Resistance During The Holocaust: An Analysis

Yet, the Nazi occupation created a reality where the Jews were cut off from society in their countries of residence, thus casting the initial acts of persecution upon the Jews. Following the occupation, the Jews of France, the Netherlands, and other countries were subjected to discriminatory legislation that revoked their citizenship and banished them from economic life. Consequently, the Jews had to reorganize themselves separately in order to function as a self-sufficient group. In the course of time, the Jews in these countries, like those in Germany itself, were forced to wear the yellow star or the equivalent of such. Ultimately, Nazi policy became more extreme and Jews of Central and Western Europe were deported to death camps in Eastern Europe.”

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.

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.

This statement depicts a glimpse of what the Jewish people had to endure during the holocaust. The holocaust was an extreme form of massacre. It is the deliberate killing of a large group of people, especially those of a particular ethnic group or nation. The duration of the holocaust was from January 30th, 1933 to May 8th, 1945. The holocaust began in the year of 1933 when the Nazi party came to power, the leader Adolf Hitler believed that the Jewish people belonged to a 'low' and 'evil' race, and they were affecting the lives of the Germans pessimistically. Hitler's motto was to punish, alienate, and torture anyone who differed from him, with religion being a main factor. The Nazi’s blamed the Jews for all the social and economic problems

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.

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.

Opposers of passive resistance can not see that you do not need to fight someone to maintain your dignity because while you aren’t outwardly fight you are resisting in different ways much like Malala Yousafzai. Malala has fought peacefully against the Taliban to get learning rights for girls. She has still maintained her dignity and so much more and did not fight

Examining any issue pertaining to the Holocaust is accompanied with complexity and the possibility of controversy. This is especially true in dealing with the topic of Jewish resistance to the Holocaust. Historians are often divided on this complex issue, debating issues such as how “resistance” is defined and, in accordance with that definition, how much resistance occurred. According to Michael Marrus, “the very term Jewish resistance suggests a point of view.” Many factors, both internal such as differences in opinion on when or what resistance was appropriate, as well as external, such as the lack of arms with which to revolt, contributed to making resistance, particularly armed resistance, extremely difficult. When considering acts

Resistance During the Holocaust During the Holocaust, millions of innocent Jews were forced to board rail cars and were destined for the unknown. Thousands upon thousands of Jews were forced to into hard working labor and millions led a brutal existence in Concentration Camps. Many if not all of these people’s lives were all just wasting away in a camp, just for their religion. The people that died in the Holocaust did nothing wrong, but yet paid the price because of a cruel, Nazi leader.

Jews had a choice whether they wanted to resist or not. Many Jews resisted because they wanted to feel like they did something instead of just letting the Germans take over. Acts of resistance towards the holocaust weren’t just left alone. Resistance regarding the Nazi, or Germans could lead the Jews to death. Armed resistance or even resistance in the camps and ghettos had harsh punishments and the Jews knew that.

During World War II, many chose to stand against the Nazi’s either passively or actively due to tyranny and oppression. Despite the many who chose to act out against them, actively using warfare tactics, the remainder of citizens opted for a more subtle, passive type of resistance. In “The Diary of Anne Frank,” and “Resistance During the Holocaust,” the main people passively resisted. People can best respond to conflict by passively resisting because of human worth, survival, and to preserve a culture. Citizens should passively resist because they value their own human worth.

These included organized attempts at escaping from the ghettos into nearby forests, non-compliance with Nazi demands on the part of certain Jewish community leaders, illegal smuggling of food into the ghettos, and spiritual resistance. Not all forms or resistance had to be presented through violence. Although many Jews didn’t get justice for this terrible event, they continued doing what they were best at. Believing in themselves and the future. “Concerts, lectures, theatrical productions, cabarets, and art contests took place in many ghettos, despite the hardships of daily life.” This quote describes the ways that the Jews stayed happy despite all the evil.

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.

There were hundreds of Jewish resistance groups throughout Europe from 1941 to 1943, but the resistance of Warsaw Ghetto Jews was the most famous of that time. Summer of 1942 around 300,000 Jews were deported from the Warsaw Ghetto to a concentration camp called Treblinka. Word of what was happening to the Jews at the camp soon got back to Warsaw and it started a rebellion group called the Z.O.B, which translates to Jewish Fighting Organization. This group told the remaining Jews in the ghetto to resist going into the railroad cars and to join the group to fight. January of 1943 the Z.O.B made their first attack against German troops whom were rounding up Jews, they fired at them with smuggled and homemade weapons. After a few days the German

Passive resistance, in its most basic terms, is the use of nonviolence as a way to invoke peace. Therefore, a passive resister’s number one rule is to practice nonviolence. Nonviolence is the use of intelligence and the human instinct of love to morally counteract aggression. Gandhi repeatedly expresses