Passive Resistance During The Holocaust

944 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Propaganda During World War Two essay

Passive Optimism

In 1939, WWII began when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party invaded Poland, causing six million Jewish people to fear for their lives. This fear first began when the Nazis made the Jewish people sign a census and carry Identification Cards. They also made them keep a Star of David on their clothes so that they could be easily identifiable. And by forcing them to live in horrendous ghettos, they could keep them controlled until they were sent of to the extermination camps run by the Nazis. There are many stories covering the Holocaust, including The Diary of Anne Frank. It’s a good thing that people tell stories about this time, so that no one forgets. The best way to act in times like this is to passively resist. Passive resistance is a good method because it allows people to keep their culture alive, and keeps them safe. Lastly, it gives them the personal satisfaction of knowing that they can get through it. …show more content…

There are many examples of passive resistance in the context “Resistance During the Holocaust”. The Jewish people did many things to keep their culture and memories active. From “literary evenings” (p 6) to “keeping records of ghetto life” (p 6), they were able to keep their spirits high and preserve their customs. It was very important for them to continue their practices because it made them feel like human beings again, not just numbers on a paper. They were able to teach the children their perception. Also, had it not been for them keeping records of ghetto life, we probably wouldn’t have nearly as much information on this topic as we do today. Supporters of active resistance would argue that by fighting, they could preserve the culture and prove their power. However, with active resistance, there is more of a chance that you, or someone you care about, will get hurt, and if that happens, who is going to carry on your

Show More
Related

  • Compare Farewell To Manzanar

    1005 Words  | 3 Pages

    World War II officially started on September 1, 1939, but what really pulled America into forceful action was when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. When Americans heard of the bombing, people panicked. Americans blamed everything on the Japanese and hated even the innocent Japanese-Americans for everything that happened. At this time, on the other side of the world, Hitler had already been overseeing concentration camps for Jews for eight years. The first concentration camps were in 1933, and millions of Jews were murdered and tortured mercilessly for no reason other than they were a race/ethnicity hated by Hitler. Night is an account of a young Jewish boy sent to a concentration camp with the rest of his family,

    Read More

  • History: Upstanders during the Holocaust

    561 Words  | 2 Pages

    Anti-Semitism, hatred or prejudice of Jews, has tormented the world for a long time, particularly during the Holocaust. The Holocaust was a critical disaster that happened in the early 1940s and will forever be remembered. Also known as the genocide of approximately six million European Jews during World War II, an assassination by the German Nazis lead by Adolf Hitler.

    Read More

  • The Horrors of Killing Centers During the Holocaust

    813 Words  | 2 Pages

    Poland was devastated when German forces invaded their country on September 1, 1939, marking the beginning of World War II. Still suffering from the turmoil of World War I, with Germany left in ruins, Hitler's government dreamt of an immense, new domain of "living space" in Eastern Europe; to acquire German dominance in Europe would call for war in the minds of German leaders (World War II in Europe). The Nazis believed the Germans were racially elite and found the Jews to be inferior to the German population. The Holocaust was the discrimination and the slaughter of approximately six million Jews by the Nazi regime and its associates (Introduction to the Holocaust). The Nazis instituted killing centers, also known as “extermination camps” or “death camps,” for being able to resourcefully take part in mass murder (Killing Centers: An Overview).

    Read More

  • Under A Cruel Star Heda Margolius Kovaly

    1344 Words  | 3 Pages

    On September 1st, 1939 Germany invaded Poland, which started World War II in Europe. The war between Germany and the Soviet Union was one of the deadliest and largest wars of all mankind. It caused an overall change in Jewish people’s lives because they lost family members, homes, and the reason to live. There was a political shift in climate during that time because of the mass genocide it caused. Germany went from a place where people lived to a huge European power that singled out one race.

    Read More

  • Bielski Otraid: Film Analysis

    832 Words  | 2 Pages

    When thinking of the word resistance, one gets a picture of a small, weak group of people using guns to fight against a powerful evil. Although this is a correct interpretation of resistance, there are more forms, such as spiritual and cultural resistance, that can be equally devastating to the cause of the powerful evil. A major example of all of these forms of resistance is the Bielski Otraid, subject of the 2008 film Defiance, as they actively resisted the Germans in these ways, become the physical embodiment of Jewish resistance as they drew parallels with the resistance shown by the Jewish people. The Jewish people demonstrated all of the forms of resistance, from the physical resistance seen in the armed revolts seen in multiple ghettos and some death camps, and the spiritual resistance through the attempted continuation of normal life in the ghettos and the acceptance of faith while at the death camps.

    Read More

  • Jewish Resistance During WWII and the Holocaust

    894 Words  | 2 Pages

    Nazis which proved to the world the Jews are not that easy to extinguish. The Jews had several ways of exhibiting resistance, but "Organized armed resistance was the most powerful form of Jewish opposition"(Jewish Resistance). Armed resistance is an important aspect to revolting not only because it reinflicts the pain lashed upon the Jews, but it also shows the Jews have the ability to fight back and gives the world the knowledge that Jews do not go down easily. However, resistance is not only an act of violence since the Jews demonstrated several non-violent forms of resistance while locked up or being transported. Jews would escape into the forest and figured that by escaping they resisted the Nazi Party and reduced their chances of achieving their goal of exterminating all Jews on the planet(Acts of Resitance). By escaping Jews gave themselves a chance to live and warn others of their fate which was an excellent form of non-violent resistance since, generally speaking, no Germans were hurt. Resistance can take many shapes and forms which is why all Jews resisted one way or another, simply living is resistance(Acts of Resistance). The other reason Jews struggled so desperately to survive was not to merely see the light of another day, but to see the Germans become enraged by their "resistance", living.

    Read More

  • How Did Jews Survive During The Holocaust?

    554 Words  | 2 Pages

    Due to this over 60% of the Jewish population was put to torture and death.”Haaretz” During the Holocaust, Jews used armed and unarmed forms of resistance in order to retain their humanity. Unarmed resistance was a way Jewish people fought against the Nazis, not with guns and knives, but simply finding ways to survive their living hell. Unarmed resistance took for in escaping, stealing food, and not following the Nazis demands. Thousands of young Jews resisted by escaping from the ghettos into the forests.some.

    Read More

  • Resistance During The Holocaust

    720 Words  | 2 Pages

    During the Holocaust there were many different forms of resistance undertaken by Jewish people. These can be categorised into two main forms, armed resistance and passive resistance. Armed resistance was resistance by Jews and civilians who actively fought back, sometimes they managed to scavenge weapons and use them in attacks on Germans and the different enforcement groups such as the SS. Armed resistance took place mainly in ghettos and concentration camps however, also occurred on the streets of Nazi occupied Europe. Passive resistance was less aggressive and usually meant that Jewish people refused to deny their faith and still practiced their religion in some form.

    Read More

  • Holocaust Resistance During The Holocaust

    1082 Words  | 3 Pages

    Spiritual resistance like praying kept Jew’s sanity and concerts help make people happy. Hitler’s plan was to break down and destroy Jews, so they fought against that in various ways. Art, music, and theater were often in ghettos to keep everyone happy. Comics, actors, singers, dancers, and actors also performed for a group of people for a brief amount of time. The Nazis had also made it illegal for Jewish gatherings but the Jews also did against that. Praying and services were kept in secret. Praying and services were important to continue. They also wanted to continue everyday things. Art, music, theater and praying were used as resistance by the Jews to stay

    Read More

  • How did the holocaust end and what happened afterwards?

    1665 Words  | 4 Pages

    The Nazis were killing thousands of Jews on a daily basis and for many of the Jewish people death seemed inevitable, but for some of the Jewish population they were not going to go down without a fight as Jewish resistance began to occur. However, the Jewish resistance came in many different forms such as staying alive, clean and observing Jewish religious traditions under the absolute horrendous conditions imposed by the Nazis were just some examples of resistance used by the Jews. Other forms of resistance involved escape attempts from the ghettos and camps. Many of the Jews who did succeed in escaping the ghettos lived in the forests and mountains in family camps and in fighting partisan units. Once free, though, the Jews had to contend with local resident and partisan groups who often openly hostile. Jews also staged armed revolts in the ghettos of Vilna, Bia...

    Read More

  • Lasting Effects of the Holocaust

    1179 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Holocaust was a very impressionable period of time. It not only got media attention during that time, but movies, books, websites, and other forms of media still remember the Holocaust. In Richard Brietman’s article, “Lasting Effects of the Holocaust,” he reviews two books and one movie that were created to reflect the Holocaust (BREITMAN 11). He notes that the two books are very realistic and give historical facts and references to display the evils that were happening in concentration camps during the Holocaust. This shows that the atrocities that were committed during the Holocaust have not been forgotten. Through historical writings and records, the harshness and evil that created the Holocaust will live through centuries, so that it may not be repeated again (BREITMAN 14).

    Read More

  • Critical Analysis Of Eleanor Ayer's Parallel Journeys

    834 Words  | 2 Pages

    When in America, Helen found that it was hard not to talk about past and the stories of her imprisonment. “Some survivors found it impossible to talk about their pasts. By staying silent, they hoped to bury the horrible nightmares of the last few years. They wanted to spare their children and those who knew little about the holocaust from listening to their terrible stories.” In the efforts to save people from having to hear about the gruesome past, the survivors also lacked the resources to mentally recovery from the tragedy.

    Read More

  • Adilf Hitler

    829 Words  | 2 Pages

    Nazi belief, and murder of the Jews a key policy. 2 German laws made by Hitler soon required everyone who had one or more Jewish grandparent to register. Those with one grandparent may have escaped but if you had two grandparents you were sent to a concentration camp and classifed as a Jew. One night symbolizing the begining of mass persecution was Kristallnacht, November 10th, 1938, "the night of broken glass". Jewish stores and houses were attacked, synagogues burned, and many Jews were sent to concentration camps. During this time, there were a few countries that would accept Jews. Hitler launched World War 2 by marching into Poland in 1939. Most of Western Europe then fell into the Führer (Hitler), who had personal command of the troops. Germany invaded the soviet Union in 1941, but Hitler, Crazed with power, had lost his military judgement. His failure to Capture Stalingrad, 1942 - 1943, was the turning point; unable to cope with defeat, he refused to recognize it or negotiate for peace. As the tide of war turned against him, his mass annhiliation of Jews, socialists, gypsies, and others was excelerated. After the Second World War had began in 1939, the Nazi's dropped all restrictions they had previously made towards the systematic murder of all Jews. In countries such as Europe, steps were made for Jews to follow in order to be seperated from the rest of the population. First Jews were required to register, then they were known to the Gestapo. Some families sent their children to live with christian families and live under an assumed identity. Hitler sent The Jews of Poland to live in poverty stricken ghettos where they were exposed to disease and malnutrition. With the invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, the Nazi policy of murder began to operate with no restrictions. The armies in Russia were followed by an "extermination squad" who shot hundreds of thousands of people, the majority being Jewish. The Nazis had already setup thousands of concentration camps to imprison anyone who imposed them. These now began to operate as factories of death. Auschwitz was the biggest of these death camps, a city of barricks where hundreds of thousands of people starved to death amid indescribable brutality. At it's center stood gas chambers and creamatoria design to take train loads of human beings, gas them and burn them.

    Read More

  • World War II

    1611 Words  | 4 Pages

    It changed the economy and the growth of big countries, including Germany, Great Britain, United States, Japan, Russia and France. Aside from this, Jews were greatly influenced too. They were damaged, but then gifted. The war started on September 1, 1939 when Germany invaded the territory of Poland, which was allied with Great Britain and France. German officials signed a peace treaty on August 24-25 with the Soviet Union to prevent them from acting in the invasion and to stay in peace between both countries.

    Read More

  • Holocaust Essay

    1480 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Holocaust was one of the most tragic and trying times for the Jewish people. Hundreds of thousands of Jews and other minorities that the Nazis considered undesirable were detained in concentration camps, death camps, or labor camps. There, they were forced to work and live in the harshest of conditions, starved, and brutally murdered. Horrific things went on in Auschwitz and Majdenek during the Holocaust that wiped out approximately 1,378,000 people combined. “There is nothing that compares to the Holocaust.” –Fidel Castro

    Read More

More about Passive Resistance During The Holocaust

Open Document