Jewish Resistance In Ww2

Throughout the Holocaust, Jews organized resistance movements in ghettos, concentration, and extermination camps. Although they had virtually no weapons and faced one of the largest arsenals in the world, the Jewish people fought for their honor and freedom. Without any hope victory and in the face of death, resistance fighters found the courage to take on evil in its purest form. Their efforts must not go in vein; to them we must accord our respect. This is a brief testimony of their fight against the Nazi regime.

As I mentioned at the beginning, Jewish partisans are placed into two categories: Eastern and Western. There was no major resistance in Germany, due to the fact that everything was highly scrutinized by Hitler’s

Non-violent resistance began to evolve as the Jews were transported to the concentration camps. Upon their initial arrival in the concentration camps, inmates attempted to aid each other in various ways, such as by giving those that were extremely malnourished extra food or attempting to lessen the workload on those that were weaker by taking their place; these acts, although not aimed directly against the SS, were simply keeping one another alive. These acts can be considered under Bauer’s definition of resistance in that the groups’ motives in sustaining themselves as a whole was in direct opposition to the central idea of the SS to break down and destroy the Jewish population. These acts also helped lead to the later active, armed resistance in that they helped to keep inmates alive and maintain their strength, as well as providing them with a will to resist.

Many Jews across Europe tried to organize resistance against the Germans. Many Jews did this by smuggling homemade weapons. The most famous attempt at resistance against the Germans was, the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.

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.

Many were then taken to ghettos, concentration camps to work, or be killed (Mayberry). Few rebelled, while others either couldn’t, or failed. Germany began murdering all of the Jewish besides foreigners who were labeled as a “Jew”. Kristallnacht, or “The Night of Broken Glass” was a massive, coordinated attack on the Jews, and was a night never

The Jews really had no choice to resist because if they did resist than they would just be killed on the spot. The Nazis did a very good job at making it sound like the Jews were only getting taken away for work, not to be put into concentration camps. Once they got to the camps, they would be split up randomly and there was no set order on where people went. Many of the Jews would go along with what the Nazis were doing with them but then there was a small percentage that would resist the Nazis force, and that didn’t turn out very well.

    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.

Normally, people in the Jewish resistance would stand for themselves and their families. If those who were non Jewish got caught by the Nazis they would then get the same treatment as the Jews. There were many acts of resistance for the Jews, such as Warsaw ghetto, and various spiritual resistances. The Warsaw Ghetto inspired

All rebellions in concentration camps were organised by the Jewish prisoners. There was many attempts at rebellion, such as Treblinka, Sobibor,and Auschwitz-Birkenau. The rebellion at Sobibor was the only successful one. The prisoners that did not rebel, were killed, as a warning to others to not try to do the same. Rebellions were held at three of the six extermination camps. When they rebelled they didn’t try to escape, because they knew that they didn’t have hope, so they just killed the guards. Most prisoners used tools to rebel, such as shovels and picks. Some stole some weapons from the guards. The prisoners rebelled because they knew that they were going to die soon.

Resistance in the Holocaust At the time of the Holocaust, millions of Jews from several different places boarded trains bound for the unknown. Many had to work in forced labor, and millions of others were put to work and treated like farm animals. They were indifferent to the concentration camps. Many acts of resistance were documented during the Holocaust.

During the Holocaust, In what ways did the Jews resist against the Nazis?. World War II was a terrible time for the Jewish people. The Nazis packed thousands of Jews in really small ghettos together and gave them terrible conditions to live with. The Jews were then later sent to concentration camps which even had worse conditions than the ghettos. During the Holocaust, the Jewish people participated in both armed and unarmed resistance in order to earn their freedom and hope.

During World War II, only twelve percent of the Jewish people survived. Many of the Jews went through many dangerous actions to remain hidden. For those who were captured were taken to concentration camps, where they went through many hardships. The people in the camps often struggled to survive. Many Jews struggled to remain hidden while others fought for survival in the concentration camps.

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

At the beginning of the second World War, there were 140,000 Jews residing in the Netherlands. 107,000 people, close to seventy five percent of the Jewish population were removed by the Nazi movement by the end of the war. Only 5,000 of of the captured jews returned home. The other roughly 30,000 Jews survived by other means. One of these ways was through the bravery and the risks taken by the Dutch Resistance. After the Nazis occupied many European nations, they implemented new laws and new governments. They targeted mainly minorities, such as the Jewish. Deciding to rebel against the Nazis and the few Dutch who joined the Nazi movement, ordinary civilians and higher figures joined together to protect their way of life and the Jewish people in their countries.