Throughout the Nazi regime in Europe from 1943 to 1945, many Jews opposed Hitler’s policies by engaging in acts of physical, mental and spiritual resistance. Many non-Jews also stood by the Jews in opposing Hitler’s government and his policies. These people helped many Jews escape ghettos and concentration camps. However, there were also many Jewish people who did not resist the Nazi’s and fell victim to their rule. Many non-Jews did not help the Jewish people and simply followed the regime by ignoring the atrocities that the Jews faced throughout the Nazi regime.
Throughout the period, many cases of spiritual resistance took place in order for people to maintain family, community, cultural and religious values. Within the ghettos and concentration
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500 000 Jews were crowded into the Warsaw Ghetto with horrific living conditions. This often resulted in death due to disease and hunger. (Source D). Nazi’s eliminated the ghetto by deporting people to Treblinka death camp. In the summer of 1942, approximately 300 000 Jews were deported from Warsaw to Treblinka. (Source E). many young people in the Warsaw Ghetto formed an organisation called the Z.O.B, a Polish name for the Jewish Fighting Organisation. This organisation was led by Mordecai Anilewicz who issued a proclamation which called for the Jewish people to resist getting into railroad cars. (Source E). In January 1943, Warsaw Ghetto fighters fired upon the German troops as they attempted to round up another group of ghetto inhabitants for deportation. Fighters used a small supply of weapons that were bought on the black market or smuggled into the ghetto. (Source E). After a few days, the Nazi troops retreated. The small victory of the ghetto fighters in the Warsaw Ghetto inspired the Jews to apply further resistance. (Source E). In April 1943, the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising began after German troops and police entered the ghetto to deport any surviving inhabitants. Seven hundred and fifty fighters fought the heavily armed and well trained Germans. The ghetto fighters were able to fight of the Nazi …show more content…
An example of this was the White Rose Movement started by Hans and Sophie Scholl. (Source A). In 1942, both Hans and Sophie were students at the University of Munich. Their movement spoke out against Nazi genocidal policies. (Source A). Many members of The White Rose Movement heard about the mass murder of Polish Jews and as a soldier on the eastern front. Hans Scholl had seen firsthand mistreatment of Jewish force laborers and heard about the deportation of large numbers of Polish Jews to concentration camps. (Source A & B). The group expanded into an organisation of students in Hamburg, Freiburg, Berlin and Vienna. (Source B). The White Rose members transported and mailed mimeographed leaflets than denounced the regime. (Source A). In their attempts to stop the war efforts, they advocated the sabotage of the armaments industry. “We will not be silent” is what they wrote to their fellow students. (Source B). “We are your bad conscience. The White Rose Movement will not leave you in peace.” (Source A). After the German Army’s defeat in Stalingrad in late January 1943, the Scholl’s distributed pamphlets urging students in Munich to rebel. They dropped stacks of leaflets in the empty university corridors. But, in the next month, a university janitor who had seen them with the pamphlets and reported them to the gestapo. (Source B). The regime executed Hand and Sophie Scholl as well as