The Germans' overwhelming repression and the presence of many collaborators in the variouslocal populations severely limited the ability of the Jews to resist. Jewish resistance did occur,however, in several forms. Staying alive, clean, and observing Jewish religious traditionsconstituted resistance under the dehumanizing conditions imposed by the Nazis. Other forms ofresistance involved escape attempts from the ghettos and camps. Many who succeeded inescaping the ghettos lived in the forests and mountains in family camps and in fighting partisanunits. Once free, though, the Jews had to contend with local residents and partisan groups whowere often openly hostile. Jews also staged armed revolts in the ghettos of Vilna, Bialystok,Bedzin-Sosnowiec, Cracow, and Warsaw.The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was the largest ghetto revolt. Massive deportations (or Aktions)had been held in the ghetto from July to September 1942, emptying the ghetto of the majority ofJews imprisoned there. When the Germans entered the ghetto again in January 1943 to removeseveral thousand more, small unorganized groups of Jews attacked them. After four days, theGermans withdrew from the ghetto, having deported far fewer people than they had intended.The Nazis reentered the ghetto on April 19, 1943, the eve of Passover, to evacuate the remainingJews and close the ghetto. The Jews, using homemade bombs and stolen or bartered weapons,resisted and withstood the Germans for 27 days. They fought from bunkers and sewers andevaded capture until the Germans burned the ghetto building by building. By May 16 the ghettowas in ruins and the uprising crushed.Jews also revolted in the death camps of Sobibor, Treblinka and Auschwitz. All of these acts ofresistance were largely unsuccessful in the face of the superior German forces, but they werevery important spiritually, giving the Jews hope that one day the Nazis would be defeated.Liberation and the End of WarThe camps were liberated gradually, as the Allies advanced on the German army. For example,Maidanek (near Lublin, Poland) was liberated by Soviet forces in July 1944, Auschwitz inJanuary 1945 by the Soviets, Bergen-Belsen (near Hanover, Germany) by the British in April1945, and Dachau by the Americans in April 1945.At the end of the war, between 50,000 and 100,000 Jewish survivors were living in three zonesof occupation: American, British and Soviet. Within a year, that figure grew to about 200,000.The American zone of occupation contained more than 90 percent of the Jewish displacedpersons (DPs). The Jewish DPs would not and could not return to their homes, which broughtback such horrible memories and still held the threat of danger from anti-Semitic neighbors.Thus, they languished in DP camps until emigration could be arranged to Palestine, and laterIsrael, the United States, South America and other countries. The last DP camp closed in 1957(David S. Wyman, "The United States," in David S. Wyman, ed., The World Reacts to theHolocaust, Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996, pp. 70710).Below are figures for the number of Jews murdered in each country that came under Germandomination. They are estimates, as are all figures relating to Holocaust victims. The numbersgiven here for Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Romania are based on their territorial bordersbefore the 1938 Munich agreement. The total number of six million Jews murdered during theHolocaust, which emerged from the Nuremberg trials, is also an estimate. Numbers have rangedbetween five and seven million killed.Source: Holocaust Memorial Center (http://www.holocaustcenter.org) 6602 West Maple RoadWest Bloomfield, MI 48322As Seen Through These Eyes Page 12
Tel. (248)6610840 Fax. (248)6614204info@holocaustcenter.orgTerezin (Theresienstadt) Concentration CampAs Hitler transported tens of thousands of communal objects to Prague, their owners wererounded up and shipped first to a city built northwest of Prague in 1780 by Joseph II.Ironically, this city served as a fortress to protect Prague from invaders to the north.Joseph II named this village after his mother, Maria Teresia, calling it Terezin.Hitler, the world was to be told, had built a city for the Jews, to protect them from thevagaries and stresses of the war. A film was made to show this mythic, idyllic city to whichhis henchmen were taking the Jews from the Czech Lands and eight other countries.Notable musicians, writers, artists, and leaders were sent there for “safer” keeping thanwas to be afforded elsewhere in Hitler’s quest to stave off any uprisings or objectionsaround the so-called civilized world. This ruse worked for a very long time, to the greatdetriment of the nearly two hundred thousand men, women and children who passedthrough its gates as a way station to the east and probable death.Of the vast majority of Czech Jews who were taken to Terezin (or Theresienstadt), 97,297died among whom were 15,000 children. Only 132 of those children were known to havesurvived.The Red Cross was allowed to visit Terezin once. The village of Terezin was spruced up forthe occasion. Certain inmates were dressed up and told to stand at strategic places alongthe specially designated route through Terezin. Shop windows along that carefully guardedpath were filled with goods for the day. One young mother remembers seeing the bakerywindow and shelves suddenly filled with baked goods the inmates had never seen duringtheir time at Terezin. Even the candy shop window overflowed with bon bons creating afantastic illusion she would never forget.When the Red Cross representative appeared before this young mother, she remembersbeing asked how it was to live in Terezin during those days. Her reply implored thequestioner to look around. Be sure and look around, as she herself rolled her own widelyopened eyes around in an exaggerated manner. The Red Cross reported dryly that whilewar time conditions made all life difficult, life at Terezin was acceptable given all of thepressures. The Red Cross concluded that the Jews were being treated all right.There were so many musicians in Terezin, there could have been two full symphonyorchestras performing simultaneously daily. In addition, there were a number of chamberorchestras playing at various times. A number of distinguished composers created works atTerezin including Brundibar or the Bumble Bee, a children’s operetta and a number ofchamber compositions which only now are being resurrected and played in Europe and theUnited States.As Seen Through These Eyes Page 13
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