Jewish ghettos in Europe

Common card · No. 416505

In the early modern era, many European Jews were confined to ghettos and placed under strict regulations as well as restrictions in many European cities. The character of ghettos fluctuated over the centuries. In some cases, they comprised a Jewish quarter, the area of a city traditionally inhabited by Jews. In many instances, ghettos were places of terrible poverty and—especially during periods of rapid population growth—ghettos had small, crowded houses cramped along narrow streets. Residents had their own justice system. In the 19th century, with the coming of Jewish emancipation, Jewish ghettos were progressively abolished, and their walls taken down. However, in the course of World War II, Nazi Germany created a totally new Jewish ghetto system for the purpose of identification, exploitation, persecution, deportation (often to concentration camps) and terrorization of Jews, mostly in Eastern Europe. According to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum archives, the Nazis "established...

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