The Ghetto Response

The Ghetto

                The Ghetto was a chilling narrative of what life was like in the Warsaw ghetto during the Holocaust. The film included testimonies from survivors, film taken by the Germans for propaganda, and even an interview with one of the German photographers. The main source of the film is a film reel found deep in a chamber with other films. Its purpose is believed to have been to distort the ghetto life for people on the outside and show that the Jewish people had it good and were not being mistreated. The Germans were still in the editing process when the film was last edited and they left many scenes of the horrible treatment and conditions the Jewish people lived in. This film is a prime example of how the Germans documented almost everything during this time very well through video. One thing that is documented very well in this one is the street conditions. Left on the reel were dozens of scenes of people walking past dead bodies. These dead bodies generally appeared to be a result of starvation or some other illness due to lack of food. Also there were lots of people on the verge of death in the streets. Men, women, elderly, and children all were starving and on the verge of death in the Warsaw ghetto. The food situation was difficult to say the least for the Jewish people. There wasn’t enough food inside the ghetto walls for its inhabitants and people smuggling food in were often shot after the food was confiscated. It was out of the ordinary for children to try to smuggle food into the ghetto, which makes it even more gruesome when you think about the punishment for smuggling, death. Sickness and death truly seemed to be the only theme of this film and of the ghetto.