A ghetto is an overcrowded urban area associated with a specific racial or ethnic population, where inhabitants face poverty, high crime rates, and unemployment. The term originated from the Italian word for scorie and was used to refer to areas where Jews were forced to live during the Middle Ages and Renaissance. During World War II, Adolf Hitler revived the idea of the Jewish ghetto to contain the European Jewish “problem.” In modern times, ghettos are created when inner-city residents cannot afford to move to suburban areas, leading to increased unemployment and crime rates.
In a modern sense of the term, a ghetto is an overcrowded urban area often associated with a specific racial or ethnic population. Areas like this are generally considered slums, where inhabitants live in squalid conditions and face high crime rates, poverty, illiteracy and significant unemployment. Since ghettos are generally recognized as problem areas, even receiving basic city services can be problematic. While grassroots efforts to renovate or beautify these areas are quite common, it is extremely difficult to attract outside businesses to them.
The word ghetto actually comes from the Italian word for scorie, an unfortunate byproduct of metal production. During the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, Jews were only allowed to live in Venice and other major European cities for 15 days a year. The least desirable property in the city of Venice was near the slag production site, an area also notorious for its frequent flooding. The entire Jewish population of Venice lived in cramped houses in an area of two or three blocks surrounding the cooling slag heaps.
This practice of maintaining a Jewish ghetto in the most undesirable parts of a city continued for several centuries, although many Jewish citizens managed to improve their financial and social conditions. Some were actually considered quite wealthy in their day, rivaling their Christian counterparts. By the mid-19th century, the last of these areas had been integrated into cities and the Jewish population was no longer limited to a particular region.
During World War II, however, Adolph Hitler decided to revive the idea of the Jewish ghetto in an attempt to contain the European Jewish “problem”. Perhaps most famously located in Warsaw, Poland, but a number of other major cities also built isolated, guarded areas set aside for Jews and other enemies of the state. Life in these areas was hellish, with severe restrictions on food, medicine and other basic necessities. Suicides were a common occurrence, as residents learned of the fates of others who had already been shipped to concentration camps. Jewish leaders attempted to keep their government within the walls of the ghetto, but the Nazi embargo on essential supplies created almost unbearable conditions.
In modern times, the term ghetto has been applied to any number of urban areas with concentrated populations of the same ethnic or social group. Originally, the innermost area of a large city was designed to be the most desirable housing arrangement for workers. Inner-city neighborhoods were designed to provide goods and services to their inhabitants, along with reliable transportation to and from the city’s industrial zones. Eventually, however, those who could afford to move to suburban areas abandoned the inner city areas, essentially creating a financial and social ghetto for those who could not afford to leave.
When many of the city’s industries also moved to greener pastures, inner-city residents took another financial hit. Unemployment rates in the area have increased, along with crime rates and school dropout rates. Many slum dwellers feel trapped in their environment, unable to raise enough money to leave but also reluctant to give up their neighborhoods to gangs and other criminal elements. Life in a modern ghetto is notoriously difficult, but some manage to break out of the vicious cycle of poverty and work to improve the lives of their still struggling families and friends.
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