The Role Of Resistance Groups In 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.

The lack of resistance and ignorance of the ordinary German population cost many million Jewish lives. The Nazi party’s desire for popularity and support meant that if there was a protest, actions would be taken to keep the public happy, or quiet, with minimal loss of reputation and status. In other words, it meant that the people could win. One successful attempt of protest proved that this theory would have worked. The Rosenstrasse Protest that occurred on the 27th of February 1943 led to the release of several hundred Jewish men from a Gestapo headquarters. This symbolic protest highlighted the fact that if the public were to protest, the execution of Jews could have been slowed or even halted. Despite this, the Rosenstrasse Protest remained the only large protest against the Holocaust throughout its entire duration. This means that the German population continued to ignore and become passive bystanders of the genocide happening around

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.

There are many social forces that affect any society. However, there may be more prominent social forces in a society, or country that has experienced a traumatic event that effected their entire country or society. Germany is a major example of a country that went through an incredibly traumatic event. The Holocaust is the traumatic event that hit Germany beginning in the 1930’s. The Holocaust was a period in time from 1933 to 1945, in which Jews experienced discrimination. Out of nine million Jews that were living in Germany, over half of them were killed in the Holocaust. All the Jews that were killed were killed because of prejudice and discrimination against them. An event as traumatic and massive as the Holocaust has no choice but to affect the country of Germany.

When someone mentions the Holocaust, the image that come to the minds of most people is that of the starving Jews in concentration camps. Most people automatically think of the horrors that the Jews went through, while some may even wonder how something as horrible as the Holocaust could have been done. Not many people stop to think about how the Jews resisted. Jews resisted in small acts almost every day. Whether it was something as small as praying or as large as blowing up a supply train, Jews were able to block the Nazis from completely wiping out the Jewish culture. One particular group of Jews who resisted were the partisans. The partisans were armed groups formed to fight secretly against an occupying force. The Partisans resisted Nazi

On August 2, 1943, a group of Jews stole weapons from the Nazi soldiers and shot down as much of the camp that they could. Hundreds ran but most were shot and killed or captured by villagers who returned them to Treblinka. Only 67 people were reported to surviving after fleeing from the camp. Willenburg

During the Holocaust their were many groups of resistance, but one in particular was the underground who used resistance to fight the Germans. This group faced many challenges but still fought hard to protect their culture. The underground used armed resistance to receive supplies, resists the Germans that try to kill them, and to get the community not to be passive while facing obstacles like making kids and women smuggle supplies, risk families lives, and trying to meet in private to plan.

The year is 1998, not only was I, Carleigh Irgens, born August 21 in Miles City, Montana but some other big and exciting things happened! Three of the most important events were, The Holocaust History Project was founded, John Gacy; The Clown Killer was convicted of killing young boys and even the death of Paul McCartney’s wife, Linda McCartney.

Resistance in the holocaust happened in groups and within these groups they planned different attacks. The biggest group in the ghettos was the Z.O.B. and it was formed mostly by young men, but it was led by a 23 year old man named Mordecai Anielewicz. The Z.O.B contained fewer than 1000 working on fighting the Germans and all of those people wanted to defeat them. All the members of the Z.O.B wanted nothing but to win against the Germans and get all Jews out of their misery. Although that goal wasn’t achieved, they were the most successful group in killing the Nazi and Germans, and destroying camp

The Jewish combat Organization was led by Adolf Liebeskind , Gole Mire, Yitzhak Zuckerman and Mordechai Anielewicz. When the Nazis entered the ghetto on January 18, 1943, to transfer a group of Jews to a camp, the ZOB unit ambushed them. The fight lasted for several days before the Germans withdrew. For the next few months the Nazis suspended deportation from the Warsaw

The Holocaust was a very tragic time in the 1930s. Many people were against the Nazis during that time. There were many different types of resistance during the Holocaust. Spiritual and cultural resistance were some of the types of resistance in the ghettos and in the camps. There was also armed resistance. Chiune Sugihara was one of the many people who were formed part of a form of a resistance and helped the Jews escape. He was a Japanese council, gave out transit visas for the Jews to escape, and saved about 3,500 Jewish live.

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.

The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising occurred in Warsaw Ghetto as a response to the Nazi’s decision to deport approximately 300,000 Jewish residents to their deaths at Treblinka, a concentration camp nearby, which caused great unrest. By the 19th of April 1943, the uprising officially began as German police and troops entered the ghetto to deport the remainder of the Jewish population. The ghetto fighters, although poorly armed compared to the Germans, were able to fight the well-trained German troops and police for nearly a month before the uprising reached its end on May 16, 1943. Throughout the event, over 56,000 Jews were captured. Simon Rotem was one of the few Polish Jews who survived the uprising. Seventy years later, he recalled his experiences during the uprising and describes how the Jewish population made the honourable choice to resist the Nazis who were mass deporting Jews. His initial reaction upon seeing the mass of German forces enter the ghetto was rather bleak, stating that ‘what chance did we have with our miserable supply of firearms to hold of this show of German force with machine-guns, personnel