When were ghettos first established?
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Brzesko Ghetto was a Nazi ghetto during World War II in occupied Poland. The ghetto was created by the Germans in 1940 in the Polish town of Brzesko located in the Kraków District about 40 miles from Kraków. Brzesko was originally occupied in 1939. The ghetto was open when it was first created, meaning there were no barriers preventing people from leaving, but Jews were not able to leave. The ghetto was only marked using signage at this time. In 1942 walls were put up and the ghetto became a closed ghetto which physically prevented people from escaping. An estimated 4,000 Jewish people lived within the Brzesko ghetto when it was first established, but another 2,000 moved there by 1942, many arriving from Kraków and the surrounding area. The Jewish people living within Brzesko were sent to the Bełżec extermination camp and Auschwitz extermination camp. After the exterminations, the camp was closed in 1943.
Brzesko Ghetto
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The first ghetto of World War II was established on 8 October 1939 at Piotrków Trybunalski (38 days after the invasion), with the Tuliszków ghetto established in December 1939. The first large metropolitan ghetto known as the Łódź Ghetto ("Litzmannstadt") followed them in April 1940, and the Warsaw Ghetto in October. Most Jewish ghettos were established in 1940 and 1941. Subsequently, many ghettos were sealed from the outside, walled off with brickwork, or enclosed with barbed wire. In the case of sealed ghettos, any Jew found leaving there could be shot. The Warsaw Ghetto, located in the heart of the city, was the largest ghetto in Nazi occupied Europe, with over 400,000 Jews crammed into an area of . The Łódź Ghetto was the second largest, holding about 160,000 people. According to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum archives, there were at least 1,000 such ghettos in German-occupied and annexed Poland and the Soviet Union alone.
Nazi ghettos
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Inside occupied Poland, the Germans created hundreds of ghettos in which they forced Jews to live. These World War II ghettos were part of the German official policy of removing Jews from public life. The combination of excess numbers of inmates, unsanitary conditions and lack of food resulted in a high death rate among them. The first ghetto was established in October 1939 at Piotrków. Initially the ghettos were open but on 1 May the Łódź ghetto was closed by Germans sealing the Jews inside. The Warsaw Ghetto was closed in November 1940. The Germans started a reservation for Jews near Lublin.
War crimes in occupied Poland during World War II
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The next stage of the anti-Semitic policy of the occupier was ghettoisation of the Jewish population, officially justified by economic, sanitary or political reasons. As an excuse to isolate Jews in closed districts, among other things, Germans used the "Easter pogrom" of March 1940, arranged from German inspiration by Polish extreme nationalists. The first Jewish ghetto was established in October 1939 in Piotrków Trybunalski. Over the next few months several more ghettos were created in the General Government and Warta Country, including the ghetto in Łódź (February 1940). Beginning in September 1940, the ghettoisation process became more organized. In October of this same year, it was decided to establish a "Jewish quarter in Warsaw". In March 1941 the ghettos in Kraków and Lublin were established. The process of ghettoisation in the Radom district of the General Government was rather at the latest in December 1941. After the outbreak of the German-Soviet War, the organizing of ghettos on Polish lands previously annexed by the USSR took place. The creation of closed Jewish communities was accompanied by a progressive reduction in the number of smaller ghettos. The concentration and isolation of the Jewish population was also to be served by an unrealized project of creating a great "reservation" for Jews in the Lublin region.
German retribution against Poles who helped Jews
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The following year, on 3 March 1941, the establishment of the Kraków Ghetto was ordered by Otto Wächter. The ghetto was to be set up in the Podgórze District of Kraków. Podgórze was chosen as the site of the ghetto instead of the traditional Jewish quarter, Kazimierz, because Hans Frank believed Kazimierz was more significant to the history of Kraków. Podgórze was a suburb of Kraków at the time. Wächter claimed that formation of the ghetto was necessary for public health and order. The Kraków ghetto was officially established on 20 March 1941. When relocating to the ghetto, Jews were only allowed to bring 25 kg of their belongings. The rest of their possessions were taken by the German Trust Office (Treuhandstelle). All non-Jewish residents of the area were required to relocate in other districts by 20 March 1941.
Kraków Ghetto
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In November 1940, during the Nazi Occupation of Poland, German authorities established a Jewish ghetto in Grójec, in order to confine its Jewish population for the purpose of persecution and exploitation. The ghetto was liquidated in February 1941, when almost all of its inhabitants (5,200–6,000) were transported in cattle trucks to Warsaw Ghetto, the largest ghetto in all of Nazi occupied Europe with over 400,000 Jews crammed into an area of . From there, most inmates were sent to Treblinka extermination camp. Only a group of Jewish craftsmen was left in Grójec, however, they were also annihilated in a mass execution in Dębówka, near Góra Kalwaria.
Grójec
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In June 1942, when the Liepāja ghetto was established, there were only about 814 surviving Jews. The ghetto itself consisted of only 11 houses on four streets. Until the ghetto was closed in October 1943, the inhabitants were used as a pool of forced labor for the occupying authorities. During that time 102 people died and 54 were executed. The ghetto guards were Latvians wearing black uniforms. Conditions were harsh and food was short. On October 8, 1943, Yom Kippur, the survivors of the Liepāja ghetto were loaded into cattle cars and shipped to Riga and the ghetto was closed. Only three Jews, who were barely alive, were left behind, two shoemakers and one goldsmith.
Liepāja massacres
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At the time of its founding, the ghetto imprisoned 34,000 Polish Jews, and an unknown number of Roma people. Virtually all of them were dead by the war's end. Most of the victims, about 30,000 were deported to the Belzec extermination camp (some of them through the Piaski ghetto) between 17 March and 11 April 1942 by the Reserve Police Battalion 101 from Orpo helped by "Schutzpolizei". The Germans set a daily quota of 1,400 inmates to be deported to their deaths. The other 4,000 people were first moved to the Majdan Tatarski ghetto – a small ghetto established in the suburb of Lublin – and then either killed there during roundups or sent to the nearby KL Lublin/Majdanek concentration camp. 
The last of the Ghetto's former residents still in German captivity were executed at Majdanek and Trawniki camps in the Operation Harvest Festival (German: "Aktion Erntefest") on 3 November 1943. At the time of the liquidation of the ghetto, the German propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels wrote in his diary, "The procedure is pretty barbaric, and not to be described here more definitely. Not much will remain of the Jews."
Lublin Ghetto
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From the establishment of the ghetto until January 1942, task groups of German and Lithuanian "Einsatzgruppen" regularly carried out the surprise operations called "Aktionen", often on Jewish holidays. The ghetto residents were rounded up and deported, usually for subsequent executions. In the "Aktion" on Yom Kippur of 1 October 1942, the Germans ordered the Judenrat to lead the arrests; residents found by the Jewish police lacking work permits were arrested and transferred to German custody. The same month the Germans liquidated the Small Ghetto, where they had relocated "unproductive" individuals (i.e., who were old, ill, or otherwise considered unfit for labour); most of the prisoners were taken to Ponary and shot. About 20,000 Jews, including 8,000 without papers, remained in the Large Ghetto. The period between January 1942 and March 1943 was known as the time of ghetto "stabilization"; the "Aktionen" ceased and some semblance of normal life resumed. The quiet period continued until 6 August, when the Germans commenced the deportation of 7,130 Jews to Estonia on the order of Heinrich Himmler; this was finished on 5 September. On 23–24 September 1943 the ghetto was liquidated under the command of "Oberscharführer" Bruno Kittel; the majority of the remaining residents were sent to the Vaivara concentration camp in Estonia, killed in the forest of Paneriai, or sent to the death camps in German-occupied Poland.
Vilna Ghetto
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German Gendarmerie from Brzesko murdered Jews from Brzesko and region and ethnic Poles.
When the ghetto was first created in 1940 it was an open ghetto. It was marked by signs, but had no barriers to keep the Jewish people inside the town. The Jews were not allowed to leave and any movement in or out of the city was monitored. Having the ghetto opened allowed for smuggling of food in by nearby Aryan community. After it was closed, this responsibility fell on the Jewish Police. This section of Jewish Police was led by Diestler. Trades between the Jewish residents and the Jewish Police occurred at night. The Jewish people living in the ghetto were also low on winter apparel and supplies because the German Troops took it in preparation for the invasion of Russia. In 1941 the open ghetto became a closed ghetto when a fence surrounded the town. Overpopulation became a problem when the ghetto was fenced off. The camp had about ten people per window which decreased sanitation throughout the camp. This led to an outbreak of typhoid. Typhoid was one of the major causes of death within the ghetto along with starvation. One of the doctors helping those with Typhoid fever was Maurycy Gross. Even with the outbreak of typhoid. the main source of death within the ghetto was the German forces. When a Jew was shot by someone in the Nazi party, they would force other Jews within the community to sign a document stating they died from natural causes. In addition, the Jews had to pay for any ammunition used to shoot other Jewish people within Brzesko. During the year of 1942, three Aktions took place within the Brzesko Ghetto. These killed about 300 Jews total and were conducted by the Order Police which included people such as Lapsch, Wagner, and Mikler. In 1943 about 2,000 Jewish people were sent to the Belzec death camp, about 150 miles from Brzesko. Another 4,000 Jewish people were sent to the Auschwitz death camp that same year. In order to accomplish the deportation, all the Jews living in Brzesko were gathered in the square of the town. Throughout the process of deportation to the death camps, any citizens considered too weak to travel were shot in the town square. This could be due to illness, age, or injury. Those left behind after the deportation were sent to Tarnów or killed. Kirkut cemetery was the site of many executions from the Brzesko Ghetto. The cemetery still contains the graves of those who died during WWII. There is now a monument in place to mark the mass grave of the Jews that died in Brzesko.
Brzesko Ghetto