The Ghettos Portrayed in “The Cage”

After reading through the first few chapters of “The Cage” by Ruth Minsky Sender, one can see the horrible living conditions that Ruth and her family along with the Jewish population of Europe suffered from under the Nazi regime during World War Two. As seen in the photograph above, Jewish ghettos of Poland during WWII were fenced in areas of a town, entrances were guarded by Nazi soldiers. Jewish citizens often lived in small one or two room apartments that would be in disrepair. Jewish citizens would only get a bowl of soup a day and one loaf of bread a week. These ghettos were very crowded, sickness’ like tuberculosis and dysentery spread quickly through crowded ghettos causing hundreds to die daily. Many doctors could not help the sick because of lack of medicine. Nazi soldiers would come through the ghettos and inspect every Jewish citizen, if someone was too old or sick they would be shipped away to labour camps which were most likely concentration camps. Most Jewish citizens worked in factories making supplies for the German army, like coats and guns, many workers at these factories would die working.