Examples Of Resistance In The Holocaust

The Holocaust was one of the most horrifying genocides in the 18th century. It was the greatest mass killing ever in History. The Holocaust had resistance but if you were a person that you were in a resistance there would be extreme retaliation if you were caught by the nazis and they will proceed more of the population to stop resistance against them. Even though they were getting smaller in numbers they wouldn’t stop fighting for their lives. Concentration camps and Jewish Ghettos were beginning to fight back and they were so prevailed even if they knew they had no chance against the nazis. Joseph Stalin heard about many resistances that were in Eastern Europe and he wanted to set an underground movement to occupy enemies but it did not work well at all. With the influx of the Jews that were in forests in hiding they would interfere with enemy communication by cutting off telephones, telegraphs and power stations. They did whatever they could stay alive as long as possible.

Resistance in the mist of WWII and the Holocaust occurred all across Europe and the occupied territories of Nazi Germany. The three groups I’m going to discuss are Zegota, White Rose, and Le Chambon-sur-Lignon. Each one of these came from three very different areas, but they each resisted Nazi ideology. Each group has their own reason for why they decided to take a stand, whether morally, politically, or religious reasons and while there are differences between the groups many of them have overlapping reasons for their desire to resist.

When the Nazi's called for more people to report for deportation, the ZOB handed out leaflets describing the horror that awaited those who left. The night before the deportation of factory workers was to occur, the ZOB burned down the factory and machinery. On January 18, 1943, SS troops surrounded the Ghetto and began to march in. The ZOB replied with gunfire. In a battle that lasted three days, 50 German soldiers were killed or wounded. Even though ZOB casualties had been high, the Germans retreated. From this brief show of ability and force, the ZOB earned respect and received more outside support including 49 more revolvers, 50 grenades, and some explosives from the Polish Underground. With a group of 1,000 fighters, the resistance created teams of ten, usually 8 men and 2 women, who fought together. Half of the members of each team had their own arms. Following the insurrection, Himmler ordered the SS Brigadier General in charge of operations at the Warsaw Ghetto, Jurgen Stroop, that "the roundups in the Warsaw Ghetto must be carried out with relentless determination and in as ruthless a manner as possible. The tougher the attack, the better. Recent events show just how dangerous these Jews are."

Something that not many know about the Holocaust is there were many acts of resistance performed by the Jews being affected. For example, “On October 7, the...prisoners forced to handle the bodies of gas chamber victims...succeeded in blowing up one of the four crematoria at Aushwitz” (“Holocaust”). Another example is “On August 2,700 Jews torched parts of the Treblinka death camp” (“Holocaust”).

Many people know of the Holocaust and its outcome, but what of its resisters? Resistance in this time was risky because of the dangers of the Nazis finding, torturing, and killing the resisters. Despite these dangers, man people would still resist, armed, unarmed, and verbally. Many of the resisters were not caught because they were indirectly affecting the progress of the “Final Solution” as it was referred to. One such way was to convince others to resist and fight while you get others to aid in the fight. Another was displayed by Yvett Farnoux when “She was in charge of finding safe houses and food for resistance fighters, their families, and Jews in hiding” (Davison).

However, this would all change due to the brave individuals in one Ghetto. The Warsaw Ghetto was home to nearly 445,000 in 1941 and measured about 1.3 square miles (Meed). This Ghetto was by far one of the largest in population during the Holocaust. The Warsaw Ghetto was eventually going to be “liquidated” as nearly 1,000 Jews were loaded on trains to be liquidated each day (Goss). Throughout 1942 the Warsaw Ghetto was slowly “liquidated” and by the end of that year, it left 55,000 Jews in that camp nearly 80% of the Ghetto's original population (Goss). Many who were left in these Ghettos were without their family and all alone. Guilt spread and many felt responsible for not saving their loved ones. This guilt would turn into resistance and lead to the creation of groups such as ZOB, which translates to the Jewish Fighting Organization, and ZZW, which translates to the Jewish Military Union. These organizations gathered weapons to fight back against the Nazi regime. By 1943 Nazi officials ordered the transfer of 8,000 more residents of the Warsaw Ghetto. This would lead to the very first resistance in January of that year. When guards came to collect Jews, many openly attacked these guards and even hid so as not to be taken. By the end of four days, the guards left with only 5,000 Jews. This was seen as a success for those who lived there and spread the idea of resistance

“Jewish civilians offered armed resistance in over 100 ghettos in occupied Poland and the “Soviet Union”(Jewish resistance). The holocaust lasted from about 1939-1945. In that time frame, jews were forced to wear stars that labeled them as jews, lived in ghettos, and did labor. Many tried to escape this way of living but ended up being killed. During the Holocaust, Jews used armed, spiritual and unarmed forms of resistance in order to retain their humanity.

There are many ways the Jews actually fought back, and it gave great morale boosts to others who heard of their bravery. An article reads “Many ghetto fighters took up arms … in the knowledge that their resistance … could not save from destruction the remaining Jews … But they fought for Jewish honor and to avenge the slaughter of so many Jews” (“Jewish Resistance”). These Jews actually fought back with weapons for the purpose of keeping what humanity they had left. They successfully retained their humanity, at the price of their lives. Even though they died, their movement survived and fueled the Jewish people in other ghettos to revolt as well. Another example of armed resistance would be the Warsaw Ghetto

Good morning / afternoon Mr Retsos and 10HT today I will be speaking to you about the Warsaw ghetto uprising but before that I will give you a brief summary of the Warsaw ghetto. When Poland was invaded by Germany in September 1939, more that 400,000 Jews in Warsaw, the capital of Poland, were imprisoned in an particular area of the city which was no more than 2 square miles. In November 1940, this ghetto was sealed off by brick walls, barbed wire and armed guards. If anyone was caught leaving the ghetto they would be shot on sight. The amount of food that was brought into the ghetto was controlled by the Nazis. Each month more than thousands of Jews died due to disease and starvation.

A new SS and police force were outside the Warsaw ghetto on April 19th 1943, they intended to receive the rest of the jews inside but expected resistance from the last encounter to take the jews to forced labour camps. However the resistance the jews showed was organized.

Resistance, the refusal to accept or comply with something; the attempt to prevent something by action or argument. From 1933, when the Nazis took power, to 1945 when Hitler’s final solution was initiated, Jews and other people who were not a part of the “superior race” were persecuted and murdered. Hitler and his allies made ghettos and camps to house, work, or kill the Jews, in conditions where every day could’ve been your last. Once Hitler took power in 1933 to when the war ended in 1945, approximately six million Jews were slaughtered. During the Holocaust, Jews retaliated either with arms or with non-compliance in order to preserve their humanity.

Resistance is the act of refusing to accept something and fighting against the authority to make things right. Jewish resistance during World War II gave Jewish people hope that they will be free again. Jewish resistance took place in many concentration camps and ghettos. There were also many groups dedicated to fighting the German Nazis, some Jews chose to fight them armed and others chose the more peaceful way of resisting, like spirtual resistance. While the Nazis had more power than the resistance groups throughout the war, armed Jewish resistance had a major role fighting against the German Nazis because these Jewish resistance groups were formed dedicated to fighting the Nazis for their freedom, and people in the concentration camps and ghettos also resisted the Nazis in their own limited ways, but it still played a

Furthermore, Hitler’s cruel ideals and treatment had motivated those who were not in support of him to help those in need, resulting in resistance and rebellions. Resistance organizations became more elaborate after the deportations of 1942, and ghettos became more volatile. From January 18th to the 22nd of 1943, the ghetto of Warsaw resisted in a German attempt to transfer those in the ghetto without proper papers. On April 19, 1943, to counter the resistance, the Germans had rounded up approximately two thousand Schutzstaffel, regular soldiers and armed police, only to face a much stronger resistance and retreat in defeat. Subsequently, however, the Germans slowly ended the resistance, and by May 16, the ghetto of Warsaw ceased to exist.

Their main goals were to organize uprisings, break out of the ghettos, and join partisan units in the fight against the Germans.The Jews knew that uprisings would not stop the Germans and that only a handful of fighters would succeed in escaping to join the partisans. Still, some Jews made the decision to resist. Weapons were smuggled into ghettos. Inhabitants in the ghettos of Vilna, Mir, Lachva , Kremenets, Częstochowa, Nesvizh, Sosnowiec, and Tarnow, among others, resisted with force when the Germans began to deport ghetto populations. In Bialystok, the underground staged an uprising just before the final destruction of the ghetto in September 1943. Most of the ghetto fighters, primarily young men and women, died during the fighting.The Warsaw ghetto uprising in the spring of 1943 was the largest single revolt by Jews. Hundreds of Jews fought the Germans and their auxiliaries in the streets of the ghetto. Thousands of Jews refused to obey German orders to report to an assembly point for deportation. In the end the Nazis burned the ghetto to the ground to force the Jews out. Although they knew defeat was certain, Jews in the ghetto fought desperately and

To begin, resistance efforts employed during the Holocaust came in several forms. For example, the Allies, which included countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom, Russia, and China, directly fought against the Axis powers, which included Germany, the source of the Holocaust. Coordinating together, the Allies used organized military forces to defeat the Axis, which included rescuing the Jewish people in Axis-controlled areas. Outside of organized military action, oppressed Jews also resisted by themselves. Examples of Jewish resistance included armed rebellions in the ghettos, uprisings in the concentration camps, and secret attempts to preserve the Jewish way of life. Furthermore, a specific incident would be the rebellion in the ghetto in Warsaw during the April