As the Jews moved into the ghettos, they faced a completely different situation. The ghettos were sealed off from neighboring
population. The food provided by the Nazis was minimal, sometimes not even enough to survive. In Warsaw, the largest Polish
ghetto, the total daily calories for each person was 220, which equaled to 15 percent of the normal daily requirement. Struggled to
stay alive, children smuggled in food from outside cafes and restaurants. The smuggling business was active in bring in food and
other essential products. When the population suffered constant starvation, came with it were disease, epidemics, and the eventual
demoralization of the ghetto population.
In some ghettos, the most serious problem was the overflowing of refugees. Driven out of their homes with only little possessions with
them, the refugees mostly depended on social welfare. However, the meager resources were incapable of feeding this multitude, and
they became beggars and lived under the already starved local Jews' mercy. The refugees had no home in the ghettos. They lived in
any public buildings, with broken windows and lack of heat. Sanitary facilities were inadequate or nonexistent.
As though starvation was not torturing enough, the typhoid epidemic , which began in late 1940, claimed a total of 66,000 lives. As the typhoid epidemic receded, through the efforts of workshops selling their products to Poles and of the smugglers, the situation gradually stabilized.
To keep their spirit, ghetto Jews formed social welfare, religious, educational, cultural, and underground political organizations. House committees were developed to aid all the families in a house, which was a four-house complex around a central yard. House committees helped the poor, cared for children, and fostered cultural life. They also provided solace and contributed to the spiritual survival of the Jews. There were also youth groups that cared for children, organized kindergartens and schools, and served as scouts to warn of approaching Germans. However, none of the organizations was powerful enough to stand up against brutality and oppression.
The Nazis forbade all public religious practices. Those Jews who kept their tradition in dressing in garb and growing beard were treated with severe brutality. Despite the Nazis' order, religion was practiced underground. Synagogues existed, as well as prayer rooms and religious schools. Prayer was forbidden in some ghettoes. Keeping the Sabbath was impossible because they had to go to work everyday. Jews fasted on Yom Kippur and other religious occasions, though they did not receive much food for other days anyhow.
The Germans had a conspiracy against education for Jews. They hoped to have all Jew illiterate so that they could control them easily.
Newspapers were not permitted and libraries were closed. Some reading materials were hidden by youth, and ghetto libraries were
established. Writers continued to write, painters to paint, and scientists to their research. Orchestras were active in all ghettoes. In
some, kitchens supplied education as well as food. Youngsters could participate in singing and storytelling programs.
To preserve the history of life in ghettoes and to reflect Nazi brutality, secret archives were established. Writers, journalists, economists, social scientists and rabbis became permanent workers in documenting the materials. The journalists reported on life in the ghetto. The leader of the health organization arranged a group of doctors to study the effects of hunger on the human body. Others reported on education, on cultural life, on slave labor camps. When the Nazis deported the workers to death camps, the archive was buried in the ghetto in three milk pails. After the war, only two of the archives were uncovered; one was never found.
