The Experience of the Jewish Family in the Nazi Ghetto: Kovno—A Case Study

Abstract

The intention of Hitler and his regime was the destruction of the Jewish people: their social and familial structures. Jews were separated from their families and friends as the Nazis carried out their policies of murder. The Nazi ghetto was the “last place” in which the traditional family structure was maintained. This article discusses the gradual disintegration of the family unit through the separation, deportation, and death of its members. Yet despite this physical assault on family life in the ghetto, it becomes clear that the ghetto inhabitants still maintained an “emotional” family life and built new surrogate family structures. For many, belonging to a group was an emotional as well as physical requirement for attempting to “survive” in the ghetto. Often, the family structure reversed the Nazis’ policies of degradation and attempted dehumanization of their Jewish victims. It could not, however, reverse their murders.