Jewish Response To The Holocaust Analysis

“The reaction pattern of the Jews is characterized by almost complete lack of resistance.” Discuss with reference to the Jewish response to the Holocaust.

During the period 1933 to 1945 Adolf Hitler, the fascist leader of German led the destruction of over Six Million Jews. The Nazi racial policy and the racial segregation became the justification for the suppression and persecution of all non-Aryans and all Jews. With harsh punishment meted out to those who did not comply. To better understand the Jews reaction to the final solution, I will examine the attitude of the Germans society towards the Jews and their responses to the final solution.

Overview of the Nazis’ move against the Jews

At the end of World War I, Germany who was defeated

These views are still being vigorously debated by them because they have yet come to a consensus that is satisfactory to all. Because of this the debate still continues. Therefore these questions are still being asked; Is it fair to say that there was a complete lack of resistance or conversely can it be said that there was complete resistance. Who would have resisted and when? How is resistance being defined?

Having endured centuries of persecution in Europe, the Jews had established patterns of reaction that would ensure their survival and according to Raul Hilberg it was not to draw attention to them but to try and pacify their opponent. Hilberg further argues, the Jews being accustom to persecution and in the interest of self-preservation had to restrain from resistance. According to Hilberg

"In exile, the Jews... had learned that they could avert danger and survive destruction by placating and appeasing their enemies...Thus over a period of centuries the Jews had learned that in order to survive they had to restrain from resistance"

The famous Polish ghetto of Warsaw uprising was cited by Jack Fischel and other Holocaust historians as one of the many armed Jewish resistance. The inhabitants of the Warsaw ghetto took up arms against a superior German army, and were able to hold off this superior army at bay for at least a month. Although they were defeated, their action inspired other ghettos and death camps like Auschwitz, Treblinka, and Sobibor to rebel . Jack Fischel cites Elise Wiesel who said “ The question is not why all Jews did not fight, but how so many of them did. Tormented, beaten starved, where did they find the strength –spiritual and physical- to resist” (Fischel 1998) .

The action of the Warsaw ghetto included that the Jews by 1942 had established organized and planned resistance groups such as the Jewish Fighting Organization (ZOB). Fischel and Yisrael state that these groups established a cadre of resistance groups in other large ghettos. Action of these inhabitants speaks to fact the Jews did not just allow themselves to be led to slaughter but