Instruct: Given a question, retrieve relevant passages that answer the question.
Query: When were ghettos first established?
Nearly complete genocidal destruction of the Polish Jewish community took place during the German and Soviet occupation of Poland and the ensuing Holocaust. The World War II 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 purpose of persecution, terror, and exploitation.[28] The Warsaw Ghetto was the largest ghetto in all of Nazi occupied Europe, with over 400,000 Jews crammed into an area of 1.3 square miles (3.4km2), or 7.2 persons per room.[29] The Łódź Ghetto (set up in the city of Łódź, renamed Litzmannstadt, in the territories of Poland annexed by Nazi Germany) was the second largest, holding about 160,000 inmates.[30] Over three million Polish Jews perished in World War II, resulting in the destruction of an entire civilization.[31][32]
The Germans established hundreds of ghettos in which Jews were confined and starved although cruelly offered hopes of survival before eventually being subjected to genocide. The Warsaw Ghetto was the largest, with 380,000 people and the Łódź Ghetto, the second largest, holding about 160,000. Other Polish cities with large Jewish ghettos included Białystok, Częstochowa, Kielce, Kraków, Lublin, Lwów, and Radom. Ghettos were also established in smaller settlements. Living conditions in the Ghettos were terrible. Jews who tried to escape were shot to death with their bullet-riddled bodies to be left in public view until dusk as a warning. Many of those who fled to the Aryan side without connections with Christian Poles willing to risked their lives in order to help, returned to the ghettos when they were unable to find a place to hide. Hundreds of four- to five-year-old Jewish children went across en masse to the Aryan side, sometimes several times a day, smuggling food into the ghettos, returning with goods that often weighed more than they did. Smuggling was sometimes the only source of subsistence for these children and their parents, who would otherwise have died of starvation. Shooting of Jews who were caught trying to smuggle in food became routine. People were shot to death for bringing in a chicken or a liter of milk. Poles from the Aryan side found assisting Jews in obtained food were subject to the death penalty.
Scholars have interpreted acts of cultural expression through theater, music, and art in Theresienstadt as a strategy for survival by those deported there. The ghetto became the site of a wide variety of works of art using different artistic mediums, from lectures to drawings, and devoted to a variety of themes. At first, cultural activities were suppressed by the Nazis, but when the function of the ghetto as a model became clearer in 1942, these activities were deemed acceptable. The Nazis decided that Theresienstadt could function uniquely as a place to deport member of Europe’s cultural elite. At this time the "Freizeitgestaltung" (Association of Free Time Activities) was established, and cultural activities were allowed by the Nazis. However, instruments had previously been smuggled into Theresienstadt since 1941, and many artists considered them to be among their most basic needs. Children in the ghetto expressed themselves and their reactions to their circumstances through drawings in the lessons permitted by the Nazis. With these outlets, the people attempted to create a sense of hope within the ghetto.
The next stage of the anti-Semitic policy of the occupier was ghettoisation of the Jewish population, officially justified by economic, sanitary or political reasons. As an excuse to isolate Jews in closed districts, among other things, Germans used the "Easter pogrom" of March 1940, arranged from German inspiration by Polish extreme nationalists. The first Jewish ghetto was established in October 1939 in Piotrków Trybunalski. Over the next few months several more ghettos were created in the General Government and Warta Country, including the ghetto in Łódź (February 1940). Beginning in September 1940, the ghettoisation process became more organized. In October of this same year, it was decided to establish a "Jewish quarter in Warsaw". In March 1941 the ghettos in Kraków and Lublin were established. The process of ghettoisation in the Radom district of the General Government was rather at the latest in December 1941. After the outbreak of the German-Soviet War, the organizing of ghettos on Polish lands previously annexed by the USSR took place. The creation of closed Jewish communities was accompanied by a progressive reduction in the number of smaller ghettos. The concentration and isolation of the Jewish population was also to be served by an unrealized project of creating a great "reservation" for Jews in the Lublin region.
The German Nazis established six extermination camps throughout occupied Poland by 1942. All of these – at Chełmno (Kulmhof), Bełżec, Sobibór, Treblinka, Majdanek and Auschwitz (Oświęcim) – were located near the rail network so that the victims could be easily transported. The system of the camps was expanded over the course of the German occupation of Poland and their purposes were diversified; some served as transit camps, some as forced labor camps and the majority as death camps. While in the death camps, the victims were usually killed shortly after arrival, in the other camps able-bodied Jews were worked and beaten to death. The operation of concentration camps depended on Kapos, the collaborator-prisoners. Some of them were Jewish themselves, and their prosecution after the war created an ethical dilemma.
Between October 1939 and July 1942 a system of ghettos was imposed for the confinement of Jews. The Warsaw Ghetto was the largest in all of World War II, with 380,000 people crammed into an area of . The Łódź Ghetto was the second largest, holding about 160,000 prisoners. Other large Jewish ghettos in leading Polish cities included Białystok Ghetto in Białystok, Częstochowa Ghetto, Kielce Ghetto, Kraków Ghetto in Kraków, Lublin Ghetto, Lwów Ghetto in present-day Lviv, Stanisławów Ghetto also in present-day Ukraine, Brześć Ghetto in presend-day Belarus, and Radom Ghetto among others. Ghettos were also established in hundreds of smaller settlements and villages around the country. The overcrowding, dirt, lice, lethal epidemics such as typhoid and hunger all resulted in countless deaths.
The German authorities established a Jewish ghetto in Głowno in May 1940, in order to confine its Jewish population for the purpose of persecution and exploitation. The ghetto was liquidated in March 1941, when all its 5,600 inhabitants were transported in cattle trucks to Łowicz and from there to the Warsaw Ghetto, the largest ghetto in all of Nazi occupied Europe with over 400,000 Jews crammed into an area of , or 7.2 persons per room. By the time Nazi-occupied Poland was liberated, not a single Jewish ghetto remained on Polish lands. 
In June 1942, when the Liepāja ghetto was established, there were only about 814 surviving Jews. The ghetto itself consisted of only 11 houses on four streets. Until the ghetto was closed in October 1943, the inhabitants were used as a pool of forced labor for the occupying authorities. During that time 102 people died and 54 were executed. The ghetto guards were Latvians wearing black uniforms. Conditions were harsh and food was short. On October 8, 1943, Yom Kippur, the survivors of the Liepāja ghetto were loaded into cattle cars and shipped to Riga and the ghetto was closed. Only three Jews, who were barely alive, were left behind, two shoemakers and one goldsmith.
At the time of its founding, the ghetto imprisoned 34,000 Polish Jews, and an unknown number of Roma people. Virtually all of them were dead by the war's end. Most of the victims, about 30,000 were deported to the Belzec extermination camp (some of them through the Piaski ghetto) between 17 March and 11 April 1942 by the Reserve Police Battalion 101 from Orpo helped by "Schutzpolizei". The Germans set a daily quota of 1,400 inmates to be deported to their deaths. The other 4,000 people were first moved to the Majdan Tatarski ghetto – a small ghetto established in the suburb of Lublin – and then either killed there during roundups or sent to the nearby KL Lublin/Majdanek concentration camp. 
The last of the Ghetto's former residents still in German captivity were executed at Majdanek and Trawniki camps in the Operation Harvest Festival (German: "Aktion Erntefest") on 3 November 1943. At the time of the liquidation of the ghetto, the German propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels wrote in his diary, "The procedure is pretty barbaric, and not to be described here more definitely. Not much will remain of the Jews."
Inside occupied Poland, the Germans created hundreds of ghettos in which they forced Jews to live. These World War II ghettos were part of the German official policy of removing Jews from public life. The combination of excess numbers of inmates, unsanitary conditions and lack of food resulted in a high death rate among them. The first ghetto was established in October 1939 at Piotrków. Initially the ghettos were open but on 1 May the Łódź ghetto was closed by Germans sealing the Jews inside. The Warsaw Ghetto was closed in November 1940. The Germans started a reservation for Jews near Lublin.
The Kraków Ghetto Jewish Police were responsible for enforcing the decrees of the Nazis and the Jewish Council. Ghetto Jewish police were established on order of Nazi authorities, as with the Jewish councils, however, they were established by local Nazi officials, as opposed to an order from a central Nazi authority, like the decree that established the Jewish Councils. Nazi officials wanted it to appear that Jews initiated the need for a ghetto police, and so they prompted the Kraków Jewish council to ask the local militia captain (stadthauptmann) for permission, and permission was subsequently granted. Furthermore, the Jewish council was involved in choosing the ghetto police and “nepotism and graft” were highly prevalent in the selection. However, soon after the Kraków ghetto police was formed they "severed ties" with the Jewish Council.
After invading Poland, the Germans established ghettos in the incorporated territories and General Government to confine Jews. The ghettos were formed and closed off from the outside world at different times and for different reasons. For example, the Łódź ghetto was closed in April 1940, to force the Jews inside to give up money and valuables; the Warsaw ghetto was closed for health considerations (for the people outside, not inside, the ghetto), but this did not happen until November 1940; and the Kraków ghetto was not established until March 1941. The Warsaw Ghetto contained 380,000 people and was the largest ghetto in Poland; the Łódź Ghetto was the second largest, holding between 160,000 to 223,000. Because of the long drawn-out process of establishing ghettos, it is unlikely that they were originally considered part of a systematic attempt to eliminate Jews completely.
Along with other Jewish Councils in the General Government, the Kraków Jewish Council was established by a general decree from Hans Frank, the Governor-general of the General Government, on November 28, 1939, following a statement by Reinhard Heydrich on September 21, 1939 with similar aims . However, the Kraków Ghetto was not formally established in the Podgórze area of the Kraków district until March 3, 1941. Prior to March 3, the offices of the Jewish Council were located at 41 Kraków Street and, after the ghetto was established, the offices were located in the ghetto at the corner of Limanowski and Rynek Podgorski streets.
The city had a large Jewish population before the Nazi–Soviet Invasion of Poland. In 1940, the German occupation authorities established a Jewish ghetto in Pruszków, in order to confine its Jewish population for the purpose of persecution and exploitation. The ghetto was liquidated on January 31, 1941, when all its 1,400–3,000 inhabitants were transported in cattle trucks to Warsaw Ghetto, the largest ghetto in all of Nazi occupied Europe with over 400,000 Jews crammed into an area of . From there, most victims were sent to Treblinka extermination camp.
Starting in 1939, Adolf Eichmann, a German Nazi and SS-Obersturmbannführer who was head of the Final Solution program, began to systematically move Polish Jews away from their homes and into designated areas of large Polish cities. The first large ghetto of World War II at Piotrków Trybunalski was established on October 8, 1939,[34] followed by the Łódź Ghetto in April 1940, the Warsaw Ghetto in October 1940, and many other ghettos established throughout 1940 and 1941. The Ghettos were walled off, and any Jew found leaving them was shot.[35]
In October 1941, the Nazis established a concentration camp next to the factory, which housed the forced laborers along with other prisoners. Thousands of Jews from the Lwów ghetto were forced to work as slave laborers in this complex. When the Lwów ghetto was liquidated by the Nazis, the ghetto's inhabitants who were fit for work were sent to the Janowska camp; the rest were deported to Belzec for extermination. The concentration camp was guarded by a "Sonderdienst" battalion of the "Hiwi" guards known as "Trawniki men".
The ghetto was populated by approximately 16,000 Jews when it was first formed. Before the ghetto was cordoned off, it was home to around 3,500 residents. The ghetto consisted of 320 buildings. To accommodate the density, apartments within the ghetto were divided on a 2m² per person basis or by a standard of three people to one window. The Jewish Council (Judenrat) was responsible for determining the new housing assignments. Within the Kraków ghetto, Yiddish was the official language, not Polish. On 1 December 1939, an order was announced mandating that all Jews within the General Government wear an armband identifying them as Jewish. The white armbands with the blue Star of David were still required once Jews were moved into the ghetto.
c Three major ghettos in Lithuania were established: Vilnius ghetto (with a population of about 20,000), Kaunas Ghetto (17,500) and the Shavli Ghetto (5,000); there were also a number of smaller ghettos and labor camps.
The Piotrków Ghetto was the first wartime ghetto of its kind. Set up in one of Poland's oldest cities with a thriving Jewish community, it took until late January 1940 for the new inmates to move into it. First, the Judenrat (Jewish Council) was established and ordered to issue an announcement about the relocation, but this had no effect. Consequently, the Germans themselves evicted the Jews from their homes, transferring them to the ghetto by force. Eventually, up to 28,000 Jews were squeezed into a part of town where only 6,000 people previously lived. The homes vacated by the Jews were assigned to Christians and members of the German minority who took over their businesses after the relocation. It was an open type ghetto –- an early variant of Nazi ghettoization -– without the barbed wire fences introduced later throughout all of occupied Poland. Only warning signs with skulls were placed along the boundaries, and the main gate erected. The ghetto was pronounced closed from the outside on .
In 1940, during the Nazi Occupation of Poland, German authorities established a Jewish ghetto in Łowicz, in order to confine its Jewish population for the purpose of persecution and exploitation. The ghetto was liquidated in March 1941, when all its 8,000–8,200 inhabitants were transported in cattle trucks to Warsaw Ghetto, the largest ghetto in all of Nazi occupied Europe with over 400,000 Jews crammed into an area of . From there, most victims were sent to Treblinka extermination camp.Łowicz is twinned with:
In 1939, there were around 3,000 Jews living in Svisloch, along with refugees from western Poland who had settled there after the invasion of Poland. In July 1941, a ghetto was established in the old Jewish neighborhood, in the northwest of Svisloch. In that area, Jews were also gathered from the village of Golobudy. It was an open ghetto, and the western border of the ghetto’s territory ran near the Svisloch River. On November 2, 1942, the ghetto was liquidated when the Jews were sent by train to the Vawkavysk transit camp where many massacres occurred. The remaining Jews, mostly elderly and sick, were killed in the Visnik Forest, just outside Svisloch.
Germany invaded the Soviet Union in 1941, and German troops occupied Lakhva on July 8, 1941, two weeks after the start of Operation Barbarossa. On April 1, 1942, the town's Jews were forcibly moved into a ghetto consisting of two streets and 45 houses, surrounded by a barbed-wire fence. The ghetto housed roughly 2,350 people, with approximately 1 square meter for every resident. The Ghetto was to be liquidated on September 3, 1942 and a Jewish underground resistance formed, led by Icchak Rochczyn. When the Germans entered the ghetto, an uprising occurred, and members of the ghetto underground attacked the Germans. This battle is believed to represent one of the first, and possibly "the" first, Jewish ghetto uprisings of the Second World War. Approximately 650 Jews, including Rochczyn, were killed in the fighting and by the flames, and another 500 or so Jews were taken to the execution pits and shot. Six German soldiers and eight German and Ukrainian policemen were also killed. The ghetto fence was breached, and approximately 1000 Jews were able to escape. Approximately 90 residents of the ghetto survived the war.
The first instance of armed resistance took place on January 4, 1943, at the so-called "Large Ghetto" established by the Germans in April 1941. During the 'selection' of some 500 Jews to be deported to the ghetto in Radomsko, shooting broke out at the Warsaw Square (now, Ghetto Heroes Square) in which Mendel Fiszelewicz (Fiszelowicz) along with Isza Fajner were killed. 50 young Jews were executed in reprisal.
Ever since the ghetto was established, numerous deportation actions were organized by the Germans with the help of the Judenrat and Merin, selecting healthy men for slave labor at the camps. Large transfers of Jews took part in May (1,500) and June 1942 (2,000). Around October 1942 - January 1943 the ghetto was moved to the Środula district. Środula also bordered the site of the Będzin Ghetto. At this point about 13,000 Jews still lived in Sosnowiec. The creation of the Sosnowiec ghetto ended on 10 March 1943, when it was finally closed off from the outside world.
Brzesko Ghetto was a Nazi ghetto during World War II in occupied Poland. The ghetto was created by the Germans in 1940 in the Polish town of Brzesko located in the Kraków District about 40 miles from Kraków. Brzesko was originally occupied in 1939. The ghetto was open when it was first created, meaning there were no barriers preventing people from leaving, but Jews were not able to leave. The ghetto was only marked using signage at this time. In 1942 walls were put up and the ghetto became a closed ghetto which physically prevented people from escaping. An estimated 4,000 Jewish people lived within the Brzesko ghetto when it was first established, but another 2,000 moved there by 1942, many arriving from Kraków and the surrounding area. The Jewish people living within Brzesko were sent to the Bełżec extermination camp and Auschwitz extermination camp. After the exterminations, the camp was closed in 1943.
This setback for the segregationist cause did not stop attempts to establish ghetto benches in other Polish universities. Demands for segregated seating were again raised by the OZON-led Union of Young Poland (""), the "ND" All-Polish Youth, and other nationalist youth organizations. The Ministry of Education in Warsaw was opposed to the ghetto benches, declaring "numerus clausus" a violation of the constitution, and Polish Minister of Education stated that: "Student ghettos would not be introduced at the Polish Universities". However, in light of the continuing serious riots at the university, which the Ministry condemned as "zoological patriotism", the Ministry slowly gave in and decided to withdraw its opposition, hoping that the introduction of the ghettos would end the riots. The ethno-nationalists finally won their campaign for ghetto benches in 1937 when by Ministry decision universities were granted the right to regulate the seating of Polish and Jewish students. On October 5, 1937, the Rector of Warsaw Polytechnic ordered the establishment of the institution of ghetto benches in the lecture halls. Within a few days, similar orders were given in other universities of Poland.