At the outbreak of the war, approximately 1,580 Jews lived in Warta, a town in the county of Sieradz (Schieratz). The Jewish community comprised some 35 percent of the town's population.
The German army entered Warta in early September, 1939. The Jewish community was threatened with deportation and homes were looted; in February 1940 the Germans established a ghetto, forcing Warta’s Jews and fifty Jewish families from Kalisz, Błaszki, and Stawiszyn into an area measuring roughly 200 meters by 250 meters. ...