ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Ghettos in Nazi-occupied Europe

During World War II, a man named Adolf Hitler and his army took over many countries in Europe. He wanted to get rid of people who were not like him, which he called "undesirables." This included Jews, Romani people, disabled people, and others.

Hitler and his soldiers made special areas called ghettos for Jewish people to live in. These ghettos were usually in the middle of cities and were surrounded by walls or fences. The people who lived there could not leave without permission, and they had very little food, water, and medical help.

Life in the ghettos was very hard. People were crowded into small rooms or even shared beds. They had to work long hours for very little money, and there were not enough clothes or blankets to keep warm. Sometimes, people were taken away and never seen again.

Eventually, the Nazi soldiers started to take the Jewish people out of the ghettos and send them to concentration camps. These were even worse than the ghettos. People were forced to do hard labor, and they were often killed or died from starvation or disease.

So, to put it simply, ghettos were places where Jewish people were forced to live during World War II. They were very bad places, and many people died or were taken away to even worse places called concentration camps.