Jewish Resistance During The Holocaust

Imagine living through a time where you are persecuted for your religious beliefs, would you be able to practice spiritual resistance? For Jewish people this was a daily dilemma they faced in death camps, ghettos, or in hiding during the Holocaust. This may seem like a difficult decision, but for many brave Jews, all they had left was their faith. Some of the very dedicated and brave made it their mission to record the tragedies of everyday life during the Holocaust. Those same courageous people fought to keep the Jewish faith existing. Spiritual and cultural resistance is important to preserve the history and hope of the Jewish people and document what happened in the Holocaust.

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.

While Jewish resistance was a help was big influence to the Holocaust, the non-jewish resistance was substantially bigger. Some of the groups that helped were, the US, USSR, and Germans. All of these groups had many reason why they wanted to fight/rebel against the Axis of Power. Some wanted to keep their country's interest and beliefs.

The Holocaust is well known around the world, and many people do not realize the devastation and the technology that was used in that time. What we knew before was that the Holocaust resulted in the death of six million jews, and was controlled by the Nazi Regime. Adolf Hitler was the dictator of Germany and came up with the Final Solution, a plan to exterminate all the people of Jewish faith or race during World War II. This then brought in the concept of concentration camps. Concentration camps did not just hold Jews captive, they also targeted other groups such as Gypsies, African-Germans, Homosexuals, Atheists, and the physically and the mentally disabled. Now, it is common knowledge that that many people were killed in gas chambers or

As we grow up our parents teach us how to be respectful and very well-mannered. They enforce the importance of saying, “Please, thank you, and excuse me,” when needed. Parents also insist we listen and respect our elders, because they have authority over the world since they have been here the longest. We were raised to comply with the demand of someone who had authority over us. According to Patricia Werhane (1), “In the early1960’s Stanley Milgram undertook his noteworthy study of human obedience to authority. Puzzled by the question of how otherwise decent people could knowingly contribute to the massive genocide of the Holocaust during World War II, Milgram designed an experiment that sought to cause a conflict between one’s willingness to obey authority and one’s personal conscience.”

At the time of the Holocaust, Jews used armed and unarmed forms of resistance in order to retain their humanity. Armed resistance was when the Jewish people fought physically to avenge the slaughter of so many of their people. One example of this type of resistance was the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. “In April-May 1943, Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto rose in armed revolt after rumors that the Germans would deport the remaining ghetto inhabitants to the Treblinka killing center. (Jewish resisitance article)

The Holocaust was an event that took place from 1933 to 1945 in Germany. During this time, Adolf Hitler was in charge, resulting in the prejudice actions that are well written in history. Facing economic, social, and political oppression, thousands of German Jews wanted to flee, but found few countries wanting to take them in. Eventually, under Hitler’s leadership, some 6 million Jews were murdered during World War II. In this time period the Nazi’s waged a war against the Jews and other races that they considered to be unequal in race and superiority to the German race. The actions that took place during the Holocaust were seen as the “Final Solution”. The Holocaust was one of the darkest times in history, and can be traced to the rising of Hitler, “An egomaniac with delusions of grandeur, and power” (Steinberg 240). The Holocaust resulted in the deaths of many Jews and other non- Germans, until they were liberated by America.

The Jewish armed resistance used weapons to fight back and plan to fight for freedom. The Jewish resistance wanted to fight back the Nazis for doing horrible acts against the Jewish people. A book states, “But they fought for the sake of Jewish honor and to avenge the slaughter of so many Jewish people” (“Jewish resistance”). The Jewish resistance did whatever they can to keep their honor and revenge their people. They used smuggled weaponry to ambush and attack the Nazis. Even though the Jewish resistance was small, they were

    The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was organized by Jews in an underground group called the ZOB. The Jews were being held in the ghetto, and the Nazis began deportations to an extermination camp. The ZOB collectively organized an attack in order to stop the deportations. Then, “The resistance sprang into action. Jewish fighters could strike [the Nazis] quickly, then escape on rooftops,” (Berenbaum 4). Jews crowded the Nazis, using whatever weapons they could find to strike them. It had seemed like their efforts had been successful, because, “the German deportations effort ended within a few days… from then on the [ZOB] dominated the ghetto,” (Berenbaum 4). The Jews were in charge of their ghetto, and they felt freed. Unfortunately, a few days later the deportations to the extermination camps resumed, and the Jews could no longer fight.

Passive resistance during the Holocaust Passive resistance during the Holocaust during the Holocaust Jewish people found many ways to fight persecution. Some chose the path of violence as their form of defiance while others chose non-combative forms to lead a passive resistance. In the sources “The Diary of Anne Frank”, and the article “Resistance during the Holocaust” we learn that violence is not needed to fight tyranny. For these reasons, people can best respond to conflict by passively resisting because it provides hope,dignity,and survival.

The Holocaust happened during World War ll and was a bad time for anyone who was injured during it. From the people in the concentration camps to all the people who were involved in helping stop the acts from happening. This is such an important event in the history in the world because it is the prime example of an attempt at genocide. With around six million people dieing within twelve years. Although there were some groups trying to bring the Holocaust to an end an example is the French Resistance groups.

On January 30th 1933 Adolf Hitler became chancellor of Germany, Jews in Europe were gradually subjected to stricter persecution. The Holocaust started because a biological racism and anti-Semitism was developed by the Nazis, the Jewish culture were seen as: Deformed beings, a specific problem to society, a problem that needed to be solved for survival of the nation. Hitler believed and made to believe that the population of Germany should be lead entirely by the Aryan race. The typical Aryan being: Blonde, blue eyes, and slightly pale skin. The Nazis believed that the Aryans had the purest blood out of anyone on Earth and believed that non-Aryans were impure and even “evil”. Hitler believed that the Aryan dominance was being threatened by the Jewish people, there was a league table of all races, Aryans and Jews were at the top. How could Hitler deal with such a competitor? How could he start a race with no real threat but only true fear? Eliminate the obstacle. The wall blocking the Nazis from loyalty, strength, superiority.

Jews weren't the only ones resisting, anti-Nazi groups formed and resisted along with them. Most Jews who resisted were called partisans, these were unorganized military groups who fought against Germany. Throughout the years roughly 1941 through 1945, the most uprisings occurred. This is when Jews were forced into ghettos, slave camps and concentration camps.

Armed resistance was a way for the Jewish people to stand up for themselves. An example of this type of resistance, is when the Jews attacked the Germans with homemade and smuggled weapons. As stated in the Jewish resistance article, “as German SS and police units entered the ghetto, members of the Jewish Fighting Organization (zydowska organizacja bojowa: ZOB) and other Jewish groups attacked German tanks with molotov cocktails, hand grenades,

During World War I Adolf Hitler served his country which the defeat of his country lead him to blame the Jews. Hitler after the war joined the National Socialists German Workers’ Party, which was known to the English as Nazis. In 1923 he wrote his memoir “Mein Kampf” which translates to my struggles, in which Hitler expressed his obsession for the idea of a perfect Aryan race. January 20, 1933 was when Hitler was named the chancellor of Germany. The first concentration camp that Adolf opened was Dachau in March of 1933 which was under control of Heinrich Himmler. In November of 1938 is a night remembered as Kristallnacht because the Jewish synagogues were burned, shop windows were smashed and close to 100 Jews were arrested or killed. Jewish people began to flee while those who didn’t suffered from the fear of what happened. In 1939 the German Police had forced over tens of thousands of Jews into ghettos that were surrounded by high walls with barbed wire on the top. Later that year, over 70,000 Jews who were deemed unfit were gassed to death in what the Nazis called a Euthanasia Program. In 1941 was when the Nazi officers began making the Jews wear a yellow star to help identify them. The idea of using Zyklon-B came from testing done on over 500 Soviet prisoners of war. In the late 1941 was when Germany began mass shipment of Jews to the concentration camps. The elderly and those who were weak and young were the first taken to the camps. Auschwitz-Birkenau