A false rumor concerning Jews in pre-war Thessaloniki is that they were richer than the Christians. Indeed, there was a small group of affluent businessmen, a large number of people struggling to earn their living and an even larger number of poor persons in need. The latter grew in numbers due to the process of rebuilding Thessaloniki, which left about 20,000 Jews homeless and destitute. They were housed in settlements created specifically for this purpose or designed before by the Jewish Community. In 1941, when they were registered by the services responsible for providing supplies and food, those settlements were made by large working families, widows with their children, as well as elderly people who - in the absence of social security - were dependent on their survival from the Israeli community. The inhabitants of the Baron Hirsch settlement consisted of people struggling to make a living, persons in need, unemployed and widows. That area also functioned as a ghetto during the Occupation, and these inhabitants were the first to be forced to board the trains for Auschwitz on March 15th, 1943.