Resistance during the Holocaust- armed or spiritual resistance
The Holocaust was one of the most horrific slatering of all time.
Many Jewish people were murdered all because of hate.
The only thing they could do was fight to survive and many did.
The harshness of ghetto life and the constant fear of Nazi’s made resistance dangerous and difficult but not impossible.
The resistance was a key part of survival for many of the Jews during the Holocaust.
Spiritual resistance refers to attempts by individuals to maintain their humanity, personal integrity, dignity, and sense of civilization in the face of Nazi attempts to dehumanize and degrade them.
Most generally, spiritual resistance may refer to the refusal to have one's spirit broken in
the midst of the most horrible degradation. Cultural and educational activities, maintenance of community documentation, and clandestine religious observances are three examples of spiritual resistance. Most armed resistance took place after 1942, as an effort, after it became clear to those who resisted that the Nazis had murdered most of their families . Jewish resistance units operated in France, Belgium, the Ukraine, Belorussia, Lithuania, and Poland. Many Jewish people fought against French, Italian, Yugoslav, Greek, and Soviet resistance organizations. In Europe Jewish units fought the Germans in city ghettos and behind the front lines in the forests. While most Jewish armed resistance began in 1943, it should be noted that the general resistance movements in the region, operating under more favorable circumstances and with a more sympathetic local population, also did not start until 1943. Thousands of Jews battled the Germans in eastern Europe. Resistance units emerged in over 100 ghettos in Poland, Lithuania, Belorussia, and the Ukraine. Between 1941 and 1943, underground resistance movements developed in approximately 100 ghettos in Nazi-occupied eastern Europe (about one-fourth of all ghettos), especially in Poland, Lithuania, Belorussia, and the Ukraine. Their main goals were to organize uprisings, break out of the ghettos, and join partisan units in the fight against the Germans. In conclusion Jews fought against the Naz Regiem in a last effort for there survival. They fought for freedom,survival, and the hope of a future.
Forces pushed the Jewish population by the thousands into segregated areas of a city. These areas, known as ghettos, were small. The large ghetto in Sighet that Elie Wiesel describes in Night consisted of only four streets and originally housed around ten thousand Jews. The families that were required to relocate were only allowed to bring what they could carry, leaving the majority of their belongings and life behind. Forced into the designated districted, “fifteen to twenty-four people occupied a single room” (Fischthal). Living conditions were overcrowded and food was scarce. In the Dąbrowa Górnicza ghetto, lining up for bread rations was the morning routine, but “for Jews and dogs there is no bread available” (qtd. in Fischthal). Cut off from the rest of civilization, Jews relied on the Nazis f...
World War II was a grave event in the twentieth century that affected millions. Two main concepts World War II is remembered for are the concentration camps and the marches. These marches and camps were deadly to many yet powerful to others. However, to most citizens near camps or marches, they were insignificant and often ignored. In The Book Thief, author Markus Zusak introduces marches and camps similar to Dachau to demonstrate how citizens of nearby communities were oblivious to the suffering in those camps during the Holocaust.
Prisoners in concentration camps committed small acts of rebellion against the Holocaust that outlived the guards and the Nazis. Even though their acts could not save their lives, they sparked questions that the survivors, such as Elie Wiesel, could recall years after the Holocaust ended.
In the book Night by Elie Wiesel, it talks about the holocaust and what it was like being in it. The Germans were trying to make the German race the supreme race. To do this they were going to kill off everyone that wasn’t a German. If you were Jewish or something other than German, you would have been sent to a concentration camp and segregated by men and women. If you weren’t strong enough you were sent to the crematory to be cremated. If you were strong enough you were sent to work at a labor camp. With all the warnings the Jewish people had numerous chances to run from the Germans, but most ignored the warnings.
Resistance took a violent appearance in the camp Treblinka when the inmates rose against their oppressors and set fire to Treblinka; however, only abou...
Due to this over 60% of the Jewish population was put to torture and death.”Haaretz” During the Holocaust, Jews used armed and unarmed forms of resistance in order to retain their humanity. 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.
During the Holocaust there were many varying forms of resistance these include refusal to follow German orders, the formation of the ZOB, continuing Jewish culture, education, religious practices, and keeping archives of historical events. These acts of Jewish resistance all required great courage and bravery as severe consequences were in place for those who did not follow German
(It should be noted that when describing hardships of the concentration camps, understatements will inevitably be made. Levi puts it well when he says, ?We say ?hunger?, we say ?tiredness?, ?fear?, ?pain?, we say ?winter? and they are different things. They are free words, created and used by free men who lived in comfort and suffering in their homes. If the Lagers had lasted longer a new, harsh language would have been born; only this language could express what it means to toil the whole day?? (Levi, 123).)
Following the beginning of the Second World War, Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Germany and Joseph Stalin’s Soviet Union would start what would become two of the worst genocides in world history. These totalitarian governments would “welcome” people all across Europe into a new domain. A domain in which they would learn, in the utmost tragic manner, the astonishing capabilities that mankind possesses. Nazis and Soviets gradually acquired the ability to wipe millions of people from the face of the Earth. Throughout the war they would continue to kill millions of people, from both their home country and Europe. This was an effort to rid the Earth of people seen as unfit to live in their ideal society. These atrocities often went unacknowledged and forgotten by the rest of the world, leaving little hope for those who suffered. Yet optimism was not completely dead in the hearts of the few and the strong. Reading Man is Wolf to Man: Surviving the Gulag by Janusz Bardach and Survival in Auschwitz by Primo Levi help one capture this vivid sense of resistance toward the brutality of the German concentration and Soviet work camps. Both Bardach and Levi provide a commendable account of their long nightmarish experience including the impact it had on their lives and the lives of others. The willingness to survive was what drove these two men to achieve their goals and prevent their oppressors from achieving theirs. Even after surviving the camps, their mission continued on in hopes of spreading their story and preventing any future occurrence of such tragic events. “To have endurance to survive what left millions dead and millions more shattered in spirit is heroic enough. To gather the strength from that experience for a life devoted to caring for oth...
Under strict power from Nazi soldiers during World War II, the people of the Jewish population were ridiculed, beaten, abused, and forced to live in horrible conditions, without consent or control. Adolf Hitler had control over Germany, with as many soldiers to obey his every cruel command. As horrible acts are committed during this mass genocide towards the Jewish people, one may begin to question if they still are in control of their humanity, just as Primo Levi was forced to question his own during his stay at Auschwitz.
Spiritual resistance like praying kept Jew’s sanity and concerts help make people happy. Hitler’s plan was to break down and destroy Jews, so they fought against that in various ways. Art, music, and theater were often in ghettos to keep everyone happy. Comics, actors, singers, dancers, and actors also performed for a group of people for a brief amount of time. The Nazis had also made it illegal for Jewish gatherings but the Jews also did against that. Praying and services were kept in secret. Praying and services were important to continue. They also wanted to continue everyday things. Art, music, theater and praying were used as resistance by the Jews to stay
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...
The article, “Teens Against Hitler”, by Lauren Tarshis, describes the challenges of Ben Kamm a Jewish boy, his family, and a vast amount of Jews, being vandalized by Hitler and his Nazi group during the 1930’s. Ben Kamm was in a dreadful area, were the Nazis were told from their master Hitler to execute all the Jews. Ben and his family were fine till 1939 the German troops invaded Poland. The police persecuted Warsaw's Jews. Ben and many others crammed into a small ghetto. His family moved into a small room. Nobody was allowed to leave. Although Ben and his family went through harsh challenges, he showed an incredible amount of courage in trying to end the war between the Jews and the Nazis.
in fear of an external source, but a way to salvation and liberation from the samsara cycle.
Do people ever wonder what happened to the Jew’s faith during the Holocaust? God is letting all the bad things happen to the Jews. The Jews believe that God is treating them unfairly. Many people are probably wondering what God was thinking during the Holocaust. The Jews believe that God is treating the Nazis like they matter more than the Jews and other people.