For the Jewish people living during the Holocaust, defiance, whether passive or active, led to liberation from sorrow and tyranny, but also could lead to a brutal death. Some people chose to use means of force in an attempt to secure their survival or die with pride. Others would resist passively, protecting what little they had with hope that they could eventual return to their former lifestyle. “Resistance during the Holocaust” and “Violins of Hope” exhibits the successes of passive resistance during and after World War II. People can best respond to conflict by passively resisting because it protects others, preserves culture, and gives hope. Oskar Schindler, a renowned individual for his passive resistance during the Holocaust, used …show more content…
In “Violins of Hope,” Amnon Weinstein devotes his time to preserving the culture of the Jewish people by repairing violins played during the Holocaust. The host explains, “Weinstein began collecting these violins to honor that tradition, but also to break the silence” (Raz 14). There were so many ways for Jews to preserve their culture passively, even if it was as obscure as restoring violins. The culture of a group defines who they are and how they should act, so it is vital in a functioning society. Some people may say that fighting for life is more important than preserving culture; however, if you cannot lie your life to the fullest, practicing the traditions and beliefs that you want, is life really worth living? Life without culture is not life at all, so the Jewish people needed to passively resist in order to ensure their future. During westward expansion in America, when Joseph Smith founded the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-Day Saints, the people of Missouri treated Mormons as enemies because of their beliefs. Instead of converting to another religion, they fled, eventually arriving in present-day Utah. Both groups, Mormons and Jews, used passive resistance to maintain their beliefs through …show more content…
In “Resistance during the Holocaust,” religion and culture were a source of great hope for the Jews. Under tyranny, “acts of cultural and spiritual resistance...undermined Nazi power and inspired Jewish hope” (Resistance 5). Schools, concerts, and religious celebrations are some of many ways that Jewish people were given hope that their lives would eventually return to normal. Hope for a better future gave many Jews something to live for, despite all of their hardships. Some people might say that hope is counterproductive if it is false hope. It is understandable that hope alone does not win the war, but without it, there is absolutely no chance for a better future. If the Jewish people were hopeless, complying with the Nazis fully, they would not be alive today. No matter active or passive in their resistance, the Jewish people needed hope to remind them of what life could be if they won the war. During the Protestant Reformation, Martin Luther posted Ninety-five things that were wrong with the Catholic Church to its doors. This document, now known as the “Ninety-Five Theses,” gave hope to many Catholics, showing them that they did not have to be controlled by the Church and its indulgences. Because of this hope, many people broke free from the Church’s chains. Passive resistance was the key to hope
This essay will review Daniel Goldhagen’s controversial moral inquiry, ‘A Moral Reckoning: The Role of the Catholic Church in the Holocaust and Its Unfulfilled Duty of Repair’, published in 2002. Goldhagen attended Harvard University as a graduate, undergraduate and assistant professor until he was denied tenure in 2003; this possibly indicates his limited status as an academic. Goldhagen notes that he is ‘indebted’ to his father, a Holocaust survivor, for some of his findings on the Holocaust. This personal connection to the Holocaust on the one hand allows Goldhagen to write more passionately. On the other hand, it obscures his ability to view evidence objectively, evident in this book under review. Goldhagen status rose to notoriety due to the controversial nature of his first book, ‘Hitler’s Willing Executioners’ published in 1996. This received much criticism and perhaps more importantly to Goldhagen, plenty of publicity. The contentious assertions of the book, whether academically valid or not, established the relative novice amongst historians. This is evident in the abundance of secondary literature that comments on Goldhagen’s work including that edited by F. Littell and F. Kautz. Goldhagen’s credentials as a controversial author explain the extremist content of his second book, ‘A Moral Reckoning’. Goldhagen’s academic background in political science is evident in the books emphasis on the church as a ‘political institution’ and the pope as a ‘political leader’ (p. 184). . This limits his work as a historian as he fails to fully examine the role of the individual.
them false hope when there was none. Throughout the first two chapters, the Jews always thought the best for themselves when the Nazis forced a change on them. “Optimism soon revived: the Germans would
"Jewish Resistance". United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, n.d. Web. 19 May 2014.
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.
During the Holocaust there were many varying forms of resistance these include refusal to follow German orders, the formation of the ZOB, continuing Jewish culture, education, religious practices, and keeping archives of historical events. These acts of Jewish resistance all required great courage and bravery as severe consequences were in place for those who did not follow German
... end more successful in one factor that religious anti-Semitism was never able to accomplish as well. That is to be able to get the full support of the masses through mass propaganda, which appealed to people’s discontent, something the religious movement never came close to.
Following the beginning of the Second World War, Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Germany and Joseph Stalin’s Soviet Union would start what would become two of the worst genocides in world history. These totalitarian governments would “welcome” people all across Europe into a new domain. A domain in which they would learn, in the utmost tragic manner, the astonishing capabilities that mankind possesses. Nazis and Soviets gradually acquired the ability to wipe millions of people from the face of the Earth. Throughout the war they would continue to kill millions of people, from both their home country and Europe. This was an effort to rid the Earth of people seen as unfit to live in their ideal society. These atrocities often went unacknowledged and forgotten by the rest of the world, leaving little hope for those who suffered. Yet optimism was not completely dead in the hearts of the few and the strong. Reading Man is Wolf to Man: Surviving the Gulag by Janusz Bardach and Survival in Auschwitz by Primo Levi help one capture this vivid sense of resistance toward the brutality of the German concentration and Soviet work camps. Both Bardach and Levi provide a commendable account of their long nightmarish experience including the impact it had on their lives and the lives of others. The willingness to survive was what drove these two men to achieve their goals and prevent their oppressors from achieving theirs. Even after surviving the camps, their mission continued on in hopes of spreading their story and preventing any future occurrence of such tragic events. “To have endurance to survive what left millions dead and millions more shattered in spirit is heroic enough. To gather the strength from that experience for a life devoted to caring for oth...
Genocide is the deliberate killing of people who belong to a particular racial, political, or cultural group (Merriam-Webster). This is what Hitler did to the six million Jews during the Holocaust, which led to many Jews fighting back. This paper will talk about how the Holocaust victims fought back against Hitler and his army. The Holocaust was a mass killing of Jews and non-Jews who were viewed as unneeded within the world by Adolf Hitler. Hitler became leader of Germany and tortured and killed many people. With Nazi Germany killing and torturing millions of Jews and non-Jews, victims decided to fight back with armed and spiritual resistance.
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...
an And The Controversy Over The Bombing Of Auschwitz." Journal Of Ecumenical Studies 40.4 (2003): 370-380. Academic Search Premier. Web. 30 Jan. 2014 Rice, Rondall. "
Self-preservation is defined as the protection of oneself from harm or death, especially regarded as a base instinct in human beings and animals. It drives us to do things we otherwise would not do, to accomplish things we didn’t know were possible. Self-preservation can often be found throughout history and literature, always in the most desperate of times. Nowhere is it more prominent than in the history and literature surrounding the Holocaust, during which over six million Jews, including 1.5 million children, were brutally murdered in what has become known as one of history’s most deadly and widely publicized genocides. For almost 80 years, historians and Jewish survivors have authored and published
"Victims." A Teacher's Guide to the Holocaust. University of South Florida, 1 Jan. 1997. Web. 19 May 2014. .
The hope that the Jews had, kept some alive during the cruel treatment during the Holocaust. The way the Nazis treated the Jews was animal-like and not humanely at all. Although, the Jews managed to keep their heads up and hope for a bright future. The Nazis that caused all the emotional and physical pain on the Jews were horrible but they didn’t fully understand what they were doing at the time. The world is full of blackness but only some have the ability to see the
One of the many perks of being my mother’s daughter is that I’ve been able to go with her to workshops about the Holocaust both that she’s attended and created. Because of that, I have been fortunate enough to listen to survivors of the Holocaust and other genocides give testimony right in front of me. One thing I’ve observed through my exposure to Holocaust testimony is that I don’t know much about the topic of Holocaust resistance.
"A Teacher's Guide to the Holocaust-Victims." A Teacher's Guide to the Holocaust-Victims. University of South Florida. Web. 19 May 2014.