World War II: keep it a history (Poland) | Page 8

On Polish lands, Germans organized concentration camps, to which people were the "network" of directed from street roundups. Their main goal was to obtain manpower and the theft of property. A small amount of food, hard work and the inhuman treatment contributed to fast dying out of prisoners. Since the autumn of 1939, Germans applied the policy of terror not only towards Poles, but also towards Jews. Jews had to wear bands with the Star of David. Jews couldn't change their address and they also couldn't use the public transport. Germans also closed shops run by them and took their entire belongings away. They created ghettos - closed districts, which isolated the Jewish population - which wasn't possible to leave under the penalty of death. The first ghetto was built in October 1939 in Piotrków Trybunalski. A bigger one was created one year later, in October 1940, in Warsaw. There were almost 450,000 people squeezed on a very small area . People in the ghetto got much less food than people, who lived outside it. Jews scale died of hunger on a large. Big number of people on a small area and a bad sanitation were the cause of high mortality. For the help given to Jews, Germans sentenced people to death. Despite this, some really brave Poles tried to save Jews by hiding them and providing food. Germans tried to convince Poles, insidiously or by force, to putting their name down on the "Vollksdeutsch" list, which members were supposed to serve Germans and be the informers. People who didn't want to agree on it were put into prison or a concentration camp. These people lost their jobs and were sentenced to tortures and beating. During the occupation "curfew" was introduced. After dusk it was necessary to turn off the lights or tightly block the windows out, that no one could see there's still a light in the flat. When