"The Jews Who Fought Back against Nazi Germany" Topic

"According to one familiar narrative about the Holocaust, millions of Jews passively went to the Nazi death camps likes lambs to the slaughter, unable to fight back against oppression and genocide.

The problem is—that story isn't true.

As the world commemorated in January the 70th anniversary of the Auschwitz liberation—and as thoughts turn toward the upcoming May anniversary of victory over Nazi Germany—another narrative is gaining ground.

The Jews who fought back…"
Full article here
link

Amicalement
Armand

Interesting Tango
they where also some Jews who fought back wearing an uniform…In Italian Front a Commando unit was active..i think in the Lake Comacchio zone..and, i'm almost sure , that somewhere i read , of a Jewish's composed unit of the British Army, that fought in East Africa or in North Africa….

Italwars, you're thinking of the Jewish Brigade of the British 8th Army, recruited mainly from the Jewish population of the Zionist Yishuv:

link

While tales of Jewish armed resistance against the Nazis are romantic and attractive, armed resistance in occupied Europe was usually counter-productive. A pistol shot at representatives of the Reich could bring down a hurricane of fire and steel, as at Lidice, Oradour-sur-Glane and the two Warsaw risings.

Active resistance was wide-spread, but was mostly the unarmed resistance of the mouse, the rat and the cockroach: escape, evasion, disguise, survival.

When my cousin Nushia's parents, in the Stupki labor camp, told her, "They're going to kill us all here. You have a chance to escape. Even though you're just a little girl, just twelve years old, you must take that chance, all by yourself. You must live.", that was active resistance. When she ran away, by herself, traveling and hiding until she reached their friends' farm, that was active resistance.

And the Polish friends who took her in, along several other Jews, and hid them through the war, until the Liberation, that they could never be sure of, finally came, were very active and heroic resisters. They risked their own lives and their own children's lives to save their friends. They accepted daily hardships, sharing what little food they could get with their guests during the starving times, and they did it for years on end, with no certain outcome.

They were very active and heroic resisters, and there were millions like them. Not all were successful.

Zippyfusenet..thanks for the touching and precious tale of your family resistance that you post here for us….i read it with great interest…
I had partially the same idea that armed resistance in occupied Europe was in many cases counter-productive..leading to retaliations..certainly it was the case in some parts of Italy like in Rome or in France..while, on the other hand, in Poland they had no choice except uprising thanks to the equivocal attitude of both Western and Eastern Allies Vs the Reich..at least in Jugoslavia it appears to me essential for the liberation from Nazi oppression…
the formation of the official Jewish Brigade is known..but , i'm sure that, may time ago i read also an involvment of oganised/uniformed Jewish fighters VS Axis troops also before that date….and in African soil..not only in the Greek Campaign in 1941…also if not an academic source, the famous Italian artist Hugo Pratt , usually very accurate, depicted in one of his books "Dry Martini Parlour" a Jewish uniformed volunteer with distinctive insigna operating from Khartoum in 1941…maybe was it a European member/quadre of Orde Wingate's Gideon Force…

Glad you enjoyed the article my friend.

Great thread Zippyfusenet!

Amicalement
Armand

Interesting zippy … thanks for sharing. As far as organized Jewish units fighting the Nazis. My favorite is the SIG that fought as part of the UK forces in North Africa … link

Oops ! Double post !