When people think of the word ghetto today, they think of a poor area of ​​a city. The ghettos of World War II have a similar but still different definition. World War II ghettos were small parts of cities sectioned off to keep Jews in a confined area before eventual extermination. The Jews there believed that they were not simply poor like today's ghetto residents. They were starved, beaten and overworked. The ghettos were seen only as a step towards Hitler's Final Solution, namely the extermination of Jews from Nazi-occupied territory. The Warsaw Ghetto was the largest ghetto in Nazi-occupied Europe. It contained 400,000 Jews in 1.3 square miles. Only 11,500 Jews survived from the Warsaw Ghetto. The Warsaw Ghetto was a place where Jews came to await their inevitable death. (“Warsaw” ushmm.org) (“Ghetti” ushmm.org) The Warsaw Ghetto was located in German-occupied Poland, in the city of Warsaw. The Warsaw Ghetto was established by decree on October 12, 1940. This day also coincided with the Jewish Day of Atonement called Yom Kippur. The decree stated that the Jewish people of Warsaw should relocate to a designated area of ​​the city (“Warsaw” ushmm.org). Travel times were posted on billboards throughout the city. Entire neighborhoods were forced to evacuate. Not only Jews but also Poles were forced to leave their homes in what would become the ghetto. According to German data, 113,000 Poles and 140,000 Jews were transferred. Jews had to take only very few of their possessions with them ("Ghettos: History & Overview" jewishvirtuallibary.org). All belongings left behind were confiscated. There were three types of ghettos: open, closed and destructive. The open ghettos were marked with signs indicating that this was an area... middle of paper... extermination camps. The ghetto leaders were left to decide who to deport. They may buy time for some at the expense of others. In Lodz, the head of the council Chaim Rumkowski saved the able-bodied and chose to deport the children to extermination camps. He believed that the best method of survival was for the ghetto to become a productive labor camp for Germans. In the Warsaw Ghetto, however, Adam Czerniaków tried to save the children and when he couldn't, he killed himself. Most residents of the Warsaw Ghetto were killed upon arrival in the camps. Only a select few people, able-bodied youths and childless women were sent to forced labor camps. Those sent to forced labor camps were killed after they could no longer work. Very few Jews survived the liquidation of the Warsaw Ghetto. ("Ghettos: History and Overview" jewishvirtuallibary.org).