The Holocaust: The Cause Of The Sobibor Uprising

Most Jewish armed resistance took place after 1942, as a desperate effort, after it became clear to the those who resisted that Nazis had murdered most of their families and friends. Many Jews were put through difficulties and obstacles and still participated in armed Resistance. Jewish resistance operated I France, Belgium, the Ukraine, Belorussia, Lithuania and Poland (“Armed”).

The self defense of the war was carried out on three levels, armed uprisings in ghettos and camps, the smuggling of Jews from towns and ghettos to the Forrest for partisans warfare, and hiding by individuals and rescue efforts (“Combat”). Rebellions also took place in the death camps, in the summer of 1943, 3 group of prisoners,700 Jews were put to work, burning bodies and sorting the killed victims belongings, took over armory and were successful in blowing up the camp of Treblinka. All but 150-200 Jews perished and over 20 Germans, only 12 survived the war(“Jewish”) A group of prisoners were also successful in blowing up one of the crematoria in Auschwitz (“Combat”). There was also the Sobibor Uprising, the Sobibor was one of the first death camps set up with a purpose of murdering almost every Jew who was sent to it, the Nazis made the mistake of transporting hundreds of Soviet POW’s to the camp for labor,

those soviets made a plan two months later, they lured guards and SS officers around the rear of one of the barracks or machine shop and stabbed, garrotted, or bludgeoned them to death, they had planned on taking the officers uniforms and killing every single guard or SS officer and escaping the death camp but an officer spotted them and sounded the alarm. Half of the prisoners made it out of the camp and into the woods, where more died y stepping on landmines. 50 some managed to escape and hide in barns and farm houses though (“Incredible”). Some of the uprisings in the ghettos are some like what took place in the Tuchin ghetto, on September 3,1942, 700 Jewish families escaped from this ghetto in the Ukraine, they were hunted down and executed, only 15 survived. Also in the Bialystok Ghetto, the Jewish paramilitary formed within the ghetto, attacked the German arm when they found out the Germans were planning on liquidating it. It lasted one day, until the resisters were killed or captured (“Jewish”). The Lenin Ghetto was a heavily populated ghetto across Europe, there was up to 30 percent of a city's residents crammed into 3 percent of its area and the rest of the city was given over to the Nazi party. On September 12, 1942, the town was assaulted from the northeast by about 150 partisan soldiers, they broke through the wall, evacuated 30 Jews and burned the ghetto to the ground before retreating back into the woods (“Incredible”).
Lot of the resistance that was taken place was very courageous and yes those Jews who risked their lives by killing Germans or escaping were very brave, but there were other forms of resistance that took place.

This type of resistance still had a major effect and helped jewish believe they could survive. This type is more of the synagogue services that occurred regulatory even though praying was against the rules. They also had the underground newspaper that were printed and given out even though it was a great risk. There was also many poets, artists, and writers that wrote the truth and drew things in much detail and truth even though it wasn’t always the safest choice

(“Jewish”).
Those who participated in resistance risked a lot. Yes they fought against something so terrible but it takes a lot to risk your life. Not everyone who resisted survived, actually most people who did resist faced a brutal death. Those who escaped, were in constant hiding and running and most of the time they were caught and killed. Some were executed on the spot and others who escaped ended up taking their own lives when they were faced with hopelessness in the situation. If a Nazi soldier was murdered by a Jew, not only was that Jew killed, but his family was murdered and even hundreds of other Jews as a punishment (“Jewish”).
There were many groups organized during this time, working on resisting the Germans and some of them were organizations like the partisans, those were the Jews that managed to escape from the ghettos and the camps, they formed their own fighting units, they hid in the Forrest and planned their way to fight back against the Germans. Life as a partisan was not easy, people had to move from place to place, avoid being discovered, hunt, raid farmer's food supply to eat, try and survive the rough winters, and build shelters. They also could not get help from many others because people were either antisemitism or they had a fear of being punished if they helped out the Jewish people (“Holocaust”). There were many people that participated in these groups, an example of them is a group in France, the “Armee Juive”, a french Jewish partisan group composed of members of the Zionist youth movements and the Jewish army. This group smuggled money from Switzerland into France to assist Jews in hiding and smuggled at least 500 Jews and non-Jews into neutral Spain, ad took part in an uprising in 1944 against the Germans. In Belgium, a combined Jewish and non-Jewish resistance group derailed deportation train in April of 1943 (“Armed”). These groups have small roles and we might not have heard of any of them specifically but they all did things to help end this awful time for the Jews.
Many of the Germans covered up the deaths of the Jewish people, therefor many of the Jewish people had no idea what was going on to their family and friends, when they found out they immediately wanted to fight back. In the later months of 1941, it became clear OT some Jewish people what was happening, they learned more about the mass murderers and the “Final Solution” or the major change in Nazi Germany’s anti-Jewish policy where Jews would increasingly be deported and destroyed at major death camps. Abba KKovner a young Jewish resistance leader, was not deceived even though the Germans were doing well at hiding the truth and when the Nazi slaughter of Lithuanian Jews convinced him that armed resistance against the Germans was necessary and he dedicated his life to organizing Jewish fighters. He later created a manifesto which shared more widely “Hitler’s plan to destroy all of the Jews of Europe” to more resisters (The Holocaust Chronicle 213). He was not the only one to take a stand like this and he definitely got the point across to many.
As the years passed, more resistance would form and throughout the holocaust you can see the change in the Jewish people, the change in their attitudes and the change that made them want to fight. They started off going off like sheep to their death camps, following what they were said to do because they were in constant fear, but as the years went on, the Jews became more aware of what happened to their family and friends and in the camps and to those who were taken from the ghettos. They took chances and risked everything for their freedom and for their rights as people and their faith.