RESPONSE AND RESISTANCE – THE JEWISH POINT OF VIEW Douglas Wadley, Regional Education Corps Bradley-Bourbonnais Community High School Bradley, Illinois

resistance: any individual or group action consciously taken in opposition to known or surmised laws, actions, or intentions directed against the Jews by the Germans and their supporters.

When the Nazis came to power – 520,000 German Jews (.078% of the population) 1914: pop. had been 600,000 Jews Approximately 1 / 6 of Germany’s Jews served her in WWI (100,000 casualties) German Jewry: The first to suffer

1932: of 37 Cabinet positions, only 3 were Jews and another 4 could claim Jewish descent Jews controlled no major companies, industries, and not one of Germany’s wealthiest families were Jewish High intermarriage rate in 1920’s (maybe 40%) 500 conversions a year to Christianity

Prewar Jewish school, Czechoslovakia Jewish shtetl (village)

Many Jewish organizations operated to strengthen Jewish culture and resolve through education and social functions Some wanted to prepare young Jews to emigrate Zionists proposed the creation of Israel as a homeland for Jews

The majority (325,000) of German Jews survived Reasons for staying – “How long can Hitler last?” “Nazism is just traditional antisemitism.” “How can I protect my business?” “How can I learn a new language and culture?” “How can I leave my relatives behind?”

At the time of 1938, Shanghai was the only place in the world that required no visa Took in more Jews (25,000) than Canada, India, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa combined

May, 1939: British closed the doors of Palestine to Jewish immigration except for 15,000 per year (max. of 5 years = 75,000) October, 1941: another 150,000 Jews fled Germany

Life in the ghetto – Nazis reinstituted slavery, barbarism,and theghetto Several hundred ghettos 1 st was in Nov in Piatrkow, Poland Lasted to summer, 1944 (became known as the Lodz ghetto)

Scene in the Lodz ghetto marketplace

Basic characteristics: Form of concentration camp Conditions of maximum deprivation Slum parts of a city Inadequate housing, food supply, hygiene Some were open; most became closed Governed by Judenrat (Jewish Council)

Scenes from the Warsaw Ghetto

Negatives of the ghettos – Mortality rate 20% died of natural causes (typhus, hunger, etc.) January ’41-May ’42: more than 66,000 perished in Warsaw ghetto

Judenrat, smugglers, profiteers Judenrat workers, skilled workers, shopkeepers “Floating” population: those living hand-to-mouth; odd jobs, smugglers Refugees – continually dumped in; didn’t know how to survive… Beggars, prostitutes, orphans Society in the ghetto

Positives of the ghettos – Smuggling Underground newspapers, schools for Hebrew Diaries, journals that made it through the war Underground Zionist meetings Graffiti, artwork that survived Intellectual and spiritual life was never fully stifled

Obstacles to resistance: Ignorance Unimaginability Family solidarity Religious faith

Deceit, deception by Nazis – constant How could the very young or very old resist? Collective responsibility Isolation from outside world in ghettos and camps To escape – what would one escape to?

Resistance in the camps Just surviving was an act of resistance Escape Est. 600 attempts to escape from Auschwitz (400 successful) Record everything Sonderkommando: Jews who worked in the crematoria wrote diaries and buried them in the ashes around the crematoria

Sonderkommando engage in open pit burning of bodies

Physical, armed resistance Treblinka (8/43) Sobibor (10/43) Auschwitz (10/44) Crematorium IV put out of commission Polish-led underground in Auschwitz, while helpful, never really affected the uprising Gunpowder supplied by 4 young Jewish women who worked in the factories organized by Sonderkommando

Resistance in the forests: Partisan movements 20,000-40,000 Jewish partisans in the forests around Eastern Europe Although Jews made up only 1% of French population, they comprised % of French Resistance Many Jews resisted as part of nationalist movements

A group of partisans from various fighting units including the Bielski group and escapees from the Mir Ghetto on guard duty at an airstrip in the Naliboki Forest.. [Photograph #46677]

Jewish servicemen (-women) Americans: ½ million fought (11,000 died) Soviets: ½ million fought (120,000 died) Sept. 1939: 150,000 Polish Jews fought in Polish army; 33,000 were killed in battle Jewish parachutists from Israel organized resistance in the Balkans Worked with the British RAF

Photos of Hannah Szenes

TIMOTHY HURSLEY