RESISTANCE

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RESISTANCE

• During the Holocaust

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First they came for the communists, and I did
not speak out because I was not a
communist. Then they came for the socialists,
and I did not speak out because I was not a
socialist. Then they came for the labor
leaders, and I did not speak out because I was
not a labor leader. Then they came for the
Jews, and I did not speak out because I was not
a Jew. Then they came for me, and there was no
one left to speak out for me. The Reverend
Martin Niemöller, a pastor in the German
Confessing Church who spent seven years in a
concentration camp.
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BARRIERS TO RESISTANCE

• Superior, armed power of Germans
• Isolation of Jews, lack of weapons
• Broken spirit
• Collective Responsibility
• Secrecy and deception

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COLLECTIVE RESPONSIBILITY
In Lithuania two boys escaped a Ghetto, when they
refused to return the entire Ghetto population
was killed.
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COLLECTIVE RESPONSIBILITY
When Meir Berliner, a Jewish prisoner at the
Treblinka death camp, killed a Nazi officer, 160
Jews were executed.
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COLLECTIVE RESPONSIBILITY
In Yugoslavia 50-100 civilians were killed for
every Nazi killed by local partisans.
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COLLECTIVE RESPONSIBILITY
In Czech an entire village of 700 was wiped off
the map because a citizen in a neighboring
village assassinated a Nazi officer.
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COLLECTIVE RESPONSIBILITY
How do you fight against this?
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SECRECY AND DECEPTION

• Secrecy maintained to impede resistance
• Despite rumors, many simply did not believe
• Jews usually told to pack belongings - thus
  reinforcing the idea they were being resettled
• Many at Auschwitz were forced to write postcards
  before being gassed, Arrived safely. I am
  well.

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TO RESIST WAS...

• To smuggle a loaf of bread
• To teach and worship in secret
• To forge documents
• To smuggle people across borders
• To chronicle events and conceal the records
• To hold out a helping hand to the needy
• To contact those under siege and smuggle weapons
• To fight with weapons in streets, mountains, and
  forests
• To rebel in death camps
• To rise up in ghettos, among the crumbling walls,
  in the most desperate revolt

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STAGES OF RESISTANCE

• Spiritual Resistance in the Ghetto
• Armed resistance in the Ghettos and in forests
• Unarmed Resistance in the Camps
• Armed Resistance in the Camps

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SPIRITUAL RESISTANCE

• Attempting to carry on a semblance of "normal
  life in the face of wretched conditions
• Schools set up
• The observance of many Jewish rituals, including
  dietary laws - these were severely punishable by
  Nazis
• Held musical and dramatic performances
• Secret newspapers used to keep Jews informed and
  to encourage hope

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PARTISANS

• Irregular troops that engaged in guerilla warfare
  behind German lines
• 20,000-30,000 Jews fought in partisan groups
• Fought and rescued other Jews from forests around
  camps and ghettos
• Some joined communists and national partisan
  groups - some rejected from these groups

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• Offer armed resistance! Jews defend yourselves
  with arms!
• The German executioners are at the gate of the
  ghetto. They have come to murder us.
• In the same way they our brothers, mothers,
  sisters, fathers and sons were taken away.
• Jews, we have nothing to lose. Death will
  overtake us in any event. Flight and acts of
  cowardice will not save our lives.
• Within the walls of the ghetto there are
  organized Jewish forces who will resist with
  weapons.
• Support the revolt!
• Jewish people, go into the squares. Anyone who
  has no weapons should take an ax, and he who has
  no ax should take a crowbar or a bludgeon.
• For our ancestors!
• For our murdered children!
• Long live liberty. Long live armed resistance!
  Death to the assassins.
• The Vilna Partisan Manifesto

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THE WARSAW GHETTO UPRISING

• Smuggled in guns and ammunition, Homemade bombs
• 750 Jewish fighters held off 3000 crack German
  troops for 28 days.
• Eventually Ghetto was completely destroyed
• Turning point in Jewish history - inspired many
  others to resist.

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THE WARSAW GHETTO UPRISING
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THE WARSAW GHETTO UPRISING
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THE WARSAW GHETTO UPRISING
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THE WARSAW GHETTO UPRISING
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UNARMED RESISTANCE IN THE CAMPS

• Secret political organizations and meetings
• Attempts to alleviate suffering of camp inmates
• Attempts to inform the outside world about camps

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ARMED RESISTANCE IN THE CAMPS

• Rosa Robota helped smuggle gun powder out of
  munitions factory that was used to blow up
  crematorian. Rosa and four others were hung.
• Supplies were hiddenby those who moved bodies.
• Rosas last statement was scrawled on a scrap
  of paper, "Hazak V' Amatz" Be Strong Brave.

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My heart still beats inside my breastWhile
friends depart for other worlds.Perhaps its
better - who can say? -Than watching this, to
die today No, no my God we want to live!Not
watch our numbers melt away.We want to have a
better world.We want to work - we must not
die! Eva Pikova, a 12 year old from the Vilna
Ghetto. Fate unknown.