Day 9: Warsaw

As I walk through the area of what used to be the ghetto in Warsaw I realized the area was huge. I had walked a portion of the ghetto and I had gotten so tired through the walk. The walk seemed like it was about a mile yet I had not finish walking around the narrowest part of the wall. Jews were placed inside the ghetto as part of the extermination process. Over 400,000 Jews were sent to concentration camps through this ghetto. In just over one year, 100,000 people died of starvation before anyone was sent to a camp. Warsaw used to have a decent amount of Jews in this city, however since the war there are barley any Jews left. There aren't as many Jews in this city now compared to before the ghetto.
What makes this ghetto special is that the Jews didn't stand by and wait to die. They tried their hardest to put up a fight, with help from a strong man that led the resistance named Mordecai Anielewicz. Even though he was only 23, he led the Jewish fighters in the street battles against the Germans, and on the third day of the battles, A German SS officer named Juergen Stroop began burning the ghetto building by building to force the remaining Jews out of hiding. The Jews didn't go out without a fight, although some believed the Jews tried nothing to protect themselves but in the end you find out otherwise.
Life after the ghetto was tough because there were not too many Jewish people left after the ghettos were evacuated. Not only did the Nazi's plan to exterminate the Jews almost work, it made them not want to come back after the war was over. After the war, there was still not many Jews to be found around the city. What made the ghettos different is that the people rebuilt the Old Town to the exact way it used to be, but when they rebuilt the ghettos not too much effort was put in. Knowing the conditions of the ghetto made the Jewish residents unwilling to come back. Not only would the Jews have to return to a city not built up to its former standards but they would also have to come back to the bad memories. With that in mind most made the decision not to return and that is why there are not that many Jews located in Warsaw today.