Zydowska Icja Bojowa Thesis

It is the middle of the night and a loud harsh knock, followed by a rough man’s voice barking orders awakes a young girl from her peaceful sleep. Confusion sets in, and she exchanges glances with her siblings and parents. They tell her to do as the man says. He shouts to grab a small bundle of luggage and head to the railroad cars waiting outside. She does not want to go peacefully. No one should have the right to force me from my own property, she thinks. Right in that moment, she decides peacefully is not the way she will go. Instead, she will resist, in whatever way she can. Just as these thoughts may have been running through the young girl’s head, they were also running through the heads of the millions of other Jewish people during the Holocaust around the year 1941. These people were not going to go without a fight, and that is exactly what they did. The Zydowska Organizacja Bojowa, or Jewish Fighting Organization, outwardly demonstrated armed resistance during the Holocaust because they provided Jewish people in the Warsaw ghetto with defense weapons.

In the Warsaw ghetto, Jewish people were being deported by the thousands to Treblinka, an extermination camp (United). When people still in the camp heard news of what was happening, they decided immediately to form the ZOB. The ZOB was officially formed on July 28, 1942 (Zydowska). It was “led by 23-year-old Mordecai Anielewicz” who “issued a proclamation calling for the Jewish people to resist going to the railroad cars” (United). Not only the leader, but the whole group was young and this can easily be seen in fig.