Holocaust history and impact

Resistance During the Holocaust

The purpose of this paper is to introduce and analyze the topic of Holocaust studies during World War II. Specifically it will explain why resistance is an important part of the history of the Holocaust. Jewish resistance to the Holocaust is important for a number of reasons. First, it is often not recognized that Jews did fight back during the Holocaust, often they are portrayed as meekly following the Germans' will as they are rounded up first in Jewish Ghettos and then sent to the concentration camps. In reality, the Jews did fight back in many areas. Another reason it is so important to understand this resistance is that for the most part, the Jews fought back alone, no one from the outside joined them in their war against the Germans, and their plight was largely unacknowledged in the outside world. Thus, the history of the Jewish resistance needs to be told so it can be understood and appreciated by everyone, not just the Jews, and the families of the Jews that took part in this vital resistance.

The first indication that the Germans planned to manage and then systematically eliminate the Jews of Europe came between 1939 and 1943 when the Germans forcibly relocated Jewish families into ghettos all over Europe. The Museum's publication notes, "The ghettos varied greatly in size, from those confining several hundred Jews to the largest ghetto in Warsaw, where almost one-half million Jews lived at the peak of the ghetto's population in late 1940" (Editors 9). As the Jews were herded to the ghettos and began disappearing, some of the people who survived determined they would resist the Germans as long as they could. This was especially true in some of the ghettos that were not totally sealed, such as Warsaw, where there were opportunities to obtain illicit weapons and communicate with the outside world.

Resistance was difficult in the ghettos for a number of reasons, including the diverse populations living so closely crowded together, and the inability to gain arms and plan formalized resistance, especially in the early parts of the Jewish relocation to the ghettos. In addition, many Jews did not initially resist the Germans until they realized their very survival was at stake. As it became clear the Germans were going to withhold food and decent living conditions, and then begin to relocate Jews to camps where they disappeared forever, the resistance began to grow and take shape. One woman wrote, "Jewish armed resistance..., when it came, did not spring from a sudden impulse; it was not an act of personal courage on the part of a few individuals or organized groups: it was the culmination of Jewish defiance, defiance that had existed from the advent of the ghetto" (Editors 10). Initially, the resistance groups were small, and they formed to support each other and attempt to decide how to manage the situation. Often, youth joined the groups and kept them going. The editors continue, "Young men and women in their late teens and early twenties became the mainstay of the underground movements, in part because many of the older prewar political leaders had fled or had been killed or imprisoned after the outbreak of war" (Editors 11). However, as the time in the ghettos grew longer, and Jews began to disappear in greater numbers, it became clear that something had to be done, and the resistance grew. Couriers risked their lives and carried messages to the outside, and armed rebellions began to be more common. What may be surprising is that so many acts of resistance actually occurred throughout Europe, this is something that is often overlooked in Jewish history.

When the Germans forced the Jews into labor, internment, concentration, and extermination camps, they realized what the Germans really had in store for them, and camp members forged resistance groups, as well, even though it was much harder to resist inside the concentration camps, because they were heavily guarded, the work was incredibly difficult, and food was almost non-existent. It was much more difficult to resist in these conditions. However, resistance did occur, even if the penalty was death. The editors continue, "In many camps, underground groups formed, sometimes across the divergent political, ethnic, and language barriers; members exchanged information and coordinated efforts to alleviate suffering of the inmates" (Editors 24). Uprisings occurred in Treblinka, Sobibor, and Auschwitz-Birkenau, according to the editors, and mainly these revolts were a show of opposition simply to let the Germans know the Jews would not surrender without a fight. It is extremely important to understand the Jewish resistance movement inside the camps to show the very nature of the Jewish people. They knew, for the most part, their fate was hopeless by the mid-term of the war, and fighting was simply a way to show they were not defeated or without hope. They resisted the Germans not out of hopelessness, but with a defiance that indicated their faith and their determination to fight back at all costs. More importantly, they hoped some might somehow escape and take news of the terrible camps to the outside, and bring help for their suffering. While this did not occur, the resistance shows the Jews did not simply give up, they kept fighting back as long as they possibly could in any way they could.