Post: Why Resistance? (Due Thu., Mar. 20)

[freemanjud]

Post: Why resistance?
Due: Thursday, March 20, 2003

Resistance was not easy for the victims of the Holocaust. It wasn’t easy, either, for bystanders to become active resisters. There were plenty of obstacles, most of which were fairly overwhelming. This is why examples of resistance are so noteworthy during the Nazi era.

Resistance takes many forms—armed, unarmed, spiritual, psychological, ideological are among them. Some say that mere survival was resistance of the first order.

From Mordecai Anielewicz’s letter, written just two weeks before his death on May 8, 1943, we see that, for him, the act of armed resistance practiced under the most extreme circumstances by the last remaining residents of the Warsaw ghetto, was so important—literally and symbolically. Based on what you’ve seen in this class and at the Holocaust Museum, and what you’ve read in various readings, including Maus, what, in your view, is the significance of resistance of any kind during the Nazi regime? Explain why.

*****************************************
It is now clear to me that what took place exceeded all expectations. In our opposition to the Germans we did more than our strength allowed - but now our forces are waning. We are on the brink of extinction. We forced the Germans to retreat twice -but they returned stronger than before.

One of our groups held out for forty minutes; and another fought for about six hours. The mine which was laid in the area of the brush factory exploded as planned. Then we attacked the Germans and they suffered heavy casualties. Our losses were generally low. That is an accomplishment too. Z. fell, next to his machine gun.

I feel that great things are happening and that his action which we have dared to take is of enormous value.

We have no choice but to go over to partisan methods of fighting as of today. Tonight, six fighting-groups are going out. They have two tasks - to reconnoiter the area and to capture weapons. Remember, "short-range weapons" are of no use to us. We employ them very rarely. We need many rifles, hand-grenades, machine-guns and explosives.

I cannot describe the conditions in which the Jews of the ghetto are now "living." Only a few exceptional individuals will be able to survive such suffering. The others will sooner or later die. Their fate is certain, even though thousands are trying to hide in cracks and rat holes. It is impossible to light a candle, for lack of air. Greetings to you who are outside. Perhaps a miracle will occur and we shall see each other again one of these days. It is extremely doubtful.

The last wish of my life has been fulfilled. Jewish self-defense has become a fact. Jewish resistance and revenge have become actualities. I am happy to have been one of the first Jewish fighters in the ghetto.

Where will rescue come from?

Mordecai Anielewicz, During the Revolt, Warsaw, April 1943

[Squ]

I think the answer here is pretty obvious, if there was no resistance, theres nothing getting in the way of doing what the Nazis where doing. And there would have been no reason for them to stop from going further. It shows the Nazis that people think what they're doing is wrong, and that its worth fighting for.

From the view of those fighting back, it assures them that what they do still matters, and that they have a chance to survive. Or if not to survive, at least they can go down fighting and not let the Nazis just walk over them. If they did not resist, its like giving up.

[pipermaru]

I think that the Nazis on some level in the back of their minds knew what they were doing was wrong. I don't think a resistence told them that. If anything, it reaffirmed their idea that the Jews were a pestilence in Europe.

At a certain point in the war, it was about how long could the army last? The Germans knew at the highest levels that they were going to lose. At the lower levels, the resistences of people like Mordecai Anielewicz exhausts the army and does kill some Nazis. That is an important contribution. Though the amount of damage and the number of Nazis killed is relatively small, if everyone had done that, the result would be astonishing.

Yes, it is a symbol of dissidence, but I don't think that would have EVER gotten through some of those thick Nazis skulls of the upper command. That's why I think that the exhaustion of the Nazi resources (men, weapons, and morale too) is slightly more important.

But that is looking at the question from the Nazi point of view. From the Jewish and Targeted Populations point of view, it gives a lot of morale support.

From reading Maus, it's obvious that EVERY decision can be the difference between life and death. But one decision that WAS in THEIR control and not Nazi control was this: Do I give up now and die? Or do I endure these hardships and fight for survival?

These resistences add to morale support on the victim end and can lead them toward the latter decision. 6 million Jews died. One can only imagine how many people the Nazis outright killed and how many gave up, almost as Anja did.

[Sparkle077]

There is great significance in resistance. As we heard in the video in class today, the Nazis were a very confidant people. They felt they were the superior race, the "best of the best." Resistance such as the Warsaw Uprising undermined these feelings and the shock value of the resistance created a rift in the mind set of "being the best." That is extremly valuable and significant becasue if you can prove the offenders wrong even in just one instance, then you win.

In terms of the significance of survival as a means of resistance: the Nazis wanted the Jewish people to suffer and to be forgotten. They wanted, as Ms. Freeman said, to be remembered in their own ways, in a muesum. The Jews who survived stopped that from happeening. The continuation of their lives and the remeberance of their stories are a way of resisting the plan of the Nazis.

It is apparent that the general veiw of the Nazis in today's world is bad. They are cursed, hated, and denounced. The stories the Jews have to tell of their survival obviously had the most impact on creating this bad view of the Nazis. Thus, their survival and their stories are the resistance to Nazi victory. The Nazis lost not only the war, but they lost their respect and their life as a party.

[jennifer]

The idea of resistance is very pertinent in the Nazi era. The Nazis felt that they were doing something right, that the choices that they were making were good and that the Jewish people deserved what was happening. Resistance by the Jewish people, as Squ pointed out, shows the Nazis that they are wrong and they cant get the best of the Jewish people. Some of them had no strength to resist and given their circumstances, it may have almost been impossible to do anything. However, those who did, were proving that they were not going to give up without a fight.

If the Jewish people, sat back and let the Nazis completely destroy them, the Nazis would have "won". I strongly believe that the most significant and meaningful form of resistance was survival. We have seen in many places, that the plan of the Holocaust was to extinguish all of the Jews and that fact that people survived shows the Nazis that they are not right in their decisions and that they did not go through with their plan.

Of course we know that the casualties far exceed those who survived, and in that case the Nazis did do what they wanted, but the fact that survivors are speaking today and telling their stories, like Nesse, allows us to see why such things happened.

The fact that Jews resisted in others ways in the camps also proves that the Nazis are not as powerful as they think they are. Some Jews, as we learned in class, built a small temples to pray in. One would think that what was happening was destroying their religious beliefs. But that is not true with some and they continued to show that no matter how bad the conditions, they would never give up their faith.

Resistance, any form, shows strength and proves that no one will give up without a fight.

[cassdawg]

Resistance is neccessary in any situation whgere another is being oppressed. If there was no resistance then thats giving into the other people discriminating against you. THe Holocaust is the ultimate in persecutions. THis was an impossible battle for the Jews to fight themselves but the little that they did do helped out tremendously. THere was the Warsaw ghetto which is the most prevelant of the resistance. However there were many other small examples of this. The Jewish people certainly did not go quietly into the night. THe biggest show of resistance is the will to survive. It was almost spiting the Nazis. Today we here of all the survivors. THey carry inthem the terrors that went on during this time and try to stop anything like this from happening again by educating peopel of today. There is no better form of resistance because surviving and living to tell about the stories makes them stronger and brings the NAzis down everytime the stories are retold.

[weerez]

Resistance was important during the Nazi era simply becuase it prevented the deaths of the innocent and brought more trouble to the persecuters.

For every Jew that was able to hide from the Nazis, and every family that helped Jews hide, the Nazis goal was being impaired. Simply avoiding being caught was a strong way to resist the Nazis. For the people that actually fought back against the Nazi's, such as in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, the destruction of a Crematorium at Auschwitz, or the planned murders we heard about today was also very important. Even though these attacks didn't do that much to hurt the Nazi's, it gave the victims hope that fighting back was possible and that the Nazis weren't invincible. It's almost to bad that more uprisings didn't occur, becuase even though the resistors were practicly guarunteed death, at least dying in fight against the Nazis would be better than dying in a concentration camp.

If no one had resisted at all though, who's to say how many more people would have died in the Holocaust? Those who resisted were an important part of the survival of those who did manage to live through the tragedy.

[sexybeastami]

To the Jews living/dying in the ghettos and camps, armed resistance gave them a reason to live another day, gave them a reason to live. If they could at least do a fraction of damage to Nazi morale while they were living, it was better to have died resisting than starving. At least from the viewpoint of one oppressed. I agree with others who have said that surviving was the ultimate resistance, the kick in the crotch to the Nazis, because it was their main goal to wipe the Jews completely off of the planet. Anielewicz chose armed resistance, and as did other targeted populations, and I think that fighting back helped to restore their humanity, their dignity and pride in themselves. it was something the Nazis couldn't take away, their will to resist. Resistance was necessary because it was like saying we will not hand our lives over to the Nazis on a silver platter. We will make them fight for it. At every turn Jews could face death, but their were always certain ways to attempt to resist death. The women protesting, the mini-synagogue, the smuggled food, the struggle. Everything was resistance to live.

[ramencha]

I feel that when people resist it sends an aura of hope to people. In Maus the people who silently resisted always were portrayed as heroes. In the end it makes you feel good. If people do not resist against their oppressors the oppressors will always win. It just like when a bully bullies you in a schoolyard. If you do not resist the bully wins, and then you are forced to do whatever he asks of you. It was like the people who left the letters inside of the milk canisters, they wanted their legacy to live on. It was their form of surviving. People should never be oppressed or bullied, ever. When you resist against the bully you show that you will not tolerate this treatment in any way. The oppressor gets the message and will think twice about doing it. If people had risen up against the Nazis one can imagine how different history would have turned out.

[desertfish]

In short i think resistance was absolutely necessary during the Nazi regime. Under the circumstances maybe everyone did all that they could to resist but then again maybe people didn't do enough. Regardless Anielewicz's letter is an example of armed resistance that brought some sense of justice to the prisoners of that camp. Not only a sense of justice but one cannot simply sit back and allow another to destroy everything around him until he too is finally destroyed; if no one questions what is wrong and stands up against it, evil continues. In Berlin, all it took was a parade of German women to keep the Nazis from arresting their Jewish husbands and if everyone had questioned what the Nazis were doing and maybe spoke up against it the outcome might have been very different. Spiritual and psychological resistance is just as important. People had to have mental resistance to survive the camps and the ghettos, once someone gave up in mind his body was as good as dead. Anyone who survived, as Ms.Freeman said in class, was resisting the Nazi power. What better way to frustrate someone than stay alive when all they want is to see you dead.

The strength of a people lies in its ability to speak up against what is wrong.

[Dynastar420]

Resistance, although sometimes futile, is necessary because as basically everyone before me has stated, it gives a sense of hope in a hopeless situation. Nothing I can say in this post will be original because this is a topic that basically everyone feels the same about. Resistance gave those that were opressed a sense of purpose, hope and future sight. When the Jews just took what the nazi's gave them they had no way to look forward to tomorrow. Those in the Warsaw ghetto took the initiative and were fighting so that they could have a tomorrow and that hope of a tomorrow is what kept them going. If you have nothing to look forward to, no sense of purpose or hope, you might as well lay down and die. As I will continue to reiterate, that is what any form, passive or aggressive, of resistance provides to people. Even passive resistance such as teh determiantion to stay alive (as we saw in Maus) kept people alive.

[Penelope]

I think it was important, almost necessary, that people found some way to say no to the Nazi through any form of resistance. By resisting, a couple different things can be accomplished. First of all, resistance sometimes made life/work harder for the Nazis, which was always helpful, even if it seems small in the broad context of the Holocaust. Any way that the resisters weakened the Nazis, even only slightly, is significant. These various instances of standing up to the Nazis also inspired hope in others (and hope was probably hard to come by during that time), and in certain cases saved lives.

Another way that resistance was significant is that it was a way of asserting free will and humanity, in the face of a power that wanted nothing more than to reduce its victims to obedient (though abused) animals, and to silence the voices of those with opposing points of view. If someone published “subversive” writing, or if they helped a Jewish family, or if someone in a concentration camp drew a picture, these are all conscious decisions made to defy the Nazis and it is a blow to the idea that the Nazis are absolutely right or can maintain absolute control. Resistance was a way for people to cherish their humanity by fighting for it. (Not to say that those who could not resist were without humanity; I mean that in a broader sense, resistance was one way for victims to assert themselves as people, with the will to disobey and fight for what they believe.)

It’s important to stand up against something you know is wrong if you can, and any form of resistance is significant. By fighting with weapons, or voicing an opinion, or even just writing, drawing, or praying, people prove to themselves and to others that the Nazis could not completely crush their spirit and their will to live however they want.

[sparklindiamond]

i honestly think that the war would not have been as sucessful if more people had protested, had rebeled. the main reason that it was able to continue was that people did not realise that they were bein seriously brainwashed and that tehy were completeyl putty in hitlers head by followin his ways without argument. by doin this they allowed him to kill millions of people. i commend those who made statements as seemingly insignificantas simply surviving, and those who stood outside till their husbands were released. all these are important when they add up. the interview was amazing though, a stand against the german soldiers. that must have been so frightening to kill someone. yet as he said, when you think of how many people these soldiers had killed before, how many lives they had not spared, its hard to in turn spare theirs. i think that its awesome that they would do what they did. thats a hoorible thing to say but desperate times call for desperate measures.

[Splatmaster]

The resistance against the Nazis probably did help the Nazis rationalize their actions. Nazis who were just following orders now had a reason to kill Jews. The killings, to the Nazis, wouldn't be just against innocent people anymore. They would be against somebody that hurt or killed their camrade. Killing Jews would now be retalliation. We've seen and heard that Nazis became even more ruthless after resistance whether it be uprisings, conspiracies, or just letters.

For Jews, resisting gave them hope. Instead of working themselves to death for the Nazis or fearing when they'll be chosen. They could take their lives into their own hands. MOst probably knew that their chances for survival were slim. yet they still did it. Instead of giving in to the Nazi's power they questioned, rallied, and fought against it. Word of the uprisings would spread and it would give victims in other camps hope.

[SilverStar]

Resistance is necessary in situations such as the Holocaust because if the downtrodden don't at least try to survive, all hope is lost. You never know what could happen if you only tried. If the Jews just let themselves be killed by the billions, there would be very few left in the world today; the entire race would have been wiped out because no one had any will to live.

Armed or unarmed resistance is not the only type that will get you anywhere, and sometimes it is squashed too easily. Psychological and Spiritual resistance had a great significance in the Holocaust. All the survivors around today and the ones who came out of the Holocaust alive had some type of psychological resistance to the Nazis that would not let them give up hope. Nesse Godin, the speaker at the Holocaust museum, admitted that she wanted to give up and put an end to it all many times during her stay at the concentration camp, but people around her would not let her. They implemented in her the will to survive and resist the Nazis' wishes to have her dead.

Also, resisting being forgotten is a great form. The man in the Warsaw ghetto who got together milk cans to fill w/ the people's diaries was resisting fading away into the past. He knew the Nazis were trying to exterminate all remnants of the Jews, and he wanted to make sure that did not happen, and sometime down the line, the world would know what the Nazis did.

The revolt in the Warsaw ghetto led by Mordechai A. was significant because no one would have expected the lowly, weak, malnourished Jews to fight back. By taking the Nazis by surprise, they are showing that they are not willing to give up so easily.

[madcrow]

It seems to me that most of the resistance that we have heard about did more for
the psychological health of the resistors than it did to actually improve the situation of the Jews being persecuted. While things such as setting fire to the gas chambers slowed things down for a little while, it offered, at best, a temporary repreive for those who were doomed to die. In a similar vane the uprising at the camp that we talked about in class today may have caused chaos, in the end only 300 people survived. The more passive resistance technique of "having a will to survive" would probabvly have had a success rate just as good.

Even the celebrated Warsaw ghetto uprising, despite the fact that it lasted a
month, ended up saving few lives. Was it embarassing to the Nazis? Absolutely.
But did it save the thousands of Jews that were still in the ghetto? No, it didn't do that either.

In the end, it seems that in order to understand the acts of Jewish resistance
one can't see things purely in terms of "what good did it to" but rather did it
give people hope. I know that this may not be a very popular opinion, but it is
what I think was the case.

However, IMO, the "resistance" of those who worked to smuglle Jews out is a different thing. Unlike armed resistance, it actually did more than have psycological
benefits on the resistors before their untimely deaths. Indeed the hiding of
Jews managed to save people.

[freemanjud]

Madcrow,

Your reasoning is curious. And now I'm curious: let's say that the Allies had bombed Auschwitz or the rail lines leading to it? Would that not have been a good thing?

[mdenny12]

There were a few purposes that Jewish resistance served. Obviously, first and foremost was the attempts to defeat the Nazis in order for the Jews to free themselves from the ghetto or concentration camp that they were in.

A second, more symbolic purpose was to show the Nazis that they were going to stand up for themselves and not go out quietly, no matter how low the odds of them winning out were. They wanted to show the Nazis and the world that they were not going to just submit to the ruthlessness of the Nazis.

The third purpose was to boost morale among fellow Jews and inspire more resistance that might actually pay off and save some lives. By showing other Jews that they could fight the good fight against the Nazis, resistance leaders set an example for other Jews to follow.

[mermaid836]

When I read Mordecai Anielewicz's letter, i began to see more and more the importance of fighting back and resisting what the Nazis were attempting to do. part of the importance of resistance when one's life is threatened is the simple will to survive and not passively allow yourself to be murdered. in the case of Jews in the Holocaust however, resistance became their mode of survival. it kept their will to live alive, for it seemed as though if they could kill a few German officers then others could do the same. pipermaru mention how individually the numbers killed by these resistances were small, but when lots of groups in the camp or in different camps did the same thing, the numbers would quickly multiply. the importance of resistance is simply showing that you don't agree with what is happening. it may seem like it is hopeless or that little comes from the resistance, but any resistance does at least something, even if it is simply giving others the idea to resist something as well. it can start a wave of more successful resistance movements or revolts that are larger and better planned, so that eventually the message will get across. also someone mentioned that by simply hindering the Nazis' desire to kill all Jews by hiding out or leaving a remnant of your life, a continuing testimony that you existed, the Nazis can't win and their supplies are exhausted and their morale is lowered as time goes on and people still evade capture or soldiers are killed or supplies destroyed. it buys more time for them to give up or be defeated before they can complete what they hoped to start.
most importantly however, at least in Mordecai's situation, the resistance movement kept the people in the ghettoes and camps from giving up hope and becoming the mindless, identitiless being that the Germans thought they were and wanted them to be.

[snoopy]

Resistance to the Nazis was important because it was kind of a last ditch effort for the Jews to humanize themselves. The goal of the Nazis was to wipe Jews off the planet - or at least out of Europe - by considering them and treating them as subhumans. Resistance shows the fight for life; life is for humans; it is a lot harder to kill a human then something you don't condier human. By forcing Jews into such bad conditions - with the rats, hunger, cold, lice, etc. - it made it easire to kill them. They didn't "live" like humans, so they must not have been. I mean, woudl you ratehr kill a sewer rat (which is what the Nazis wanted to portray Jews as) or woudl you rahter kill a person - maybe successful, well dressed, with a clean place to live and a family that loves him?? By resisting, Jews were showing hte genuine HUMAN instinct we all have: SURVIVAL at all costs. Whether to symbollically survive - like the milkjugs burried under the warsaw ghetto; remnants of people who wanted their legacy to live on, even if they didn't......or spiritually to survive - like the secret synagogue, created by people who refused to let their faith die. Resistance is all about humanization.