Warsaw Ghetto - Creation

Creation

The Warsaw Ghetto was established by the German Governor-General Hans Frank on October 16, 1940. Frank ordered Jews in Warsaw and its suburbs rounded up and herded into the Ghetto. At this time, the population in the Ghetto was estimated to be 400,000 people, about 30% of the population of Warsaw; however, the size of the Ghetto was about 2.4% of the size of Warsaw.

The construction of the ghetto wall started on April 1, 1940, but the Germans closed the Warsaw Ghetto to the outside world on November 16 that year. The wall was typically 3 m (9.8 ft) high and topped with barbed wire. Escapees could be shot on sight. The borders of the ghetto changed many times through the next years.

The ghetto was divided by Chłodna Street, which due to its importance (Warsaw's major street leading to the east) was excluded from it. The area south of Chłodna was known as “Small Ghetto”, while the area north of this street – “Large Ghetto”. Those two parts were connected by Żelazna Street (special gate was built at its intersection with Chłodna Street). In January 1942 a wooden footbridge, which after the war became one of the symbols of the Holocaust, was built there to ease pedestrian traffic.

The first commissioner of the Warsaw ghetto was his chief organizer SA-Standartenführer Waldemar Schön. He was succeeded in May 1941 by Heinz Auerswald.