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During the Holocaust Jewish resistance would play a major part in not only keeping
themselves alive, but also their culture and religion. The active Jewish resisters and partisans
would not only help those escape into the forest or undergrounds but launch assaults and conduct
skirmishes against Nazi Ghettos and patrols.1 Not only this but for those who did take part in a
raid or ambush, they had to question if what they were doing was right. Because either side knew
that a attack would lead to a reprisal from the Germans on any nearby town, leading to mass
searches, destruction of property, and destruction of even more human life. Which could be seen
in large scale if huge Ghettos were attacked like Warsaw or Bialystok.2 However, I did not really
find the term “active” appropriate because it leads to connotations that those who took up arms
against the Nazi regime were the only ones who really participated and helped the Jewish people.
Yehuda Bauer really helped this underlying thought form which had been on my mind for a
while. How could a group of Jews that help to fight against outbreaks of typhoid in Shargorod or
the actions of those in Mogilev Podolski not be considered active resisters.3 Groups that did set
up religious schools would be just as likely to face death if caught, the same as any one found in
a partisan movement. Although this term might not be appropriate, those who would dare to
assault a Ghetto would have a tremendous impact, not only to those who they saved, but it would
suck credence out of the narrative that Jews were “weak” and would not fight. Those that did not
take up direct arms against the Nazi occupation does not mean that they were some how less
valiant than those who did. But for the Jewish partisan organizations who would fight directly,
Einwohner, Rachel. (2022). Hope and Honor: Jewish Resistance during the Holocaust, New York: Oxford
University Press, 1-40.
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2
Yahil, Leni. (1990). The Holocaust: The Fate of European Jewry, 1932-1945. New York: Oxford
University Press, 457-483
3
Henry, Patrick, ed. Jewish Resistance against the Nazis. 2014. University of America Press. pp xiii-xxxviii.
2
they would have to make decisions that others would not face. They held tremendous power in a
sense, by their decision to attack they held others lives in the balance.
3
Bibliography
Einwohner, Rachel. (2022). Hope and Honor: Jewish Resistance during the Holocaust, New
York: Oxford University Press, 1-40.
Henry, Patrick, ed. Jewish Resistance against the Nazis. 2014. University of America Press. pp
xiii-xxxviii.
Yahil, Leni. (1990). The Holocaust: The Fate of European Jewry, 1932-1945. New York: Oxford
University Press, 457-483