Surviving The Holocaust

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Surviving The Holocaust

• How did people react to the holocaust?
• How would you have reacted?
• Lets look at three possibilities

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Surviving The Holocaust

• I. Playing the Game

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"Playing for Time was a made-for-TV movie. It
told the story of Fania Fenelon, a Jewish cabaret
singer from Paris, and what happened to her in
Auschwitz, a concentration camp. Below Fania
before and during time at the camp. What
differences do you notice between these two
pictures?
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Fanias friend, Alma Rose (before and after being
sent to Auschwitz). Alma was not a musician, but
Fania refused to play without Alma, thus saving
Alma from the gas chambers.
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 Auschwitz was one of the worst of the various
concentration camps during World War II. Over
four million Jews perished there. More than a
million and a half were children.  In
Auschwitz, Fenelon was a member of a prisoner
orchestra that played music for the German
officers stationed at the infamous camp. As long
as the Germans enjoyed the music and the playing,
they were saved from the gas chambers. Hence the
title, "Playing for Time."  From their
rehearsal room, the orchestra members had seen
thousands march to their deaths. These
unfortunate victims were gassed to death and then
consumed in the furnaces. On rare occasions, some
were executed by a firing squad.  One day,
while they were discussing the cruelty of some of
the prison's soldiers, a prisoner shouted
"They're monsters! They're not human!"  Fenelon
answered "But they are human. Just like you.
Just like me. That's the problem. Here we have
learned something about human nature and it's not
very good news."
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Questions1. Based on your knowledge of the
Holocaust, can you think of other ways that
people survived by playing the game?2. What
are possible advantages and disadvantages to this
approach to surviving the holocaust?
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Surviving The Holocaust
II. Keeping Life Normal
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Schindlers List

• SCHINDLERS LIST tells the compelling true story
  of the German businessman Oskar Schindler who
  comes to Nazi-occupied Poland looking for
  economic prosperity and leaves as a savior of
  more than 1,100 Jews. A charming and sly
  entrepreneur, Schindler bribes and befriends the
  Nazi authorities to gain control of a factory in
  Krakow by aryanization, which he staffs with
  Jewish slave - laborers, and soon he is making a
  fortune. But among the Jews who work for him is
  Itzhak Stern, the plant manager, who in his
  benevolence sees to it that Schindler's workforce
  includes the most vulnerable and cherished
  members of Krakow's Jewish community.

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Scene from Schinders List Nazis Chasing Jews in
the Ghetto. Describe what you see. How might
someone being chased feel?
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Despite constant harassment form the Nazis, many
Jews tried to maintain normal lives in both the
Ghettos and in concentration camps. They did
this by holding Shabbat services, having marriage
ceremonies, telling stories, trading goods, and
in many other ways.
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Questions1. In what ways might you try to
maintain a normal life if imprisoned in a
concentration camp?2. What are possible
advantages and disadvantages to this approach to
surviving the holocaust?
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Surviving the Holocaust
III. Active Resistance
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Policies of oppression and genocide fueled
resistance to the Nazis in the Third Reich and
occupied Europe. Both Jews and non-Jews responded
to Nazi oppression in various ways. Organized
armed resistance was the most forceful form of
Jewish opposition to the Nazis. The largest armed
uprising was the Warsaw ghetto uprising
(April-May 1943), sparked by rumors that the
Nazis would deport the remaining ghetto
inhabitants to the Treblinka extermination camp
in Poland. As German forces entered the ghetto,
members of the Jewish Fighting Organization
(Zydowska Organizacja Bojowa ZOB) pelted German
tanks with hand grenades. It took the Nazis 27
days to destroy the ghetto and snuff out the last
resistance.From the U.S. Holocaust Memorial
Museum
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Jewish Resistance fighters captured by SS troops
during the Warsaw Ghetto uprising. 1943 (From
U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum)
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A number of fighters resisted by escaping from
the ghettos into the forests Uprisings occurred
at three extermination camps. At Sobibor and
Treblinka, prisoners with stolen weapons attacked
the SS staff and their Ukrainian auxiliary
guards. Most of the rebels were shot, though
several dozen prisoners escaped. At Auschwitz,
four Jewish women helped Jewish crematorium
workers blow up a crematorium. All four rebels
were killed. In most Nazi satellite or occupied
countries, Jewish resistance focused on aid and
rescue.
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Resisters were met with harsh punishments by the
Nazis. Polish resisters are hanged in the photo
below. Who might have taken this photo? Why?
(From U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum)
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Questions1. Why do you think these people
chose to resist the Nazis?2. What are possible
advantages and disadvantages to this approach to
surviving the holocaust?3. What would you do if
faced with the holocaust?