Jewish Resistance during the Holocaust: Fact or Fiction?[1]
by Abigail Pfeiffer
For close to fifteen years after the Holocaust there was little written about the
resistance of the European Jewish population against the Nazis and their collaborators.
According to Michael Marrus in his article “Jewish Resistance to the Holocaust”
the reason for this is “…most Jews had little stomach for myth-making of any kind
about Jewish resistance in the immediate shock of the war. It was all Jews could
do in the first postwar years to absorb the reality of mass murder on an unimagined
scale…”[2] Only after the shock of the attempted liquidation of the whole population
of European Jews wore off did some solid historiography emerge about Jewish resistance.
The trial of Adolf Eichmann in Israel also prompted more historians to examine Jewish
resistance, especially outside of Israel and Yiddish speaking populations. Two historians
emerged during this time, Hannah Arendt and Raul Hilberg, with views that the Jews
did not resist, at least not on a scale that would have made their resistance successful.
Other historians have taken the other side of the debate and claim that the Jewish
population did indeed resist. The problem with the historiography of Jewish resistance
is the definition of resistance itself. Is resistance only resistance if it is armed?
Can there be other forms of resistance that do not require the use of weapons? In
analyzing the historiography of Jewish resistance I will first define the different
types of resistance. I will also address the different arenas where resistance took
place, as well as the different partisan movements that occurred throughout the
continent. Finally, I will examine the opinions of the major historians of Jewish
resistance to understand what the consensus is among Holocaust historians.
Coming up with a single definition of resistance can be very tricky. Most historians
agree that there are two different categories of resistance: armed resistance and
passive resistance. Armed resistance includes any type of violent resistance, and
passive resistance is nonviolent such as continuing to practice religion in secret,
smuggling food, smuggling children, etc. Michael Marrus breaks it down even further
in his essay “Jewish Resistance to the Holocuast” with five subcategories of resistance
as defined by the Swiss Historian Werner Rings: Symbolic resistance, Polemic resistance,
Defensive resistance, Offensive resistance, and Resistance enchained.[3] Symbolic
resistance is essentially holding on to a national identity that the Nazis were
trying to destroy. For the Jewish population, this meant holding on to the Jewish
identity, and refusing to give up everything that entailed. Polemic resistance is
similar to symbolic resistance, but it goes a bit further. According to Rings the
polemic protester identifies with this statement: “I oppose the occupying power
by protesting or organizing protests, even at risk to myself. I say or do things
calculated to persuade my fellow countrymen of the need to fight on.”[4] An example
of this is the demonstrations that protested the removal of Jewish professors and
civil servants in the Netherlands in 1940, which began at Leyden and Delft Universities.[5]
Throughout my research I have encountered this method of the Germans disposing of
the Jewish intelligentsia early in the war, therefore removing a section of the
population who could inspire the rest of the Jewish population to rise up. Another
example of polemic resistance is when people within the Jewish community tried to
warn other Jews of the “Final Solution” including the German deportations which
were a step in the campaign of Jewish liquidation. The Nazi’s used several kinds
of deception to trick the Jews into thinking that they were only being deported
to work camps, when in reality they were boarding trains destined for almost certain
death.[6] Defensive resistance can include violence, but it is also resistance that
“comes to the aid of ‘those in danger or on the run’.”[7] Marrus noted that this
type of resistance happened more frequently than is usually credited and that networks
were constructed by Jews throughout Europe to try and protect themselves. The problem
that confronted the Jews with this type of resistance is time and the lack of it.
Creating extensive and operational resistance networks takes time and as Marrus
noted: “Almost invariably, Jews lacked time, which is one reason why so much of
their resistance activity never extended beyond the symbolic or the polemic.”[8]
Offensive resistance is resistance that includes military operations, typically
unconventional, which could be perpetrated by a single person or groups of people,
including underground groups and partisan groups. Many offensive resisters also
organized protests, created anti-Nazi literature, and smuggled others to safety.
Finally, there is Resistance enchained, which in essence is resistance by people
who had little hope of surviving. A great example of this are ghetto revolts, one
of the most famous being the Warsaw ghetto uprising. The ghetto fighters had little
chance of survival but their honor and the honor of the Jewish population in history
was at stake. Although there are several different ways to define resistance, and
much of it is up to the individual historian’s interpretation, it is clear that
the Jewish population did resist the Nazi’s and their collaborators throughout Europe
in several different ways.
Where did Jewish resistance take place? The Jewish population was obviously not
in the position to raise a traditional army. The main arenas of resistance were
in the ghettos, the concentration camps, and in partisan groups. Perhaps the most
famous instance of ghetto resistance happened in 1943 in the Warsaw ghetto. However,
the Jews in the Lodz ghetto were notorious for their lack of resistance. What would
make one ghetto rise up and another ghetto stay submissive? According to the psychologist
Larissa Tiedens: “People can respond to oppression in many ways. Some react violently,
while others do not, and some even seem to “cooperate” with their oppression.”[9]
Could this have been the case in the Lodz ghetto as compared to the Warsaw ghetto?
This question is especially interesting when considering that Warsaw and Lodz were
only 60 miles from each other, so it’s not as if they were in different countries
with different cultures. Tiedens noted that the Lodz ghetto has the reputation of
being the most obliging to Nazi requests.[10] The psychology of the two groups comes
into question as a possible theory for why the Lodz ghetto residents did not revolt.
Tiedens wrote that: “Psychological theories often indicate that a certain amount
of optimism is necessary for a low-power group to revolt.”[11] Possibly the Lodz
ghetto residents felt more optimistic about their fates while the Warsaw ghetto
residents felt increasingly pessimistic. This theory is backed up by evidence of
the leaders of the Jewish council in Lodz and Warsaw. The Nazi’s would choose one
Jewish man to lead the Jewish councils in each ghetto. In Lodz this man was Mordechai
Chaim Rumkowski, who “is vilified by historians and presented as a powermonger who
could do anything to gain the favor of the Nazis, including sending his own people
to death.”[12] He is accused by historians of hiding the truth of the deportations
from the Jews in the ghetto. He would assure the Jews of their safety as they boarded
the deportation trains, perhaps to keep chaos from breaking out. Tiedens noted that
historian Isaiah Trunk quoted Rumkowski as saying this to the Lodz ghetto residents:
“I have firm hope that the fate of the resettled people is not going to be so tragic
as has commonly been feared in the ghetto. They will not be put behind wires….I
guarantee with my own head that the working people will be subjected to no injustice.”[13]
On the other hand, the leader of the Jewish council in Warsaw was Adam Czerniakow,
who took his own life after he had arranged for the deportation of Jews from the
ghetto. While both men probably did not grasp the gravity of the situation, it seems
that the residents of the Warsaw ghetto were much more attuned to their fate whereas
the residents of the Lodz ghetto held onto whatever shreds of optimism they could.
The Warsaw ghetto uprising has been studied extensively by historians. There was
armed and passive resistance that took place in the Warsaw ghetto. According to
Yehuda Bauer, author of Rethinking the Holocaust, there were attempts to
educate the elementary school age children from 1939-1941, during a time when the
Nazis prohibited education. Also, the Jewish community started complets, which were
small groups of children that met secretly with a teacher who was usually paid in
food. There were also two underground high schools, one of which was run by an underground
socialist Zionist youth movement, the Dror. Bauer noted that there were approximately
600 minyanim, which were a group of ten men that were required for organized religious
resistance. In addition to these resistance efforts there were also house committees
created that aided in the education of the ghetto residents, assisted in forming
cultural activities, and provided cover for illegal political activities.[14] In
addition to the house committees, there were also a network of underground political
organizations, including youth movements, and there was an illegal underground press
that printed in Polish, Yiddish, and Hebrew.
It is important to note that during the preparations for uprising, the Jewish participants
had no illusions of grandeur or victory. According to Shmuel Krakowski, author of
The War of the Doomed: Jewish Armed Resistance in Poland, 1942-1944: “It
was necessary to prepare for an uprising that was doomed to defeat from its onset,
an uprising in which it would be impossible to surrender, and which all know must
end with the destruction of the entire ghetto.”[15] Polish Colonel Henryk Wolinski
summed it up nicely: “The stand of the Jewish Fighting Organization was that the
fate of the Warsaw Ghetto, as well as that of other Jewish communities, had been
decided. Extermination awaits them sooner or later, and because of that they want
to die with honor, that is, with arms in hand.”[16] While the resistors knew it
was destined for defeat, they still prepared meticulously and carefully. There were
different stages to preparation: political preparations, propaganda, organization
of armed units, and the arming and training of the combat units. Although the Jews
that took place in this uprising were almost certain of their own deaths, this type
of resistance was necessary for them to be able to die with honor, and to demonstrate
to future generations that the Jews did not go to their deaths like sheep to slaughter.
In addition to resistance in the ghettos, there was also resistance in the concentration
camps. One of the most famous is the Sobibor revolt, which was located 100 miles
east of Warsaw. The Warsaw Institute of Jewish Historical Research approximates
around 350,000 Jews lost their lives at this camp. This camp was almost strictly
for exterminations, which at the time of the revolt was around 600 prisoners, and
the population that remained alive was there to keep the camp running. The revolt
was led by a Russian POW named Alexander Pechorski, who had only been a prisoner
in Sobibor for three weeks. In October of 1943, the 600 prisoners escaped by killing
most of the guards and SS officers of the camp; about a third of the Jews survived.[17]
A year earlier, in August of 1943, there was an uprising at the Treblinka concentration
camp, which was 60 miles northeast of Warsaw. Of the several thousand prisoner population,
there were only several hundred by the time of the revolt. These prisoners escaped
by killing the guards and fled through the barbed wire to freedom. Lucien Steinberg
noted in his book: Jews Against Hitler: The Seminal Work on the Jewish Resistance,
that many of the survivors of the Treblinka uprising managed to survive for the
next year until the arrival of the Red Army.[18]
Another area of resistance, apart from the ghettos and concentration camps, was
the forests. Many partisan groups called the forests of Europe home and headquarters,
including one of the most famous partisan groups headed by the Bielski brothers.
The group was based in the Byelorussian forest. There were 1200 Jews that made up
the group, with approximately 300 that were resistance fighters. This group was
a unique partisan group in the sense that they accepted any Jewish survivors that
came to them; elderly, children, and women. The people who were not resistance fighters
filled support roles throughout the camp. James Glass, author of Jewish Resistance
During the Holocaust: Moral Use of Violence and Will, wrote about the Bielski
group: “This shtetl in the forest exacted vengeance on the Germans, while
encouraging caring and cooperation as the primary objective of a civilized and human
existence. Rescue and community for the Bielski group were as important as killing.”[19]
This group would be classified as armed resistance as they had no qualms about killing
and violence when they deemed it necessary. In addition to the Bielski brothers,
there were also many other partisan groups that operated in the forests, one of
which was called “The Avengers” led by Abba Kovner. This group originated in Vilna,
but they eventually moved their operations to the Rudnicki forest in southern Lithuania
where they met up with other Jewish partisans who had already established a camp
there. As Rich Cohen noted in his book The Avengers: A Jewish War Story,
the Jews in the Rudnicki forest grew over time: “Over time, a network of bases sprang
up in the forest, turning Rudnicki into a dark place on the German map, where over
a thousand partisans lived.”[20] It was difficult for Jews to attain arms, but in
this group each partisan carried at least one gun, while some had multiple weapons.
What do historians have to say about Jewish resistance? From my research most historians
argue that the Jewish population did indeed fight back, and the issue isn’t so much
did they resist, but how that resistance can be defined. Is passive resistance still
considered resistance? was it more of a defense mechanism to get through the horrors
the Nazis were inflicting on the Jewish population? Raul Hilberg is one of the few
historians that claimed that the Jews did not do enough to resist, especially considering
their circumstances. Hilberg is the author of one of the most definitive books on
the Holocaust, The Destruction of the European Jews. Hilberg claimed that
“The Jews were not oriented toward resistance. Even those who contemplated a resort
to arms were given pause by the thought that for the limited success of a handful,
the multitude would suffer the consequences.”[21] He goes on to write that “measured
in German casualties, Jewish armed opposition shrinks into significance.”[22] Although
my personal opinion is that the Jews did indeed resist, Hilberg makes a compelling
argument. The Germans employed a number of tactics to discourage the Jews from resisting,
such as the killings of Jews in retaliation for other Jews who attempted escape,
and the abovementioned elimination of the Jewish intelligentsia in an effort to
keep them from encouraging the remaining Jewish population to resist. Yehuda Bauer,
author of Rethinking the Holocaust, is a prominent Holocaust historian who
argues that the Jews did resist: “This review of active Jewish responses to Nazi
oppression could be summarized in an almost triumphalist fashion: there was unarmed
resistance, there was sanctification of life, there was armed resistance.”[23] But
Bauer also understands that this view of Jewish resistance should not be romanticized.
He goes on to write: “But the summary would give a completely skewed picture. It
would show a nostalgic, sickeningly sweet dreamworld, not the reality of the Holocaust.
There would be no traitors in it, no desperate leadership groups trying to bribe
and cajole the murderers even after they knew the situation was hopeless, no masses
of disoriented, frightened people, numbed multitudes who gave up hope and therefore
became easy prey for the murderers.”[24] Lucien Steinberg also argues that the Jews
did resist, but he also acknowledges the help of the non-Jewish resistance. He references
the higher survival rate of the Western European Jews thanks to the assistance given
to them by the non-Jewish resistance, while he notes that the Eastern European Jews
did not have the assistance of a non-Jewish resistance which factored into their
demise. Steinberg wrote of Jewish resistance that “By revolting against the Hitler
regime which intended to exterminate the entire Jewish population, the Jews were
not engaging in an act of heroism, they simply wished to preserve the material and
moral substance of their people. Their success won them immortality.”[25] Michael
Marrus’ opinion of Jewish resistance is that the Jews resisted in the face of almost
no hope and little outside help. “Its distinctiveness lies in the several characteristics
that we have considered in this paper-that it may be the most poignant in its appeals,
coming so often from the grave, that its fighters were often the most cut off, without
allies or resources, and that its struggle, being so often without hope, was the
most completely directed to ourselves, those of us who are responsible for how the
history of these years will be told.”[26]
From my research on this topic, I believe that the Jews did resist, at least to
the best of their abilities in that situation. Many Jews were in denial about what
was happening to themselves, their families, and their race, and wanted to believe
that the Nazis weren’t systematically exterminating them. At the beginning of WWII
the Nazis eliminated many of the intelligentsia and religious leaders, leaving the
rest of the Jewish population without leadership.
Also, it was difficult for Jewish resistance groups to obtain arms and when they
did the arms were usually not the same caliber as the German arms. In the face of
the situation the Jewish population found themselves in, I believe they resisted
to the best of their ability. Not only were their lives at stake, but so were the
lives of future generations. While the majority of historians believe the Jews resisted,
some still question the extent of that resistance and whether or not it was enough.
In a sense, it wasn’t enough since six millions Jews perished. On the other hand,
it can be considered enough since it is clear that many of the Jewish population
did not approach their deaths like sheep to slaughter.
Show Footnotes
and Bibliography
Footnotes
[1]. Peer reviewed by Adam Koeth.
[2]. Michael Marrus, “Jewish Resistance to the Holocaust,” Journal of Contemporary
History 30, no. 1 ((January 1995). http://www.jstor.org/stable/260923 (accessed
October 11, 2010), 85
[3]. Marrus, “Jewish Resistance to the Holocaust,” 93
[4]. Marrus, “Jewish Resistance to the Holocaust,” 95
[5]. Marrus, “Jewish Resistance to the Holocaust,” 95
[6]. Marrus, “Jewish Resistance to the Holocaust,” 96
[7]. Marrus, “Jewish Resistance to the Holocaust,” 98
[8]. Marrus, “Jewish Resistance to the Holocaust,” 98
[9]. Larissa Tiedens, “Optimism and Revolt of the Oppressed: A Comparison of two
Polish Jewish Ghettos of WWII.” Political Psychology 18, no. 1 (March 1997), 45
[10]. Tiedens, “Optimism and Revolt of the Oppressed: A Comparison of two Polish
Jewish Ghettos of WWII,” 46
[11]. Tiedens, “Optimism and Revolt of the Oppressed: A Comparison of two Polish
Jewish Ghettos of WWII,” 51
[12]. Tiedens, “Optimism and Revolt of the Oppressed: A Comparison of two Polish
Jewish Ghettos of WWII,” 48
[13]. Tiedens, “Optimism and Revolt of the Oppressed: A Comparison of two Polish
Jewish Ghettos of WWII,” 48
[14]. Yehuda Bauer, Rethinking the Holocaust (Harrisonburg, VA: R.R. Donnelly
and Sons Co., 2001), 124
[15]. Shmuel Krakowski, The War of the Doomed: Jewish Armed Resistance in Poland,
1942-1944 (New York: Holmes and Meier Publishers, Inc., 1984), 163
[16]. Krakowski, The War of the Doomed: Jewish Armed Resistance in Poland, 1942-1944,
165
[17]. Lucien Steinberg, Jews Against Hitler: The Seminal Work on the Jewish Resistance,
(Glasgow: Robert MaClehouse and Co Ltd, 1970), 271
[18]. Steinberg, Jews Against Hitler: The Seminal Work on the Jewish Resistance,
279
[19]. James Glass, Jewish Resistance During the Holocaust: Moral Uses of Violence
and Will, (New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2004), 55
[20]. Rich Cohen, The Avengers: A Jewish War Story, (New York: Random House
Inc., 2000), 109
[21]. Raul Hilberg, The Destruction of the European Jews, (New York: Holmes
and Meier Publishers Inc., 1985), 1105
[22]. Hilberg, The Destruction of the European Jews, 1105
[23]. Bauer, Rethinking the Holocaust, 142
[24]. Bauer, Rethinking the Holocaust, 142
[25]. Steinberg, Jews Against Hitler: The Seminal Work on the Jewish Resistance,
339
[26]. Marrus, “Jewish Resistance to the Holocaust,” 105
Works Cited
Bowman, Steven. “Jews in Wartime Greece.” Jewish Social Studies 48, no. 1
(Winter 1986). http://tinyurl.com/25c3ejz (accessed October 12, 2010).
Burstin, Barbara Stern. “The Warsaw Ghetto: A Shattered Window on the Holocaust.”
The History Teacher 13, no. 4 (August 1980). http://www.jstor.org/stable/494023
(accessed October 11, 2010).
Einwohner, Rachel L. “Identity Work and Collective Action in a Repressive Context:
Jewish Resistance on the “Aryan Side” of the Warsaw Ghetto.” Social Problems
53, no. 1 (February 2006). http://www.jstor.org/stable/4488151 (accessed October
12, 2010).
Einwohner, Rachel L. “Opportunity, Honor, and Action in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
of 1943.” The American Journal of Sociology 109, no. 3 (November 2003). http://www.jstor.org/stable/3568576
(accessed October 11, 2010).
Epstein, Barbara. The Minsk Ghetto, 1941-1943: Jewish Resistance and Soviet Internationalism.
Berkeley: University of California Press, 2008.
Fackenheim, Emil. “The Spectrum of Resistance during the Holocaust: An Essay in
Description and Definition.” Modern Judaism 2, no. 2 (May 1982). http://www.jstor.org/stable/1396194
(accessed October 12, 2010).
Friedman, Phillip. “The Jewish Ghettos of the Nazi Era.” Jewish Social Studies
16, no. 1 (January 1954): 61-88.
Garlinksi, Jozef. “The Polish Underground State (1939-45).” Journal of Contemporary
History 10, no. 2 (April 1975). http://www.jstor.org/stable/260146 (October
16, 2010).
Gutman, Yisrael. The Jews of Warsaw, 1939-1943: Ghetto, Underground, Revolt.
Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1982.
Halivni, Tzipora Hagar. “The Birkenau Revolt: Poles Prevent a Timely Insurrection.”
Jewish Social Studies 41, no. 2 (Spring 1979). http://tinyurl.com/2eql67t (accessed
October 12, 2010).
Klein, Bernard. “The Judenrat.” Jewish Social Studies 22, no. 1 (January
1960): 27-42.
Libowitz, Richard. “Holocaust Studies.” Modern Judaism 10, no. 3 (October
1990). http://www.jstor.org/stable/1396280 (accessed October 11, 2010).
Linenthal, Edward T. “The Boundaries of Memory: The United States Holocaust Memorial
Museum.” American Quarterly 46, no. 3 (September 1994). http://www.jstor.org/stable/2713271
(accessed October 12, 2010).
Marrus, Michael R. “Jewish Leaders and the Holocaust.” French Historical Studies
15, no. 2 (Autumn, 1987). http://www.jstor.org/stable/286268 (accessed October 11,
2010).
Marrus, Michael R. and Paxon, Robert O. “The Nazis and the Jews in Occupied Western
Europe, 1940-1944.” The Journal of Modern History 54, no. 4 (December 1982).
http://www.jstor.org/stable/1906017 (accessed October 12, 2010).
Merin, Yehuda and Porter, Jack Nusan. “Three Jewish Family Camps in the Forests
of Volyn, Ukraine during the Holocaust.” Jewish Social Studies 46, no. 1
(Winter 1984). http://tinyurl.com/2cqz3wc (accessed October 12, 2010).
Peszke, Michael Alfred. “The Polish Government’s Aid to and Liaison with its Secret
Army in Occupied Poland, 1939-1945.” Military Affairs 52, no. 4 (October
1988). http://tinyurl.com/2852t5m (accessed October 16, 2010).
Poznanski, Renee. “Reflections on Jewish Resistants in France.” Jewish Social Studies
2, no. 1 (Fall 1995). http://tinyurl.com/2dh7z3d (accessed October 11, 2010).
Rabinowicz, H. “The Battle of the Ghetto Benches.” The Jewish Quarterly Review
55, no. 2 (October 1964). http://www.jstor.org/stable/1453795 (accessed October
12, 2010).
Rashke, Richard. Escape from Sobibor. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1982.
Strasser, Michael. “‘A Survivor from Warsaw’ as Personal Parable.” Music and Letters
76, no. 1 (February 1995). http://www.jstor.org/stable/737762 (accessed October
11, 2010).
Trunk, Isaiah. “Note: Why was there no Armed Resistance against the Nazis in the
Lodz Ghetto?” Jewish Social Studies 43, no. 3/4 (Summer 1981). http://tinyurl.com/26h7opo
(accessed October 12, 2010).
Copyright © 2011 Abigail Pfeiffer.
Written by Abigail Pfeiffer. If you have questions or comments on this article,
please contact Abigail Pfeiffer at:
zabba82@gmail.com. Her history blog is at: http://www.abigailpfeiffer.com/.
About the author:
Abigail did her undergraduate studies at Northern Arizona University and has a Bachelor
of Arts in Humanities. She is currently a graduate student at Norwich University
in Vermont studying for a Master of Arts in Military History. She is interested
in military history of all periods of history but she is especially intrigued with
the Vietnam War and WWII, especially Holocaust history and POW history. Her work
strives to understand the human condition an war, the social and political factors
that drive humans to the extreme of war, and the individual human experience of
war. She currently lives in Phoenix, AZ with her husband and stepdaughter. Her history
blog is at http://www.abigailpfeiffer.com/.
Published online: 08/21/2011.
* Views expressed by contributors are their own and do not necessarily represent
those of MHO.
|
