resistance sources holocaust

1. “The matter of the flags was of great political and moral importance. It reminded hundreds of thousands of the Polish cause, it excited them and unified them, especially Jews and Poles. Flags and national colours are a means of combat exactly like a rapid-fire weapon, like thousands of such weapons.” Jurgen Stroop, Commander of Warsaw Ghetto, about the Warsawr Uprising, 1943 “Even passivity was a form of resistance. To die with dignity was a form of resistance. To resist the demoralizing, brutalizing force of evil, to refuse to be reduced to the level of animals, to live through the torment, to outlive the tormentors, these too were acts of resistance. Merely to give a witness of these events in testimony was, in the end, a contribution to victory. Simply to survive was a victory of the human spirit” Holocaust: the Jewish Tragedy, Martin Gilbert “The people went into the gas chamber without resistance. Those who were at the end, the Ukrainian guards had to push inside. I personally saw how the Ukrainians pushed the people with their rifle butts..” Testimony of SS Oberscharfuehrer Heinrich Matthes about Treblinka “Among the rules were those prescribing rigid censorship concerning conditions within the [Dachau] camp: "By virtue of the law on revolutionaries, the following offenders, considered as agitators, will be hung. Anyone who, for the purpose of agitating, does the following in the camp, at work, in the quarters, in the kitchens and workshops, toilet and places of rest: politicizes, holds inciting speeches and meetings, forms cliques, loiters around with others; who for the purpose of supplying the propaganda of the opposition with atrocity stories, collects true or false information about the concentration camp and its institution; receives such information, buries it, talks about it to others, smuggles it out of the camp into the hands of foreign visitors or others by means of clandestine or other methods, passes it on in writing or orally to released prisoners or prisoners who are placed above them, conceals it in clothing or other articles, throws stones and other objects over the camp wall containing such information; or produces secret documents; who, for the purpose of agitating, climbs on barracks' roofs and trees, seeks contact with the outside by giving light or other signals, or induces others to escape or commit a crime, gives them advices to that effect or supports such undertakings in any way whatsoever." Nazi Conspiracy & Aggression, From The Chief Counsel for Prosecution of Axis Criminality. “When we invaded the Ghetto for the first time, the Jews and the Polish bandits succeeded in repelling the participating units, including tanks and armored cars, by a well-prepared concentration of fire. (...) The main Jewish battle group, mixed with Polish bandits, had already retired during the first and second day to the so-called Muranowski Square. There, it was reinforced by a considerable number of Polish bandits. Its plan was to hold the Ghetto by every means in order to prevent us from invading it.” Jurgen Stroop, Commander of Warsaw Ghetto, about the Warsawr Uprising, 1943.

2. “Between 20,000- 30,000 Jews escaped from Nazi ghettos and camps to form or join organized resistance groups. There were smugglers who sent children to safety and couriers who carried messages between the ghettos, as well as forgers who created documents for use in the outside world. Jews in the work camps sabotaged guns and other products they were making for the Germans. Partisans with ammunition blew up thousands of Nazi supply trains, making it harder for the Germans to fight the war. In Lithuania, Jewish partisans were responsible for significant damage to Nazi trains.. Partisans also destroyed numerous Nazi power plants and factories, and focused their attention on other military and strategic targets, not on civilians.” Jewish Partisan Educational Foundation “Among the Jewish victims of the smuggling there were tens of Jewish children between 5 and 6 years old, whom the German killers shot in great numbers near the passages and at the walls. Despite that the smuggling never stopped for a moment. When the street was still slippery with the blood that had been spilled, other smugglers already set out, as soon as the "candles" had signalled that the way was clear, to carry on with the work..” Life in the Warsaw Ghetto, Emanuel Ringelblum “The atmosphere of total terror and isolation in the camps, as well as the chronic starvation of most prisoners, severely inhibited the will of the prisoners and the possibilities of resistance. Barbed and high-voltage electrical wires and guard towers left little hope of escape. The daily routine in the larger camps was brutally regimented. It included an elaborate system of harsh punishments for the slightest infractions, close surveillance, and endless roll calls for counting prisoners. Those who attempted to resist or escape were killed when caught.” Resistance During the Holocaust, The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum “At the end of the summer of 1944, when the members of the SonderKommando units operating at that time understood that their days were numbered, they decided to rebel. The rebel Jewish group including members who worked at the Union factory (for making artillery shells) aided the uprising by smuggling gunpowder out of the factory on the bodies of the women who worked making it. On October 6th or 7th, 1944, when the members of the S.S. came to take the 300 members of the SonderKommando to slaughter them in the gas chambers, this was the signal to the crematoria workers to launch the uprising. Without waiting for the coordinated actions that had been planned between all of the crematoria workers for an ongoing operation, the workers at Crematoria 4 began to scream loudly at their guards and then they fell upon them with axes and hammers. the rebels succeeded in killing the S.S. company commander and in burning the crematoria, although their attempt to blow up the entire structure was only partially successful. At the same time, the rebels at Crematoria 2 threw the German overseer into the crematoria, killed three S.S. guards and wounded another 12. They also cut the telephone line, and panicked the guards, and 600 inmates were able to escape. A company of S.S. members was called up and every last one of the escapees was either caught or shot after being recaptured. Crematoria 4 never returned to service.” The Book of the Wars of the Ghettos, edited by Itzhak Zukerman and Moshe Basok,1954. “Any resistance attempt simply resulted in massive German retaliation. Martin Gilbert cites the case of a young Jewish deportee in 1942 who attacked a Ukranian guard with a dagger. The result of his action was that a trainload of deportees was immediately machine-gunned.” Anti-Semitism and the Holocaust, Alan Farmer