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After the German invasion of Poland in September 1939, Warsaw, without any chance of receiving outside aid, surrendered to the Nazis later that month. In 1939, the Polish Jewish community was the largest in Europe. Many Polish Jews who remembered the rather civil German occupation during World War I had no idea of the persecution that awaited them. The Nazis began to seize Warsaw Jews for forced labor, plunder Jewish shops, confiscate Jewish possessions, assault religious Jews, and relieve Jewish craftsmen, teachers, journalists, and other professionals of their jobs without compensation. In January 1940, Jews were forbidden to congregate for worship or to engage in the ritual slaughter of animals. The Warsaw Ghetto was officially created when a wall, sixteen kilometers long and three meters high, topped by broken glass and barbed wire, effectively sequestered the Jewish population; by that time, the first anti-Jewish decrees were being enforced. Jews were required to wear a blue Star of David armband, turn over radios, clearly mark their shops, and refrain from travel. The Germans permitted only vocational school training, and education was confined to the elementary schools but not beyond. Sports events for Jews were prohibited, and cultural activities were restricted; Jews, however, met clandestinely to partake in musical and theater events. Jews were also required to hand in a list of their assets; the Germans then confiscated all Jewish enterprises and businesses.

DOI: 10.1057/9781137000613_3

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