“The Jews were convinced that the situation could not be worse. The truth is that until the end, each step was more difficult and more terrible. The dynamics of this development are the essence of horror” (Vashem, 2010). A ghetto is a part of a city where Jews were forced to live in terrible conditions. Even though a ghetto was a transitional stage, it was still a terrible place. Of least importance is knowing what a ghetto is and where it comes from. The term "ghetto" originates from the name of the Jewish quarter of Venice, established in 1516, in which the Venetian authorities forced the city's Jews to live (United States United Holocaust Memorial Museum, 2013). The creation of ghettos for Jews in Frankfurt, Rome, Prague, and other cities was ordered by various officials, ranging from local municipal authorities to the Austrian Emperor Charles V (United States United Holocaust Memorial Museum, 2013). German occupying authorities established Poland's first ghetto in Piotrkow Trybunalski in October 1939 (United States United Holocaust Memorial Museum, 2013). Ghettos were urban neighborhoods, often locked down, in which the Germans concentrated the municipal and sometimes regional Jewish population and forced them to live in miserable conditions during World War II (United States United Holocaust Memorial Museum, 2013). Ghettos isolated Jews by separating Jewish communities from the non-Jewish population and other Jewish communities (United States United Holocaust Memorial Museum, 2013). The Germans established at least 1,000 ghettos in German-occupied and annexed Poland and the Soviet Union alone (United States United Holocaust Memorial Museum, 2013). The first big ghetto was created in Lodz right in the middle of the paper......as a still terrible place. Life in a ghetto is not easy, people are forced to live in unbearable conditions. This shows how grateful we should be and how lucky we are to live in a free country like America. Works Cited Landau, Ronnie, S. The Nazi Holocaust. Chicago: Library of Congress Catalog in Publication, 1994. “Ghettos” United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Holocaust Encyclopedia. 2013. http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005059 Merrick, Leon. Online interview. July 1. 2008. Survivors reflect on life in the ghettos. The Holocaust Explained website, video, 2011. http://www.theholocaustexplained.org/ks3/life-in-nazi-occupied-europe/ghettos-an-overview/survivors-reflect-on-life-in-ghettos/ #.U1NIJ1zHNHgYad Vashem “History of the Holocaust”. Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum. http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/holocaust/about/03/daily_life.asp