 |
| During the Holocaust, the Jews tried, every now and then,
to resist the Nazis. All resistance to the Holocaust was
amazing. You are most likely to think of resistance as the destruction of an ammo dump or a base, but in the
Holocaust, even hiding a diary was resistance. Resistance could be
from suicide running, hiding, trying to survive, or attacking the
Nazis. Another would be to let them kill you be attacking the
Germans who were trying to take you to
death camps. Resistance could also be in trying to carry on a
"normal" life by talking, playing cards, singing, dancing,
acting, or even just playing music for one another. Also, trying
to carry on religion or teaching children to resist the Nazis.
Most attempts against the Nazis failed, but some did work. Jews
died from resistance. A lot of them who were hiding, were caught
and killed. Jews going to neutral countries were shot. |
| Smuggling was considered resistance, but it really
became a pastime for Jews. It also supplied food, items, and
weapons for Jews. It was use in the Warsaw Ghetto as well as other
camps. |
| Humor, believe it or not, was in ghettos and death
camps. Jokes were made to make fun of Hitler, the Holocaust, and
the Nazis. For example: A police officer comes into a Jewish
home and want to confiscate the possessions. The woman cries,
pleading she is a widow and has a child to support. The officer
agrees on one condition- that she guesses which of his eyes is the
artificial one. "The left one," guesses the woman.
"How did you now?" he asks. "Because that one has
the human look," she responds. |
| Many Jews in ghettos were forced to work in war
industries for the Germans. This only lead to more
resistance. Like in one ghetto, Jews found away to thwart the
Germans effort of war by sewing uniforms incorrectly so they could not
be worn. |
 |
| A few did survive in the Warsaw Ghetto, but most who
took arms where killed. Above was after the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. A
few were took to a death camp. |
| Although most most attempts of resistance were
nonviolent, there were armed resistance. In the Warsaw Ghetto,
Jews bribed guards for weapons, smuggled them, stole them, and made
crude weapons. They learned how to make Molotov cocktails, pipe
bombs, and homemade bombs to throw at tanks and solders. |
| In Treblinka, there was some acts of resistance which
were started by Meir Berliner who attacked and killed Unterschanfuhrer
Max Bialas with a knife. 160 Jews died of the murder of one S.S.
man. After this a girl, in a group about to be gassed, grabbed a
riffle from a guard and killed one man and wounded two others. She
was caught, tortured, and killed. Also, on August 4, 1943, 700
Jews blew up part of a camp. all but 150-200 Jews died, and over 20
Germans died. only 12 of these Jews survived World War II.
Then, on September 3, 1942, in the Tuchin Ghetto, 700 Jews tried to
escaped to Ukraine, but only 15 lived. |
| Not all Germans were against the Jews. In fact, some Germans
tried to save Jews. Like in one village, Le Chambon-sur-Lignon was was
entirely different than that of other village. It was a village
that hid Jews from Nazis. Also, people saved Jews, like Yad Vashem, who
honored over 11,000 rescuers of Jews. Another is Oskar Schindler
who used Jewish slaves to acquire a fortune, and then used his fortune
to save the lives of his slaves.
|
| Some Jews who were able to escape from ghettos and camps
went to wooded areas where they formed their own fighting units.
These fighters, or partisans, in occupied Soviet territory, hid in a
forest near the Lithuanian capital of Vilna. They were able to
derail hundreds of trains and kill over 3,000 Germans soldiers.
|
| A partisan life in the forest was difficult. People
had to move from place to place to avoid discovery, raid farmers' food
supplies to eat, and try to survive winter in flimsy shelters built from
logs and branches.
|