After reading the book The Cage by Ruth Minskey Sender one would find the ghetto of Lodz to be a pitted death trap where disease, fear, and misery ran rampant, what with the close proximity of people and poor living conditions, it was somewhat expected. Lodz was in south-western Poland and during the regime of Adolf Hitler, Poland was taken over and all Jews were prosecuted. The Jews were forced to live trapped in small, concentrated areas with the only jobs being manual labor to help the war effort where they were “paid” in rations of bread and soup. They were worked to the bone, and if they got sick they were taken by the Nazis, because the doctors in the area could do nothing but diagnose a patient, for they were given no funds nor medication to actually help anyone. Before the Nazis began taking the sick, the diseases ran rampant because of the enclosed space, if one person had was sick, it would be safe to assume that the rest would quickly succumb to it as well. Entire Jewish families were split apart by the Nazis as they sent people to their death camps where they either worked to death, or were killed when they lost their usefulness. When the Jews were taken from their homes, the Nazis would see it fit to gain a little amusement by torturing them as well, in example those whom were bearded had their beards burnt off by cigars.