In December 1939 Friedrich Ubelhor, the head civil administrator of the Lodz region, was discussing the establishment of the Lodz ghetto. He made clear the relationship between the short- and long-term goals of setting up the ghettos when he said:

"Needless to say, the creation of a ghetto is only a provisional phase. I shall determine at what time and with what means the ghetto - and thereby also the city of Lodz - will be cleansed of Jews. The ultimate goal must be the total purge of this scourge (the Jews)."

In the summer of 1942 the Nazis began liquidating the ghettos of Eastern Europe. Within two years there were no Eastern European ghettos, as their more than 2 million inhabitants had been deported to death camps.