Ghetto - what's that?Nowadays, mass migrations and multicultural states, we are very often faced with this concept.However, many people intuitively understand the close relationship of the term to the national isolation, not always clearly imagine the practical value and operation of such systems.Historical background
Historically a ghetto - a compact settlement of representatives of one culture (religious orientation, race, ethnicity) among other, more global.The phenomenon originated in the medieval Europe, when they began to appear separate from other Jewish neighborhoods.Indeed, globalization in the medieval world was less influential, and interpenetration of cultures took place not as active.However, the proportion of the Jewish population has always been present in European countries.Furthermore, their non-Christian beliefs, and the closeness of the nation inside and resistance to the process of assimilation of Jews turned into outcasts.For example, with the filing of the church they were forbidden to engage in agriculture (the most lucrative business then) and a number of professions.Many rulers have prescribed them to settle in certain neighborhoods.Thus, historically, the ghetto - a specifically Jewish compact settlement.Incidentally, the term originated in Italy, where the so-called area of Cannaregio in Venice on the island, where the Jews were expelled at the beginning of the XVI century.
Through the prism of the XX century
With the development of transport links, mutual integration (political, cultural and economic) of the world, there was the concept of mass migration.Again, the concept of the ghetto became popular in the US early XX century.For the US, the ghetto - it blocks blacks, descendants of a considerable number of imported slaves in the colonial era.With further globalization and rising standards of living of different regions of the world (where some countries are increasingly developed and grew rich, while others have remained raw appendages low-elite and a large number of social problems), increased and migration processes.Now the ghetto - it is not only Jewish settlements or "black" neighborhoods.It refers to any urban areas, where forced or voluntary ethnic minorities.In fact, modern ghettos - this is evidence of a lack of public policies that promote socialization and assimilation.
NSDAP and policies of occupation during the Second World War
However, the most horrifying shade of the term has acquired in the middle of the XX century and was connected with the activities of the Nazi leadership in the occupied territories.For the Nazis, such as compulsory settlement became a convenient tool to optimize the distribution of population in the more or less complete.Warsaw ghetto - is perhaps the most famous example.After the fall of the capital of Poland all Jews were ordered to move to a certain area of the city.Later, Jews were brought here from all over the country.The boundaries of the ghetto wall were reinforced with barbed wire and soldiers guarded actually turned the region into a zone of confinement.The population of the area was used for heavy physical labor and was in much worse condition than even the rest of Warsaw in the occupied city.Ghetto were the first candidates for the administration of the concentration camps (situated near Auschwitz, in the first place).Actually, it happened throughout the presence of the Nazis.
ghetto inhabitants were taken away in an unknown direction, promising them the best working conditions in the new location.However, no one ever came back, and the horrible rumors about their fate seeped into the ghetto.In these circumstances, for the people who were destined to certain death in the gas chamber, the best choice was a declaration of war against the regime.Though chances are bruised and almost unarmed inhabitants against the well-equipped SS units was not an uprising took place in mid-April 1944.As a result, prisoners of the ghetto resisted for almost a month, but had been destroyed, with dignity, taking his last fight.
