Jewish Resistance

The notion that the Jews were “slaughtered like sheep” is very common. Jews were heavily involved with resistance. A famous resistance group was the Belski brothers. Hiding in the forests of Belorussia, they saved over 1100 Jews. They recused any Jew who was willing to leave from the ghetto and took them to their camp in the woods. They had many guerilla operations and collaborated with the Russian soldiers who were attacking Nazis from behind the lines.

Another famous resistance movement was the Warsaw ghetto uprising. During the groβaktion (Great Action in German. Roundups of Jews for deportation or mass killings were called actions. They were also referred to as ‘pogroms’ but this was usually called and done by Eastern Europeans. i.e. Poles, Russians, etc.) From July 22nd, 1942 (Tisha B’Av) until September 21st (Yom Kippur), at least 300,000 Jews were sent to their deaths at Treblinka. About 6000 Jews were deported each day. Adam Czerniaków, head of the Warsaw Judenrat (Jewish Council), commited suicide when he was told by the Germans to make the deportation lists. The leaders of the Jewish resistance groups decided that they would resist instead of letting any more Jews be deported. Fighting started on April 19th, 1943. The battle lasted until May 16th, 1943. The Jews of the Warsaw ghetto resisted the Nazis longer then the county of Poland who only lasted 37 days. Even after the ghetto uprising was “ended” some Jews continued to fight. A lot of Jews fought during the Warsaw uprising, which happened the next year, even though some had to hid their Jewishness fro, their Polish countrymen.

In every country and in every ghetto, Jews resisted. Some resisted spiritually or passively. Religious services and education lessons were forbidden by the Nazis. Schools and religious services were held in secret. Children who possessed non-Jewish looks mostly, but various Jews, were taken to the Aryan side and hidden from the Nazis. Many organizations made false documents for Jews to hide with.

Movies

Defiance
movie about the Belski brothers.

Uprising
Movie about the warsaw ghetto uprising