Painted metal sign with a blue Star of David from a tailor workshop in the Warsaw ghetto

Metal shop sign with a wooden frame displayed in the window of Symcha Abramowicz's tailor shop in the ghetto in Warsaw, Poland. Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, and occupied Warsaw on September 29. By November, the Germans had shut schools, confiscated Jewish-owned property, and conscripted Jewish men into forced labor. On October 12, 1940, the Germans forcibly relocated the Jews into a ghetto which was sealed off from the rest of the city by a guarded, ten foot, barbed wire topped wall. The population reached 400,000, with an average of 7 people sharing a single room. Diseases spread rapidly and death by starvation was soon a common occurrence. From June-September 1942, the Germans staged mass deportations to Treblinka killing center; thousands more were killed in the actions to fill the transports. In January 1943, when SS units returned to deport the remaining residents, they were met with resistance and withdrew. On April 19, SS and police units returned to liquidate the ghetto. They were met with armed, organized resistance, the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, which was not subdued until May 16. The ghetto was emptied of inhabitants and razed to the ground.