Jewish resistance in ghettos and concentration camps during the Holocaust

Jewish Resistance During the Holocaust

There is a common misconception that the Jewish people put up little resistance against the Nazis during World War II. The following paper shows that this was not the case, and that Jewish resistance has an important place in the history of the Holocaust.

Firstly, resistance in a militant sense was almost impossible, since Germans actively deceived the Jews at every stage of the process insisting that deportations were to worksites, and having camp-mates send home postcards, stamped Waldsee, which read: 'I am well. I work and am in good health'1.. Deception reached the extent that at Belzec, 18 August, 1942, an SS disinfectant officer, Kurt Gerstein, heard an SS officer chant, whilst naked people were being pushed into the death chamber: "Nothing is going to hurt you. Just breathe deep and it will strengthen your lungs. It is a way to prevent contagious disease. It is a good disinfectant.2" Similarly, a note found in the clothes of one of the victims read: "We arrived at the place after a long journey and at the front of the entrance is a sign "Bathhouse." Outside, people receive soap and a towel. Who knows what they will do with us?"3 He was most likely one of the many to find out.

Nonetheless, resistance did occur and it occurred in many more instances than is popularly known. In a way almost everyone was involved in resistance of some form or other be it in the form of children who were engaged in smuggling activities at the risk of their life, or adults who conducted prohibited groups in the ghetto that focused on raising the spirit of the inhabitants. Zionist groups (such as Werkleute, Hashomer Hatzair, and Habonim) trained people in skills needed for settlement in Israel and taught them its songs and folklore; children squeezed their tiny bodies through the ghetto walls knowing full well that they would be shot in the back would a German guard see them; "Actors, musicians, comics, singers, and dancers all entertained small groups who came together for a few hours to forget their daily terror and despair.4" Understandably, this was done voluntarily, of course, whilst the charitable activities increased and went on unabated despite the lack of resources. In this way, resistance was a mark of the masses. It was not limited to the few5.

Resistance in Everyday Life

The simplest form of resistance resembled the activities of those who were determined to create an existence in the ghetto that would allow people to surmount the horrors of daily living. Underground newspapers were printed at the risk of the lives of those who participated. Synagogue services were held regularly, and classes on Jewish teaching conducted covertly, even though both of these activities were forbidden. Similarly, although observance of Jewish rituals were prohibited, many Jews both within the ghetto and later within the camps secretly endeavored to practice whichever rituals they could to their optimum extent. In one camp, for instance, a menorah was fashioned out of potato slices that inmates had carefully collected from their 'meals', shoelaces being cut and used as wicks6. And then, other Jews resisted by hiding in attics and cellars, and by disguising themselves as non-Jews.

However, although resistance was a concept that was literally practiced by the masses, it is the extreme, most dramatic instances (no less courageous in a way that are best known; and some of these are hardly known at all partly because many of those who participated in resistance of this type were captured and killed before their stories could be told.

Resistance in the Death Camps

Seven hundred Jews were successful in blowing up one of the most notorious of all camps, Treblinka, known as the 'Death Camp' on August 2, 1943. Over 20 Germans and approximately 200 Jews died. Only 12 survived the war12. Gassing activities were interrupted for a month. In Sobibor, on October 14, 1943, 60 of 600 prisoners escaped by digging an underground tunnel leading into the forest. Those who survived joined Soviet partisans. Ten SS guards, including the deputy commander were killed13 and one was wounded, and the Nazis were forced to close the camp.

There are tens of thousands of stories of individuals who heroically resisted Nazidom either alone or by joining groups. Volumes are written on the subject14. Celebrated stories include the instance of Helmut Hirsch, a Jewish architectural student who attempted to bomb Nazi Party Headquarters in Nuremberg, as well as planning to murder Julius Streicher, a leading Nazi official and propagandist; Hirsch was beheaded on June 4, 1937 with an axe. Another German resistance group, the Berlin-based Baum-gruppe was active from 1937 to 1942. The group disseminated anti-Nazi leaflets and bombed some sites including an anti-Soviet exhibit organized by Goebbels.

Samuel Dormits was another example of a courageous individual who formed the Dutch Peoples Militia in the Netherlands that contained about 200 participants (mainly Jewish). Their bomb attacks included assaults on German trains, cinemas, and troops. Dormits himself committed suicide when discovered, whilst 200 participants and many more connected people in Rotterdam, the Hague and Amsterdam were arrested and tortured.

On April 19, 1943 Yura Lifshitz, a young Jewish doctor, and two Belgian students, Robert Maistriau and Jean Franklemore, actually attacked the 20th Transport train going from Mechelne, in Belgium, to Auschwitz. 122 Jews escaped.

Hertz Jospa, Abush Verber, leader of a left-wing Zionist organization, and Chaim Perleman, professor at the Free University of Brussels, founded an organization 15 that helped hide more than 3000 Jewish children in Catholic institutions, non-Jewish homes, and orphanages. And then there were the many groups of Jewish partisans organized in the forest, either alone or in unison with others (primarily the Soviets) who risked their lives time and again in sabotaging German property, activities, and sites. They are a whole different story.

These stories of resistance whether on a private or public scale, large or minor, helped elevate the morale of the Jews and helped many more, who otherwise would not have done so, resist. It is popularly thought that most Jews went to their deaths 'as sheep to the slaughter'. This is a misconception. What is surprising, as Bauer (1982) notes, is not how little resistance there was but rather, given the conditions that the Jews of Eastern Europe endured, how much.

Sources

Altschuler, D. Hitler's War Against the Jews, New York: Behrman House, l978

Bauer, Y.A History of the Holocaust. New York: F. Watts, 1982

Gilbert, M. The Holocaust: The Jewish Tragedy. London: St. Edmundsbury Press, 1986

Grobman, G. The Holocaust. UK: Harper Perennial, 1990

Gutman, Y. The Jews of Warsaw, 1939-43: Ghetto Underground Revolt. UK: Brighton, 1982.

Johnson, P.A History of the Jews, UK: Harper Perennial, 1987

Rohrlich, R. (ed.) Resisting the Holocaust. Oxford and New York: Berg Publishers, 1998.

Suhl, Y. (ed.) They Fought Back. N.Y.: Macmillan, 1975.

1. Johnson, 508.

2 ibid.

3 Gilbert, 426-7

4 Altschuler, 192

5 See, e.g. Bayer, 1982; Gilbert, 1986

6 Grobman, 1990

7 See Gutman, 1982

8 Although some historical accounts report that 300 Germans were killed and 1,00 wounded; and other 17 dead and 110 casualties; the actual figure is unknown.

9 p. 509, note 198.

10 Suhl, 1975

11 Gilbert, 1986; Suhl, 1975

12 Another source has the number as 70 inmates that escaped to freedom with 1,500 being killed

13 Another source cites 11.

14 for a partial working bibliography see ?

http://www.ushmm.org/research/center/lerman/bibliography/pdf

15 the organization was called the "Comite de Defence des Juifs." It was assisted by Yvonne Nevejean, head of the O.N.E. (Office National de l'Enfance)