec extermination camp.
By August 1942, more than 65,000 Jews had been deported from the Lvov ghetto and murdered. Thousands of Jews were sent for forced labor to the nearby Janowska camp. In early June 1943, the Germans destroyed the ghetto, killing thousands of Jews in the process. The remaining ghetto residents were sent to the Janowska forced-labor camp or deported to Belzec.
By August 1942, more than 65,000 Jews had been deported from the Lvov ghetto and murdered. Thousands of Jews were sent for forced labor to the nearby Janowska camp. In early June 1943, the Germans destroyed the ghetto, killing thousands of Jews in the process. The remaining ghetto residents were sent to the Janowska forced-labor camp or deported to Belzec.