In the Holocaust, the Jewish people had two options on how to resist, passively or actively. When you actively resist, you bring a gun, but have a higher risk of dying. Passive resistance allowed them to stay alive (or at least have a higher probability,) but didn’t do as much as someone who killed a general or a soldier. Miep Gies is an example of somebody who passively resisted Nazi Power in World War Two by hiding her Jewish friends, like the Frank and Van Daan family even though she wasn’t allowed to. The reasons I feel like passive resistance is better than active resistance is because it preserves life, helps the society, and prevents a war-torn environment. The first reason why I feel that passive resistance is better is because it preserves life. The Jews would passively resist the Nazis generally instead of arming themselves because it was certain they would die in that circumstance. Showing the issues within armed resistance,“Jewish workers initiated uprisings that were brutally put down” (Resistance During the Holocaust, page 3). This was a rebellion between the people who worked for the Nazis, which could kill one to five people, but get themselves killed in the process. Some arguments may say that you aren’t doing much to put a real stop to the problem, but that isn’t true. Many Jewish people hid, which preserved …show more content…
When you actively resist someone, you are not starting a positive movement or helping the society, it just creates violence and problems. Good parts of passive resistance were exemplified when the Jewish people “Printed and distributed underground newspaper, maintained religious customs, drew, painted”(Resistance During the Holocaust, page 1). Some may disagree and say that you aren’t stopping the core problem, but that is not the case. When you revolt passively, you show that you will not put up with the poor treatment, which will make them want to
...y shocks most of people who hear and see it, encouraging and moving others who also suffer. In instance, Elena screamed at Longoria to show she would not give them any information about resistances and Antonio when Longoria was about to killing her (Tobar 148). Elena sacrificed her life to protect Antonio and her friends who fought against the Guatemalan government without using any violence when she faced Longoria who tried to kill her. She showed it was important not to be daunted by fear and to keep fighting for justice. Mohandas Karamachand Gandhi advocated nonviolent resistance as a means of seeking peace and gaining independence for the Republic of India from Britain. Justice should be served by means in the name of justice. Nonviolent resistance is a powerful way to fight against the cycle of violence and work towards the realization of a peaceful world.
Nazis which proved to the world the Jews are not that easy to extinguish. The Jews had several ways of exhibiting resistance, but "Organized armed resistance was the most powerful form of Jewish opposition"(Jewish Resistance). Armed resistance is an important aspect to revolting not only because it reinflicts the pain lashed upon the Jews, but it also shows the Jews have the ability to fight back and gives the world the knowledge that Jews do not go down easily. However, resistance is not only an act of violence since the Jews demonstrated several non-violent forms of resistance while locked up or being transported. Jews would escape into the forest and figured that by escaping they resisted the Nazi Party and reduced their chances of achieving their goal of exterminating all Jews on the planet(Acts of Resitance). By escaping Jews gave themselves a chance to live and warn others of their fate which was an excellent form of non-violent resistance since, generally speaking, no Germans were hurt. Resistance can take many shapes and forms which is why all Jews resisted one way or another, simply living is resistance(Acts of Resistance). The other reason Jews struggled so desperately to survive was not to merely see the light of another day, but to see the Germans become enraged by their "resistance", living.
Unarmed resistance was a way Jewish people fought against the Nazis, not with guns and knives, but simply finding ways to survive their living hell. Unarmed resistance took for in escaping, stealing food, and not following the Nazis demands. Thousands of young Jews resisted by escaping from the ghettos into the forests…some… resisted by refusing to comply” “Jewish Resistance”. This is an example of unarmed resistance because these young Jewish people did not fight with guns like the Nazis, they instead peacefully fought by escaping the ghettos before any more harm would be done to them. By doing this they could be physically free from the abuse and humiliation from the Nazis. Along with unarmed resistance, Jewish people also took a stand with armed forces in order to fight against the Nazis.
During the Holocaust there were many different forms of resistance undertaken by Jewish people. These can be categorised into two main forms, armed resistance and passive resistance. Armed resistance was resistance by Jews and civilians who actively fought back, sometimes they managed to scavenge weapons and use them in attacks on Germans and the different enforcement groups such as the SS. Armed resistance took place mainly in ghettos and concentration camps however, also occurred on the streets of Nazi occupied Europe. Passive resistance was less aggressive and usually meant that Jewish people refused to deny their faith and still practiced their religion in some form.
Armed fighting resistance was not the only form of Jewish resistance. Escaping, smuggling goods, and praying were also effective. Keeping education was also important. Spiritual resistance was used to keep calm and keep proud of themselves. underground libraries were made after smuggled books in the ghettos. Schools were made in apartments in secret while kids kept hidden school books in their clothes from place to place (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum). Education was a form of resistance. This was forbidden but Jews resisted and kept secret. Spiritual resistance like education was important for
For instance, in “The Diary of Anne Frank” Anne uses her diary to increase her family’s moral and to oppose the Nazis. As she writes about her daily life and attitude towards the Nazis, we see how she resisted by carrying on the legacy of her family with her writing.The Nazis policy was not just to remove the people, but to remove the memory of those people, and the very memories those people might have within them. Her diary is brought the people faith and optimism. People in the concentration camps used their talents such as acting or playing the piano to make people forget the hunger and misery and long for another concert. Meanwhile for the artists this was a revolt against the regime. Passive resistance points towards a future: by bearing its meaning is like a sealed envelope into in another era and redirects the world away from violence. Some may argue that you are doing nothing for the better of the Jewish people by hiding and are not helping the ultimate cause or end goal, but the people are making more of a difference preserving their culture by teaching and practicing it than killing five out of ten thousand people and then dying from being shot. The active resistors are not making that much of a difference in their army by killing a couple. By teaching, people are renewing their faith they
The Nazis were killing thousands of Jews on a daily basis and for many of the Jewish people death seemed inevitable, but for some of the Jewish population they were not going to go down without a fight as Jewish resistance began to occur. However, the Jewish resistance came in many different forms such as staying alive, clean and observing Jewish religious traditions under the absolute horrendous conditions imposed by the Nazis were just some examples of resistance used by the Jews. Other forms of resistance involved escape attempts from the ghettos and camps. Many of the Jews who did succeed in escaping the ghettos lived in the forests and mountains in family camps and in fighting partisan units. Once free, though, the Jews had to contend with local resident and partisan groups who often openly hostile. Jews also staged armed revolts in the ghettos of Vilna, Bia...
Prejudice was the main factor that led to the holocaust. For some, resisting these forms of oppression was survival. Considering the dehumanizing the Nazis had forced upon the Jews, people took whatever courage and strength they had to get through this period of time. I believe luck also had a part to play in survival. Even though now prejudice is mostly name calling, 60 years ago it could mean death. Whether one is resisting the Nazis or just resisting prejudice in general, one must never give up what they truly think and believe.
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 of Jewish resistance, it is important to consider both direct and indirect forms of resistance, as well as avoid diminishing what efforts were made at resistance. Despite many factors making resistance difficult, Jews did perform both direct and indirect resistance, often more than historians have credited to them. As a whole, Jews did not accept their death mutely, as sheep to the slaughter.
The investigation explores why the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was the most important ghetto resistance during the Holocaust. In order to analyze why the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was significant, research has to be done to study the elements of the Warsaw ghetto that made it successful. The main sources for this investigation are Ghetto Fights: Warsaw 1941-43 by Marek Edelman because it is a study to examine the political and ideological background of the Warsaw Rising and Daring to Resist: Jewish Defiance in the Holocaust by David Engel because it covers uprisings in other ghettos than in Warsaw.
The non Jews who did not want to fight back almost all of them were too scared to do anything. They were afraid that they would lose their freedom. They also did not want to be sent into the concentration camp too. They did not want to be tortured either so none of the non Jews stood up ; all of the reasons were too scary to them that they did not want to risk it. They were too terrified to do what was right there was too much risk. Many non Jews went into hiding; however, everybody else did to.
Why resistance? There are so many different aspects of the Holocaust to research, so why focus on this particular one? Well, I think it’s a great way for students to learn about the “silver lining” per se of this event. I think it’s a not-so-well-known aspect of a very well-known event. It’s important that people are aware that Jews and some non-Jews didn’t just sit back and let these horrific events go on without a fight. One can also loosely apply this idea of resistance to society today by saying that, to a lesse...
The Holocaust is usually thought as something that Jews just went along with even though they didn’t agree. That isn’t completely wrong. Some Jews did go along because they were too afraid to stand up, but there were resistances and groups of prisoners who gathered the courage to do it. Jewish resistances sabotaged Nazi plans,they attacked guards /Nazi workers, and they had consequences if they got caught. The Jews resisted to stand up to the Nazi’s when others couldn’t.
Throughout the Second World War and in the lead up to it, the actions of Hitler and the Nazi Party played a large role in history. The Nazi’s involvement changed the course of history through the violence and dehumanisation that took place in an effort to persecute the Jews.
Passive Resistance is usually connected with such famous people as Henry David Thoreau who developed the principal of civil disobedience. For Thoreau, the idea was to choose not to support governmental taxes and policies that he felt were wrong. This theme was later used by Mahatma Gandhi in his fight for Indian independence. In the 1960’s this method was used by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to bring racial injustice to the public’s attention. In all of these cases, the men who followed the ideal of passive resistance were prepared to suffer the consequences of their actions in order to draw attention to their causes.