Final answer:
Nazis established most ghettos in Eastern Europe where the largest Jewish populations resided, to control and contain them under extreme conditions, as a prelude to the Holocaust. Nazi ideologies of Lebensraum and creating Judenrein territories were underlying motives for this inhumane segregation and persecution.
Step-by-step explanation:
The ghettos created by the Nazis in Eastern Europe were primarily established due to the large Jewish population concentrated in this region. With the German invasion and subsequent control of Poland, the Nazis encountered the world's largest Jewish population. The ghettos served the purpose of containing and controlling this population under extreme and inhumane conditions. The largest ghettos, such as the one in Warsaw, faced severe overcrowding, starvation, and disease leading to the death of about 500,000 people. These ghettos were indicative of the early stages of the Holocaust, facilitating easier segregation, exploitation, and eventual deportation to concentration camps for systematic murder.
The Nazis aimed to create Judenrein ("Jew-Free") territories and considered various plans for deporting Jews far from German-held territories. The harsh conditions in the ghettos, including acute food rationing and forced labor, were methods used by the Nazis to weaken the Jewish population before the mass executions that would define the later stages of the Holocaust.
Furthermore, the Nazi ideology of Lebensraum ("living space") fueled the establishment of ghettos in Eastern Europe as Germany sought to expand and remove populations they considered inferior, planning for German settlement and domination in these areas.