When were Jews first sent to ghettos?

Answer 1

In 1939-40 most German Jews in the larger cities were moved into Jewish apartment blocks which were marked as such. The Nazis did not establish walled ghettos in Germany itself.

From October 1941 onwards the Nazis began deporting German Jews to Theresienstadt, to the ghetto in Minsk, Belarus, and to killing fields in Riga, Latvia.

The Nazi regime was aware that its antisemitic policies were not particularly popular in Germany.

Also Hitler himself did not want to deport German Jews, he intended to deport them after the war, but circumstances (and Himmler) forced him to do it.

Answer 2

You don't give a time span, so I assume that you are not asking about Holocaust ghettos. In the Middle Ages many European towns and cities had Jewish ghettos, but until about 1300 the legal requirement that reside there was not absolute. I don't think there is a record of the first ghetto in the sense that all Jews in a given town or city were required by law to live there, without any exceptions. However, from about 1300 on (or somewhat earlier) it was pretty standard.

Answer 3

1939, but it is not quite that simple, as they were sent to the part of the city where there would be a ghetto, however when they arrived the ghetto per se was not there.

I want to add here that the creation of a ghetto by Hitler was not the first use of a ghetto for the Jewish citizens of Europe. In Venice, Italy in the 1300's a great clock tower was built in St. Mark's square to ring a bell when it was time for the Jewish of Venice to be locked in behind a wall in the Jewish section of Venice. This happened all over Europe. A number of Columbus crew in 1492 were Jewish because he left on the last day of the purging of the Jewish out of Spain. The Spanish Jews were ordered out of Spain by the King and Queen and they were given a deadline. Many who stayed pretended they converted to the Catholic religion but practiced their Jewish customs/religion in secret. There is a book on this called "The Thorn in the Madonna's Foot"