44 Warsaw Ghetto Photos That Capture The Horrors Of The Holocaust

At the start of the Holocaust, the Warsaw ghetto was home to some 350,000 Jews. Afterward, just 11,000.

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1 of 45Two children in the Warsaw ghetto. 1941.Fototeca Gilardi/Getty Images 2 of 45Passersby ignore a man lying in the street. 1941.Galerie Bilderwelt/Getty Images 3 of 45Children in the street. 1941.Galerie Bilderwelt/Getty Images 4 of 45A Jewish boy playing a violin to support himself. 1941.Joe J. Heydecker/Galerie Bilderwelt/Getty Images 5 of 45A young boy holds the head of a man who has collapsed along the tram tracks. 1941.Universal History Archive/UIG/Getty Images 6 of 45German guards watch over a group of prisoners taken during a raid. Circa 1943.Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS/Corbis/Getty Images 7 of 45Children in the street. 1941.Galerie Bilderwelt/Getty Images 8 of 45A Polish policeman (right) and a Jewish ghetto policeman check identity papers at the entrance to the ghetto. The person entering wears the prescribed white armlet with the Star of David. 1941.Ullstein bild/Getty Images 9 of 45Jewish men being transported from the ghetto by Wehrmacht soldiers to work at various sites. 1941.Galerie Bilderwelt/Getty Images 10 of 45Jewish children in the Warsaw ghetto. 1940.Imagno/Getty Images 11 of 45Jewish children on a tram. 1940.Keystone/Getty Images 12 of 45A young boy cherishing a rare piece of cake. 1943.Votava/Imagno/Getty Images 13 of 45Children on the street inside the Warsaw ghetto. 1942.Ullstein bild/Getty Images 14 of 45SS soldiers searching a Jewish man. 1939.Mondadori Portfolio/Getty Images 15 of 45Two starving boys stick together. 1940.Mondadori Portfolio/Getty Images 16 of 45Jewish residents of Warsaw raise their hands during a Nazi raid. 1939.Keystone/Getty Images 17 of 45Dead bodies being hauled away. 1942.Ullstein bild/Getty Images 18 of 45Warsaw ghetto inhabitants behind the barbed wire. 1942.Ullstein bild/Getty Images 19 of 45A Jewish woman struggling to survive in the ghetto. 1942.Universal History Archive/UIG/Getty images 20 of 45A mass grave with about 1,000 dead bodies. 1942.Ullstein bild/Getty Images 21 of 45Victims of the Nazis’ “New Order” campaign of extermination by starvation are carried out by death carts. 1942.Bettmann/CORBIS/Bettmann Archive 22 of 45A Polish supervisor logs in the Polish dead as a pile of bodies lies atop a wheelbarrow. 1942.Pix Inc./The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images 23 of 45A still from a Nazi propaganda series that depicts a boy living in the ghetto. 1941.Ullstein bild via Getty Images 24 of 45A funeral in the Jewish cemetery. 1941.Ullstein bild/Getty Images 25 of 45Starving children in front of a Jewish shop (labeled with the Star of David). 1941.Ullstein bild/Getty Images 26 of 45Officers stand near the bodies of dozens of dead Jews thrown into a mass grave. 1942.Pix Inc./The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images 27 of 45A group of starving children in the ghetto. 1942.Pix Inc./The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images 28 of 45One of the thousands of young Warsaw ghetto inhabitants. 1943.TASS/Getty Images 29 of 45Captured Jewish rabbis taken during the destruction of the Warsaw ghetto. 1943.Photo12/UIG/Getty Images 30 of 45Members of the Jewish security service with the Yellow Star on their coats. 1943.Ullstein bild/Getty Images 31 of 45A man holds up the emaciated body of a baby that recently died of starvation. 1942.Pix Inc./The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images 32 of 45The bodies of children who died of starvation in the ghetto. 1942.Pix Inc./The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images 33 of 45A boy dying in the street. 1941.Joe J. Heydecker/Galerie Bilderwelt/Getty Images 34 of 45Beggars in the street. 1941.Galerie Bilderwelt/Getty Images 35 of 45Clearing of the ghetto. 1943.Photo12/UIG/Getty Images 36 of 45Distribution of bread in the ghetto. 1943.Photo12/UIG/Getty Images 37 of 45A food market set up among the ruins of the ghetto just after the war. 1946.Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone/Getty Images 38 of 45Jews being rounded up and made to stand against a wall. 1943.Photo12/UIG/Getty Images 39 of 45A Jew getting arrested by German soldiers after the uprising. 1943.ARCHIVE/AFP/Getty Images 40 of 45A pile of dead bodies photographed during the post-war cleanup. 1946.Bettmann/Getty Images 41 of 45SS commander Jürgen Stroop (center) during the fighting in the ghetto amid the uprising. 1943.Ullstein bild/Getty Images 42 of 45Victims killed by the Nazis during the uprising. 1943.Photo12/UIG/Getty Images 43 of 45A girl and a woman begging in the street. 1941. Galerie Bilderwelt/Getty Images 44 of 45A Jewish man selling armbands with the Star of David. 1941.Galerie Bilderwelt/Getty Images 45 of 45Like this gallery?Share it:

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44 Harrowing Photos Captured Inside The Warsaw Ghetto During The Holocaust View Gallery

The Warsaw ghetto remains one of the darkest examples of Nazi Germany’s cruel, calculated efforts to first contain Europe’s Jewish populations and then eliminate them entirely. Situated on both banks of the Vistula River, the Polish capital had a population of 1.3 million and was a hub of Jewish culture before the Holocaust.

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1 of 45Two children in the Warsaw ghetto. 1941.Fototeca Gilardi/Getty Images

2 of 45Passersby ignore a man lying in the street. 1941.Galerie Bilderwelt/Getty Images

3 of 45Children in the street. 1941.Galerie Bilderwelt/Getty Images

4 of 45A Jewish boy playing a violin to support himself. 1941.Joe J. Heydecker/Galerie Bilderwelt/Getty Images

5 of 45A young boy holds the head of a man who has collapsed along the tram tracks. 1941.Universal History Archive/UIG/Getty Images

6 of 45German guards watch over a group of prisoners taken during a raid. Circa 1943.Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS/Corbis/Getty Images

7 of 45Children in the street. 1941.Galerie Bilderwelt/Getty Images

8 of 45A Polish policeman (right) and a Jewish ghetto policeman check identity papers at the entrance to the ghetto. The person entering wears the prescribed white armlet with the Star of David. 1941.Ullstein bild/Getty Images

9 of 45Jewish men being transported from the ghetto by Wehrmacht soldiers to work at various sites. 1941.Galerie Bilderwelt/Getty Images

10 of 45Jewish children in the Warsaw ghetto. 1940.Imagno/Getty Images

11 of 45Jewish children on a tram. 1940.Keystone/Getty Images

12 of 45A young boy cherishing a rare piece of cake. 1943.Votava/Imagno/Getty Images

13 of 45Children on the street inside the Warsaw ghetto. 1942.Ullstein bild/Getty Images

14 of 45SS soldiers searching a Jewish man. 1939.Mondadori Portfolio/Getty Images

15 of 45Two starving boys stick together. 1940.Mondadori Portfolio/Getty Images

16 of 45Jewish residents of Warsaw raise their hands during a Nazi raid. 1939.Keystone/Getty Images

17 of 45Dead bodies being hauled away. 1942.Ullstein bild/Getty Images

18 of 45Warsaw ghetto inhabitants behind the barbed wire. 1942.Ullstein bild/Getty Images

19 of 45A Jewish woman struggling to survive in the ghetto. 1942.Universal History Archive/UIG/Getty images

20 of 45A mass grave with about 1,000 dead bodies. 1942.Ullstein bild/Getty Images

21 of 45Victims of the Nazis’ “New Order” campaign of extermination by starvation are carried out by death carts. 1942.Bettmann/CORBIS/Bettmann Archive

22 of 45A Polish supervisor logs in the Polish dead as a pile of bodies lies atop a wheelbarrow. 1942.Pix Inc./The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

23 of 45A still from a Nazi propaganda series that depicts a boy living in the ghetto. 1941.Ullstein bild via Getty Images

24 of 45A funeral in the Jewish cemetery. 1941.Ullstein bild/Getty Images

25 of 45Starving children in front of a Jewish shop (labeled with the Star of David). 1941.Ullstein bild/Getty Images

26 of 45Officers stand near the bodies of dozens of dead Jews thrown into a mass grave. 1942.Pix Inc./The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

27 of 45A group of starving children in the ghetto. 1942.Pix Inc./The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

28 of 45One of the thousands of young Warsaw ghetto inhabitants. 1943.TASS/Getty Images

29 of 45Captured Jewish rabbis taken during the destruction of the Warsaw ghetto. 1943.Photo12/UIG/Getty Images

30 of 45Members of the Jewish security service with the Yellow Star on their coats. 1943.Ullstein bild/Getty Images

31 of 45A man holds up the emaciated body of a baby that recently died of starvation. 1942.Pix Inc./The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

32 of 45The bodies of children who died of starvation in the ghetto. 1942.Pix Inc./The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images

33 of 45A boy dying in the street. 1941.Joe J. Heydecker/Galerie Bilderwelt/Getty Images

34 of 45Beggars in the street. 1941.Galerie Bilderwelt/Getty Images

35 of 45Clearing of the ghetto. 1943.Photo12/UIG/Getty Images

36 of 45Distribution of bread in the ghetto. 1943.Photo12/UIG/Getty Images

37 of 45A food market set up among the ruins of the ghetto just after the war. 1946.Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone/Getty Images

38 of 45Jews being rounded up and made to stand against a wall. 1943.Photo12/UIG/Getty Images

39 of 45A Jew getting arrested by German soldiers after the uprising. 1943.ARCHIVE/AFP/Getty Images

40 of 45A pile of dead bodies photographed during the post-war cleanup. 1946.Bettmann/Getty Images

41 of 45SS commander Jürgen Stroop (center) during the fighting in the ghetto amid the uprising. 1943.Ullstein bild/Getty Images

42 of 45Victims killed by the Nazis during the uprising. 1943.Photo12/UIG/Getty Images

43 of 45A girl and a woman begging in the street. 1941. Galerie Bilderwelt/Getty Images

44 of 45A Jewish man selling armbands with the Star of David. 1941.Galerie Bilderwelt/Getty Images

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44 Harrowing Photos Captured Inside The Warsaw Ghetto During The Holocaust View Gallery

44 Harrowing Photos Captured Inside The Warsaw Ghetto During The Holocaust

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According to the Holocaust Encyclopedia of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Warsaw’s 350,000 Jewish citizens comprised nearly a third of the city’s prewar populous. It was the largest Jewish community not only in Poland — but on the European continent as a whole.

Wikimedia CommonsThe Warsaw ghetto wall. May 24, 1941.

On Sept. 1, 1939, however, the city received its initial air attacks and artillery bombardments as World War II first got underway. Besieged by Nazi Germany’s behemoth war machine, Warsaw didn’t take long to fall to the Third Reich.

On Sept. 29, the Nazis entered the city. It would only take a year for the Germans to establish the Warsaw ghetto and decree mandatory relocation there for all Jewish residents of the city.

Both the photos above and the stories below provide a disturbing account of the horrors perpetrated inside the Warsaw ghetto for the remainder of the Holocaust.

The Judenrat, Blue Stars Of David, And The Dissolution Of Jewish Organizations

A few days after the city surrendered, the Germans officially established the Judenrat, a Jewish council headed by Jewish engineer Adam Czerniaków and situated in the southern part of the ghetto on Grzybowska Street.

The Judenrat was implemented partly as a Nazi appeasement of the Jewish population designed to make them think they had some control over their own fate. The council also made it easier for the Nazis to implement new laws by anointing intermediary Jewish citizens to do so.

Wikimedia CommonsOne of the many damaged buildings in the early days of the Warsaw ghetto. September 1939.

Czerniaków’s orders were essentially to organize the logistics of the ghetto and install new German orders into the city’s social fabric. This included forcing Warsaw’s Jewish citizens to wear the infamous white armbands with blue Stars of David.

Furthermore, this early period saw Jewish schools forcibly shut down, and the nonnegotiable confiscation of any Jewish-owned property the Nazis saw fit. Slowly but surely, then quickly, Jewish men were forced into labor, Jewish organizations that had existed long before the war were dissolved, and the ghetto was completed.

The Warsaw Ghetto

The Warsaw ghetto was formally established on Oct. 12, 1940, with all Jewish residents mandated to move within its confines immediately. By November, the Nazis had completely sealed the ghetto off from the rest of Warsaw — using a 10-foot tall, barbed wire wall that was guarded at all times.

The ghetto’s estimated population soon reached more than 400,000 due to an influx of Jewish Poles from nearby towns forced into Warsaw by Nazi regulations.

Wikimedia CommonsJews being rounded up by German police forces and sent to labor camps. March 1940.

Conditions within the ghetto were immediately horrid and dangerously cramped to the point of forcing an average of 7.2 people into each room. Scared, destitute, and impoverished, ghetto residents bonded together in the hopes of sharing whatever little resources were available.

Countless struggling residents of the Warsaw ghetto survived infectious disease, exposure to the elements, starvation, and more — with only small amounts of financial backing from foreign aid organizations to help. Then, in 1942, things got even worse.

Conditions Inside The Ghetto

“The hunger in the ghetto was so great, was so bad, that people were laying on the streets and dying, little children went around begging,” recalled survivor Abraham Lewent.

In addition to poor housing, disease, and lack of medical care, a severe lack of food was the primary concern for residents of the Warsaw ghetto. Allotments rationed out by German civilians simply didn’t suffice and by 1941 the average Jew in the ghetto consumed only 1,125 calories per day.

“Children starving to death,” Czerniaków succinctly wrote in his diary on May 8, 1941.

Wikimedia CommonsThe Warsaw ghetto footbridge. 1942.

The available data tragically reflects that diary entry as 83,000 Jews died of disease and starvation between 1940 and mid-1942. This gave rise to a network of food and medicine smuggling, with both Poles and Germans accepting bribes in order to make it happen.

Some of these realities were documented on film by Warsaw-based historian Emanuel Ringelblum, who founded a secret effort to record what was occurring in the ghetto for future generations. This indispensable document has since been named the “Oneg Shabbat."

An excerpt from the Oneg Shabbat: Emanuel Ringelblum and the Underground Archive in the Warsaw Ghetto documentary.

Only a portion of this record, now known as the Ringelblum Archive, ultimately survived the Holocaust. Nonetheless, the footage that did survive has become a priceless primary source of life in the Warsaw ghetto and the horrific German policies that shaped it.

An excerpt from the Oneg Shabbat: Emanuel Ringelblum and the Underground Archive in the Warsaw Ghetto documentary.

Soon, those policies grew even more horrific. In the summer of 1942, deportations from the Warsaw ghetto to the Treblinka extermination camp began.

Deportations To Treblinka

Between just July and September of 1942, the Nazis deported around 265,000 Jews from the Warsaw ghetto to Treblinka, where some 35,000 were killed within a matter of mere months.

It was the SS, with local help from the police, that carried out the logistics of these deportations. With such a massive amount of people, the Nazis simply packed train cars to the brim and sent them off. Meanwhile, 70,000-80,000 Jews remained in Warsaw, fearful that it would soon be their turn to get on a train.

Wikimedia CommonsThe divider between zones on Żelazna Street (looking South) from the intersection with Chłodna Street. June 1942.

In January 1943, the SS and police units came back for the second phase of mass deportations. Fortunately, the Jews had already begun to organize and were now prepared to fight back.

The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising

With deportation or extermination virtually inevitable, numerous secret Jewish organizations began to mobilize. According to the Holocaust Encyclopedia, the armed Jewish Combat Organization (Zydowska Organizacja Bojowa; ZOB) had 500 members, while the Jewish Military Union (Zydowski Zwiazek Wojskowy; ZZW) had another 250.

Initially, the plan was to get in touch with the Polish military underground (Armia Krajowa). When this failed in the summer of 1942, the ZOB contacted the Polish resistance movement known as the Home Army in October and managed to get a smuggled supply of pistols and explosives into the ghetto.

Wikimedia CommonsGhetto police forces. May 1941.

Meanwhile, SS Chief Heinrich Himmler officially ordered the liquidation of the ghetto that same month. All able-bodied Jews were to be shipped to the Nazis’ Lublin camp. When the SS and police initiated this second attempt at deportations, on Jan. 18, 1943, the Warsaw uprising began.

Jewish fighters swarmed a group of Jews being forced into the Umschlagplatz (the transfer point for deportation) and began shooting Germans. Most of these resistance fighters died, but the surprised Germans lost enough momentary control to let everyone disperse.

On April 19, the Nazis planned on fully liquidating the ghetto on the eve of Passover. By this time, the Jews had gone into hiding, using tunnels, sewers, and bunkers. The Nazis found the streets deserted.

Wikimedia CommonsA dying ghetto inhabitant. May 1941.

Mordecai Anielewicz led the ZOB during this resistance, with his band of fighters carrying pistols, a small number of automatic guns and rifles, and homemade grenades. The first day was successful as the ZOB successfully defended itself and forced the Germans to retreat and exit the ghetto. SS General Jürgen Stroop lost 12 men that day.

The SS then modified its approach by the third day and simply began razing buildings to the ground to remove hiding spots and bring resistance fighters to the streets. While the Jews successfully engaged in chaotic, sporadic attacks from their bunkers, it didn’t last long and the Nazis reduced the ghetto nearly to rubble.

“The entire sky of Warsaw was red,” Benjamin Meed said. “Completely red.”

Final Deportations From The Warsaw Ghetto

Scattered resistance fighters endured for another four weeks before the SS officially ended its operation. By May 16, 1943, the SS and police had deported 42,000 survivors and shipped them off to concentration camps in Trawniki, Lublin, and Poniatowa.

At least 7,000 Jews died in the battles for the Warsaw ghetto, either by force or from starvation. Another 7,000 were sent straight to Treblinka’s killing center.

The final months before the ghetto’s liberation saw only a small amount of Jews remain in hiding in the ruins.

The Liberation Of Warsaw

On Aug. 1, 1944, the Home Army made a final push to liberate the ghetto. The slow but steady encroachment of Soviet troops was an inciting factor here, as the underground resistance army felt that true military support was finally headed its way.

Wikimedia CommonsJews captured by Nazis during suppression of the uprising. May 1943.

The Soviets failed to contribute during this crucial juncture, however, and the Nazis razed what was left of the city to the ground in October. Some of the captured fighters were treated as prisoners of war, while others were sent to camps. In the end, 116,000 people died during the uprising.

When the Soviets finally did arrive on Jan. 17, 1945, a mere 174,000 people were left in Warsaw. This was less than six percent of the population that had been there before World War II. Only around 11,500 of these survivors were Jews.

After looking at these 44 harrowing photos captured inside the Warsaw ghetto, take a look at these heartbreaking photos of the Holocaust. Then, see some of the most disturbing images captured inside the Jewish ghettos set up by the Nazis.

At the start of the Holocaust, the Warsaw ghetto was home to some 350,000 Jews. Afterward, just 11,000.#

The Judenrat, Blue Stars Of David, And The Dissolution Of Jewish Organizations#

The Warsaw Ghetto#

Conditions Inside The Ghetto#

Deportations To Treblinka#

The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising#

Final Deportations From The Warsaw Ghetto#

The Liberation Of Warsaw#

At the start of the Holocaust, the Warsaw ghetto was home to some 350,000 Jews. Afterward, just 11,000.

The Judenrat, Blue Stars Of David, And The Dissolution Of Jewish Organizations

The Warsaw Ghetto

Conditions Inside The Ghetto

Deportations To Treblinka

The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising

Final Deportations From The Warsaw Ghetto

The Liberation Of Warsaw