Jewish Resistance During the Holocaust (27 page)

Werner, Harold. 1992.
Fighting Back: A Memoir of Jewish Resistance in World War II
. Ed. by Mark Werner. New York: Columbia University Press.

Winnicott, Donald W. 1958.
Collected Papers
. London: Tavistock.

Wygoda, Hermann, ed. 1998.
In the Shadow of the Swastika
. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press.

Yehude Yaar
[Forest Jews]. 1946.
Narratives of Jewish Partisans of White Russia, Tuvia and Zus Bielski and Abraham Viner
. As told to Ben Dor. Tel Aviv: Am Oved.

Yoram, Shalom. 1996.
The Defiant: A True Story.
Trans. by Varda Yoram. New York: St. Martin’s Press.

Zable, Arnold. 1991.
Jewels and Ashes
. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co.

Zimmels, H.S. 1977.
The Echo of the Nazi Holocaust in Rabbinical Literature.
London: Ktav Publishing House, Inc.

Zuckerman, Yitzhak. 1993.
A Surplus of Memory: Chronicles of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
. Trans. and ed. by Barbara Harshav. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Zuker, Shimon. 1981.
The Unconquerable Spirit: Vignettes of the Jewish Religious Spirit the Nazis Could Not Destroy.
Trans. by Gertrude Hirschler. New York: Mesorah Publications.

abortions, in partisan camps 84
Achdut Haavoda
underground 42 agency, drained 149
Akiba
, Zionist underground

organization 42 Aly, Gotz 118 anger, in ghettos 45 Anielewicz, Mordechai 31 anti-Semitism

in partisan groups 96–
7
Polish 53–4, 96–7, 9
8
Russian 9, 1
0
Warsaw 3
7

Arad, Yitzhak 49, 50, 97

Arendt, Hannah criticism of
Judenrate
19–20
Eichmann in Jerusalem
20, 161

Auschwitz knowledge of 45 memorial 135 selections in 142–3 transportation to 20–2 underground community of

resistance 3

Baranowicze region 58 Bauer, Yehuda 93 Begin, Menachem 42
Beitar
, Zionist-revisionist

underground organization 42 belief, power of 15 Bell, Aaron 166 Berger, Schlomo 3, 6 Berkovits, Eliezer 162 Bialystok ghetto 22, 24, 37

Judenrat
in 34

underground in 45 Biebow, Hans 185
n
Bielski Brigade 9–13, 55–62, 80, 99

fighting brigade 60–1
internal conflicts 68–9, 76 interviews with survivors 62–78 relations with Russian

commanders 58, 59, 89 relations with Soviets and local

population 62 social hierarchy 56–7, 60–1 use of violence 87

Bielski, Asael 55 Bielski (Bell), Aaron 61, 73–8 Bielski, Sonia 5, 61

interview with 62–7 Bielski, Tuvia 9–10, 13, 55 leadership of 56, 59–60, 99–100 Bielski, Zush (Zeisal) 9, 10–13, 55, 57

and value of violence 81 Bielski, Zvi 9, 10–11 Blaichman, Frank 14–15 Bledzow, Charles 68 Bleichman, Frank 6 Borowski, Chiena 49 bribes 45 Browning, Christopher 118 Budapest 21, 27
Bund
, Jewish labor union 42 Byelorussia

forests of 37, 55 Jewish resistance in 93
see also
Bielski Brigade

catatonia, in ghettos 13
9
Césaire, Aimé,
Les Arme
s
Miraculeuses
8
6

children 17 in ghetto hospitals 28–30 in ghettos 37–8, 40–1 and
Kiddush haShem
162 and
Kinder
selection in Lodz 138 in partisan camps 84

199

children –
continued
study of Torah 35 theological status of 132

Chwojnik, Abrasha 49

collaborators 122, 178
n
executed by partisans 14, 75 and partisans 73–4

community among partisans 72, 84, 89 Rousseauian 100, 113, 180
n
and self 99–101, 113 within ghettos 21

compassion 7, 166–7 contingency, role in survival 16 cultural practices 6, 153

and conditioning 1
3
importance to partisans 1
2

death acceptance of (with faith) 105 envied 145 and resurrection 121
see also
mortality rates

death camps, knowledge of 34, 45, 131 despair, and spiritual resistance

33–4 diaries 103 Diaspora, tradition of non-violence

52 dislocation 124, 131 dissociation 44, 116–18, 139

and indifference 163 as mode of survival 145
D’ror
, Zionist youth organization 42 Duffy, Peter,
The Bielski Brothers
55–6, 62

Edelman, Marek 133 Efrati, Rabbi Shimon 130 Eichmann, Adolf 27 ethics

dilemmas 124, 133, 155–7 and survival 68 evil, Manichean 87

faith 6, 7, 33, 119 and despair 135–6 in God 105, 129–30 in Jewish community identity

10
5
loss of 139–40, 165–
6
and mysticism 160–
3
power of 15
1
and soul-death 137–4
0
theological 132–3, 136–
7

family, centrality of 21, 24, 94

Fanon, Frantz
The Wretched of the Earth
81 theory of violence 85–6, 88–9

Farfel, Siomka 80 fear, control of 75 Fisch, Rabbi Yehezkiah 159, 161 food rationing and supplies

in ghettos 38, 51–2, 126–7,

185
n
malnutrition 38, 175
n
, 185
n
soup kitchens 51

forced labor
see
labor brigades Freud, Sigmund,
The Future of an

Illusion
100–1 Frucht, Major Isidor 49 funerals, in ghettos 123

Gandhi, Mahatma, passive

resistance 152 Gaststeiger, Sergeant 38 genocide, principles of 134–5 Gens, Joseph 48, 95 German policy

as contradiction of economic

self-interest 133–4 ghettoization 13 as group madness 167–8 towards ghettos 20–4 underground understanding of

45 vocabulary of killing 45–6 Germans biological phobia of Jewish bodies 117–19, 125–6, 134, 168 reaction to resistance 82

ghettoization 13 effect on inhabitants 37–42, 83–4

ghettos administration in 48 catatonia in 139 community support within 21 conditions in 35–6, 37–42, 141,

183
n
deaths in 93, 123, 137–8, 175
n
, 183
n
demoralization and breakdown in

19–24, 32–4 despair in 135–6 diaries of 103 difficulty of escape from 15, 30,

48, 76, 94 disintegration in 43, 72–3, 182
n
hospitals in 28–30, 52 passivity in 83–4 physical assaults 124–5 practices of domination in 131 survival in 153 and transfer to death camps 131
see also Judenrate
; underground

resistance; Vilna; Warsaw gift-giving 45 Glazman, Joseph 49 Goldhagen, Daniel 118, 133
Gordonia
, Zionist youth group 42 greed 68 Gross, Jan,
Neighbors
37 Grossman, Chaika 34 guilt

and conscience 130–
1
lack of
3

Halakhah
157
Hanoar Hatzioni
, Zionist youth group 43
Hashomer Hatzair
, Zionist youth group 43

health in partisan groups 61, 79 practices in ghettos 125–7

Hechalutz
, Zionist pioneer youth movement 42
Hekhalot Rabbati
157–8 Hilberg, Raul 19 Hill, Benno Muller 118 Himmler, Heinrich 185
n Hitachdut
, Zionist youth group 43 Horn, Joseph 163, 164, 165–6 humanity, disintegration of

144–5 Hungary, extermination of Jews in 21, 27

ideology, role of 44–5

infants allowed to die 18, 172
n
killed at birth 24

informers, Jews as 83
Irgun Tzvai Leumi
, Zionist-revisionist military wing 42 Israel, state of 74

Jabotinski, Vladimir 42 Jewish Fighting Organization (JFO) 31

Jewish identity 2–3 among survivors 146–7 and group identity 113–14 importance to partisans 11,

33–4, 77

and rescue of self 147 Jewish Military Association 32 Jewish police 104

Warsaw 41–2 Jewish Self-Help organization 51
Judenrate
(in ghettos)

collaboration with Germans 19–21, 49–50, 54 escape discouraged by 15–16,

76 failure of leadership 84–5 fear of reprisals 15–16, 30–1,

46–7, 49 knowledge of death camps 34 relations with rabbis 108, 155 relations with underground

resistance 31, 53, 8
5
view of violence 83–
4

Kamm, Ben 6 Kaplan, Chaim A. 182
n Kiddush haShem
(martyrdom)

105–6, 148, 150, 152–
4
children and 16
2
and will to live 15
9

killing Bielski Unit’s view of 12–13 morality of 45

Kinderaktion
, in ghettos 41, 138 Klingberg, Rabbi Shem 159 Kohn, Nahum 97–8 Korczak, Januz 127–8 Kovner, Abba 31, 49, 50 Kovno ghetto 22, 24, 32–3, 35, 37

Judenrat
15
6
Kinderaktion
in 4
1
underground 4
5

Kowalski, Zygmunt 36 Krakow 125–6, 141–2 role of rabbis in 151 Kroll, Dr 125, 126

labor brigades 131–2, 133–4, 161 Langer, Lawrence 135–6, 142

survivor testimony 143, 144–9 leadership, covert in ghettos 84–5 Lerman, Miles 5, 19, 23, 24, 107 Levi, Primo 134–5 Levin, Don 93 Lewin, Abraham 38, 42 life, struggle for 39 Lithuania

forests of 37 Jewish resistance in 93, 178–9
n
sympathy for Jews’ plight 36
see also
Vilna

local populations 178
n
dangers of hiding Jews 30 inability to trust 36 leaflets distributed to 31

Lodz ghetto 20, 22, 38, 90, 134,

146, 185
n Kinder
selection 138 and removal to Auschwitz 20,

185
n
suicides 157, 183–4
n

London News Chronicle
52 Lublin 158 luck, role in survival 3, 143, 149 Lvov ghetto 22

madness German policy as 167–8 rabbinical defenses against

103–4

and violence 89–90 Maidanek, memorial 135, 164 Maimonides, Moses 121–2, 153–4
malbush
, role of 57 malnutrition, in ghettos 38, 175
n
,

185
n
Manicheanism 87 Markov Brigade partisans 16 martyrdom
see Kiddush haShem
Masada, tradition of 44 mass reprisals

German policy of 13, 46–7

Judenrate
fear of 15–16, 30–1 Meisels, Rabbi 133, 157–8 memory 147–8 Mendel, Rabbi 33 Mir ghetto 37

underground 45

morality 149 corrupted in ghettos 41–2 of killing 45 redefined 68 and resistance 24–5, 44

mortality rates among partisans 55, 79, 93 children 52, 172
n
in ghettos 93, 123, 137–8, 175
n
in labor groups 131–2 Warsaw 21, 52

muteness 129, 144, 145 mystical theology 158, 159–60 mysticism, and faith 160–3

Nalibocka forest, Byelorussia 57–8 natality, importance of 67–8, 69–70, 146 Nesvizh, Poland, ghetto 27–8

New York Times
, report on Vilna

ghetto 46 Ninth Fort (outside Kovno) 45 Nissenbaum, Rabbi Yitzhak 154 Novogrudek, massacres at 56, 71

Operation Erntefest
(Operation Harvest Festival) 133

oppression and faith 139 kills self 87–8

Oshmann, Sonya 6 Oshry, Rabbi, Kovno ghetto 35, 41, 124, 161 Ozer, Rabbi Chaim 152–3

partisans command organization 79 community support among 72,

84, 89 demographics of 93 lack of guilt 3–4, 5 and morality of killing 45 political organization 83, 100 recruitment of fighters 24 revenge and retaliation 6–7,

81–2, 99 size of units 80 Soviet (Russian) groups 9, 10,

79, 91–2, 95–
6
survival in 18–1
9
use of violence 7, 83–
4
see also
Bielski Brigad
e

Platon, General 58, 59 Plazow labor camp 141, 147
Poalei Zion
, Zionist labor section

42

Poland Hasidic Judaism in 151 Jewish resistance in 93, 180
n
occupation of 38–9, 122
see also
Lodz; Warsaw

Poles anti-Semitism 53–4, 96–7, 98 brutality towards Jews 36, 92–3 proscribed from trading with Jews

51

segregation from Jews 125–6

view of Jews’ plight 36, 53–4 Polewka, Adam 53 Polish Army (AK), hatred of Jews

97 Polish resistance, Jewish contacts with 52–3 political organization, as moral authority 44

political resistance 30, 31–2 in ghetto undergrounds 42–3 and orthodox theology 151 spiritual resistance as 105

Ponary (execution site near Vilna) 34, 39 knowledge of 45, 47 prayer 112–13, 150

rabbinical response 103–4
see also
spiritual resistance rabbinical teaching 7 responsa 155–7, 162

rabbis courage of 33, 105–6 and ethical dilemmas 124, 133,

182
n
in Krakow 151 moral authority of 108–10 and occupation of Poland 122 protection of sacred objects

106 relations with
Judenrate
108 and resistance 104, 154
see also
Oshry; Shapira