Violent Space

For Nazi Germany, the ghetto was a conceptual tool used to facilitate social and political exclusion and further their anti-Jewish campaign. For the Jews who lived in them, the ghettos became the center of their lives—even though they were also sites of immense suffering.

Combining thorough historical research with an interdisciplinary analysis of the relationship between space and violence, Violent Space provides a unique insight into the history and the socio-spatial topography of the Jewish ghetto in German-occupied Warsaw (1939–1943). Using rare archival materials and firsthand accounts, many of which have never been translated into English, Anja Nowak traces out the trauma that the space of the ghetto inflicted on its Jewish inhabitants, and how it alienated, disoriented, and harmed them.

While the physical ghetto—its buildings, boundaries, and streets—has been reabsorbed and redefined by modern-day Warsaw's urban structure, Violent Space shows us that its presence still lingers in the narratives of those who were forced into this first phase of the Holocaust.

Acknowledgments
Preface: How We Got Here...
Part I: Localization
Introduction: Localization
1. Spatial Violence
2. Mapping the Ghetto
3. The Archive
4. Streets and Buildings
Part II: The Making of a Violent Space
Introduction: The Making of a Violent Space
5. Jews in Pre-War Warsaw
6. Creation of the Ghetto
7. Dissolution of the Ghetto
8. Destruction of the Ghetto
Part III: Experiences of a Violent Space
Introduction: Experiences of a Violent Space
9. Destruction
10. Decreed Space
11. Buildings
12. Lost Homes
13. Violated Homes
14. Overcrowding
15. Life and Death
16. News
17. Communication
18. Orientation
19. Topography of Violence
20. Public Violence
21. Sound of the Ghetto
22. Deserted Apartments
23. Death Space
24. Spaces of Resistance
Part V: Conclusion
25. Violent Space
Appendix
Works Cited
Index