« Les montagnes d’ordures enveloppaient de leur puanteur tout ce qui vivait » : Les ordures dans le ghetto de Varsovie du point de vue d’une histoire environnementale de la Shoah

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According to the anti-Semitic attitudes of the 1930s, and as seen through the lens of social hygienism, Jews were a societal pest on par with lice. This article examines the tangible issues surrounding trash, waste, and collection practices in the Warsaw ghetto in addition to the phenomenon’s sanitary and epidemiological implications. It also discusses the topic’s pragmatic importance with respect to the district’s administration, financial management, and provision of community services.Indeed, the trash taken from the ghetto represented the deadly landscape of the Holocaust itself. This heap of “dead” garbage nevertheless produced its own dark energy through a series of relentless biological processes like rot, decomposition, and mold. The Holocaust was a devastating force that consumed human lives and left a void in its wake. However, incredibly, life continued, even if it was only visible from a global and planetary perspective.