When were ghettos first established?
Brzesko Ghetto
Brzesko Ghetto was a Nazi ghetto during World War II in occupied Poland. The ghetto was created by the Germans in 1940 in the Polish town of Brzesko located in the Kraków District about 40 miles from Kraków. Brzesko was originally occupied in 1939. The ghetto was open when it was first created, meaning there were no barriers preventing people from leaving, but Jews were not able to leave. The ghetto was only marked using signage at this time. In 1942 walls were put up and the ghetto became a closed ghetto which physically prevented people from escaping. An estimated 4,000 Jewish people lived within the Brzesko ghetto when it was first established, but another 2,000 moved there by 1942, many arriving from Kraków and the surrounding area. The Jewish people living within Brzesko were sent to the Bełżec extermination camp and Auschwitz extermination camp. After the exterminations, the camp was closed in 1943.
Sosnowiec Ghetto
Ever since the ghetto was established, numerous deportation actions were organized by the Germans with the help of the Judenrat and Merin, selecting healthy men for slave labor at the camps. Large transfers of Jews took part in May (1,500) and June 1942 (2,000). Around October 1942 - January 1943 the ghetto was moved to the Środula district. Środula also bordered the site of the Będzin Ghetto. At this point about 13,000 Jews still lived in Sosnowiec. The creation of the Sosnowiec ghetto ended on 10 March 1943, when it was finally closed off from the outside world.