Alejandro Adarve

Professor Wertz-Orbaugh
UWRT 1102
10 November 2015
Struggles of the Warsaw Ghetto Research Review
As we are wrapping up the semester, we are finishing up on our inquiry work. My
inquiry topic has been the same since the first day we decided to choose a topic. My
inquiry topic is ghettos, but more specifically the Warsaw ghetto. Even though lives in all
the ghettos were very similar, there were some differences with Warsaw because it was
the largest. With that said it means there was more activity. The inquiry question I came
up with is; what were the daily struggles of men, woman, and children in the Warsaw
ghetto? In the ghettos there were thousands of struggles Jews had to face, but even with
that they still managed to do other activities that would take their minds of the reality
they were facing.
When doing my research I found many sources that were useful, but only some
provided the exact information that I wanted and could use. One of the best sources that I
worked with was an academic journal about forced prostitution in the Warsaw ghetto.
This journal discusses how a lot of woman and young girls in the ghetto were forced into
prostitution, so that they could have a higher chance of survival. There was one point in
time where the majority of the women prostituting themselves were middle class woman.
These women were also promised longer survival time for their families. The bad thing
with that was they were sexually humiliated when they had examinations for forced
labor, which is also another struggle woman faced on the daily basis. This journal

strongly relates back to my inquiry topic because it is part of an answer to my inquiry

question, since prostitution was one of the daily struggles women had to face (Person).
Additionally, another source I worked with was an article on life in the Warsaw
ghetto. This article was the best source I found because it provided the majority of
information that I needed all in one place. It does a very good job of explaining some of
the struggles Jews faced everyday. For example, it discusses how once the Jews were
settled into Warsaw they became disconnected from the outside world because they had
high walls that surrounded the whole area. Every single day was a struggle to survive
because of starvation and disease. Once they were fully settled into the ghetto, they were
forced into labor and had to live with a large number of people in one room. Just like
women had to prostitute themselves to survive longer, the rest of Jews including children
could become smugglers to stay alive longer. This article connects very well with my
inquiry topic because it provides most of the information I need about the struggles men,
women, and children had to face while living in Warsaw (The).
In the journal Sexual Violence during the Holocaust, Katarzyna Person really
spoke to me when she stated Through sex these woman were able to gain a higher
chance of survival for their parents, children, or siblings (Person). I had to read this
several times just to make sure I was reading the right thing because I could not believe
it. It is very sad to see that many women had to face this situation and what made it worst
was that some of them had husbands or children. I cold not imagine having to live
through this because if you were old enough to understand that your mother was
prostituting herself to keep you alive or keep you away from hunger that would be
extremely heart breaking.

The most shocking thing I thought of the forced prostitution was that most women
prostituting themselves were middle class women. I would have never thought that
because supposedly people in the middle class actually have class and would not be
capable of doing that. To be it seems that Jews would do anything they could to increase
their chance of survival, while on the other hand some would just give up on their live
because they felt like there was no way out. The most heart-breaking thing about this
tragedy was that young girls had to give their bodies up. I say this because nobody wants
to see young people ruin the rest of their lives regardless to helping them live a longer
time. It is something very tragic to live with for the rest of your life.
The article Warsaw Ghetto points out, On average, between six to seven
people lived in one room and the daily food rations were the equivalent of one-tenth of
the required minimum daily calorie intake (The). I think this was one of the biggest
issues Jews had to face everyday. On top of being hungry, these people would have to go
to what they call home and deal with an awful living situation. I would take this as pure
torture because who wants to live in a small room with random people who you do not
know. One of the major problems with this, is you would get no privacy. Men and women
need there own privacy at times whether they are married or not. When I have family
over at my house for a couple days or weeks, I get very annoyed, so I could not imagine
having to live with it everyday.
All the people in that one room including men, woman, and children all had to
share one bathroom, which I think is the most disgusting thing. Having up to seven
people use one bathroom is extremely unsanitary and especially with the fact some of the
people already had diseases. On top of all these things, I have always asked my self was

there enough beds for all those people? I am sure that some people had to sleep very
uncomfortable every night and that is awful. If there were little children in that one room
that would be a nightmare because you would have starving children crying all day and
night.
Choosing two quotations to dialogue was not too difficult because many of my
sources provided good information. The way I decided what quotations to use was by
looking at the ones that best fit my inquiry question and the ones that I could dialogue
with the most. There were plenty of other great quotes, but it was not going to be ones I
could say a lot about. Additionally, I also chose the ones I thought would be interesting
for an audience, as well as choosing ones that not many people would know about. Many
people do not know about prostitution in the ghettos because it is never spoken of and
they also do not know much about an exact number of people living in one room or
house. So I thought, choosing these two quotes would make my research review much
more interesting. For me as a writer, it is very good to be able to dialogue with my
sources because I can say what I think about it and also ask questions about it. I think it is
great because when you are dialoguing, you are really trying to understand information
and then trying to put your thoughts and knowledge into it. It makes it more interesting
then a basic summary.

Work Cited

"The Ghettos: Warsaw Ghetto." Yad Vashem. Yad Vashem, n.d. Web. 05 Nov. 2015.

Person, Katarzyna. "Sexual Violence during the Holocaust: The Case of Forced
Prostitution in the Warsaw Ghetto." Shofar 33.2 (2015): 103-21. JSTOR. Web. 05
Nov. 2015.

Peer Response:
Once again the peer response experience went very well. I really like how we got
guidelines to follow through, so that way we know exactly what to do and what to say. I
think its good, how the guidelines are broken down into small sections to write about,
that way it is clearer for feedback. My partner gave me a well-developed draft that was
almost finished, so it was great to work with. I followed everything on the instructions, so
I felt like I gave the best feedback I could. They had a very good and interesting research
review, but like every paper there is always areas to improve in.