FAQs

After the Nazis occupied Poland, they created segregated ghettos to keep the country's huge Jewish population under close control and exploit its labour. In most cities and towns, walls, fences or barbed wire enclosed a designated area within which all the Jews were required to live. No one could leave or enter without a special permit.

The Nazis forced Jewish leaders to form councils to run the ghettos and to carry out their orders. There was little food or money, and conditions became increasingly desperate. Some 500,000 Jews died in ghettos from starvation or disease.

By mid-1941, nearly all the Jews of occupied Poland had been forced into these overcrowded slums. Ghettos were also set up in the newly-conquered areas of the Soviet Union.

One example of such a place was the Lodz ghetto, the second-largest ghetto (after the Warsaw ghetto) established for Jews and Roma in German-occupied Poland, where Edith Birkin was sent with her family. Some of her paintings, such as The Death Cart - Lodz Ghetto, reflect her memories of life in the ghetto.

The Unspeakable exhibition and website serve as an opportunity to see together the very different artistic perspectives encompassed in the Imperial War Museum's collection of art relating to the Nazi persecution of the Jews of Europe.

The information in the FAQ pages contextualises some of the experiences portrayed within the artworks, but is not by any means a complete historical account of the events which occurred in Nazi-occupied Europe.

For more information, please visit the website for Imperial War Museum London's The Holocaust Exhibition, where you can find information about the exhibition, survivors' testimonies and a list of links for further enquiry.