Displaced Persons at Home: Refugees in the Fabric of Jewish Life in Warsaw, September 1939 – July 1942

With the occupation of Poland, the Germans began to deport Jews from small towns and villages to larger Jewish communities and Ghettos. A large portion of the deportees were concentrated in Warsaw and pressed into the confines of the ghetto. Many succumbed to death from hunger, disease and infection. The book discusses the unique features of the waves of escape and deportation of Jews to Warsaw, and documents the available data, the Jewish refugees` places of origin, and the responses of the public and the community leadership in the periphery to impending deportations and the migration. The author examines the impact the arrival of the refugees had on the fabric of Jewish life in Warsaw before and after the establishment of the ghetto. Data on the housing situation, employment, health and mortality rates are accompanied by a discussion of the community`s response to the phenomenon and its sociological implications.