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In November 1939, just one months after the Germans entered Warsaw under the pretext of containing the outbreak of typhus, the “Seuchensperrgebiet” (area threatened by typhus) is established. This type of road signs are put up around future Warsaw Ghetto.
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Królewska close to Marszalkowska
In November 1939, one months after the Germans entered Warsaw under the pretext of containing the outbreak of typhus, the “Seuchensperrgebiet” (area threatened by typhus) is established. Jews are forbidden to live outside this designated area.
To start with the area of the future ghetto was surrounded by road signs. The construction of walls, also known as “sanitary blockades” started in Spring 1940. There was no typhus epidemics at that time but German District Medical Officer wanted to seal off this part of the city as there was always an increased incidence of epidemics during the winter months.
The area that was chosen had been marked as endangered by epidemics (Seuchensperrgebiet), which was almost the same as the area later decided to be closed as Warsaw Ghetto.
By the Fall of 1941, the Germans institute draconian measures to confine the Jews to the Ghetto. Additionally, an important part of their plan is to isolate Polish Jews from the rest of the Polish population by whatever drastic action is required. Hence, the Germans mount a campaign claiming Jews to be disease carriers. Secondly, any assistance rendered to a Jew is made punishable by execution. The Posting is signed by Fischer, the German Governor of Warsaw.
Notice
Regarding: Death sentence for leaving illegally the Jewish residential district.
Recently, in many documented instances, Jews, who have left the residential districts allotted to them, have spread typhus. To safeguard the population against the dangerous threat created by this behavior, the General Governor has ordered that any Jew, who in the future leaves illegally the residential district to which he is allotted, will be punished by a death sentence.
This same punishment will apply to whoever consciously shelters Jews or in any other way assists them (for instance, by providing overnight accommodation, or sustenance, by giving a ride in any kind of vehicle, etc.)
The sentence wifi be imposed by the Special Tribunal in Warsaw.
I explicitly draw the attention of the whole population of the Warsaw District to this new regulations since henceforth it will be applied with merciless severity.
Warsaw, 10 November 1941
(-) Dr Fischer
Governor
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| Złota and Zielna |
On November 16, 1940. the ghetto was cut off from the rest of the city. The ghetto area, surrounded by a wall and other fences, was initially 307 hectares (759 acres); with time, it was reduced. Starting in January 1942, it was divided in two parts called the small and large ghettos. The ghetto area housed, pre-war, 160,000 persons but the Germans force 550,000 to live there. Gross crowding results. The population density rises to an average of 15 persons per room.
A barbed wire fence surrounds the Warsaw Ghetto in this photo from the Jan Karski collection at the Hoover Archives. Here Waliców and Krochmalna street crossing.
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| A barbed wire fence surrounds the Warsaw Ghetto in this photo Sienna street after deportation of Janusz Korczak and 239 children to Trablinka death camp. Sienna str was divided in the middle by a barbed wire fence. Lower picture shows crossing at Wielka str and brick wall that run in the middle of Wielka street. The entrence to 16 Sienna str is on top picture. |
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| Vie on Sosnowa str as seen from Sienna street. The building in the back is on Sliska str. Two type of fences are seen, first along Sienna str (close to photographer) and next closing the possibility to pass from Sosnowa str to Sienna str. |
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Ghetto boundaries undergo frequent shifts. The walls and barbed wire fences were then moved. The wooden fence visible in this early 1941 photo of the Ghetto boundary, was later replaced with a wall.
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Złota to Sienna and Zielna to Wielka
