The victims’ experience:
Looking at the Jewish reaction to the holocaust, why did they stay in Germany after the Nazi takeover of power? Why did those who left do so? What role did Jewish community organizations have in resisting the Nazi oppression? To what extent can the Jewish councils within the Ghettos that actively co-operated with the German authorities be blamed with collaboration or accredited with protecting those that it could? Did the internal divisions within Jewish society itself contribute to the outcome of the holocaust? What actually counts as resistance during the holocaust? Why was there so little in the way of armed resistance? What sorts of armed resistance did occur? Were Jews pitted against one another in the concentration camps? Were Jews able to organize and show solidarity within the camps?
posted by Benjamin Nakizo at 4:39 AM
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What factors influenced the decision of German Jews to stay in
Germany or to emigrate from 1933-9?
Jews reacted in different ways depending on their outlook and ability. Many believed that they had seen this type of anti-Semitic action before and were of the view that once again all they needed to do was sit tight and ride out the storm. Hitler had risen to power on a platform of anti-Semitism yet many believed he was just a demagogue employing the rhetoric to win popularity, not a true believer.
Once his supporters had vented their rage Hitler would bring their actions to hell, after all were not the Jews economically vital to the Germany economy? The same economy that he had attempting to revive?
Besides, many German Jews had been German for countless generations; many had fought in the Great War and had no desire to give up their identities. Others however left and in 1933, 40,000 Jews left Germany. Usually they were young, urban and single.
Those of age, or with families or living in rural areas often felt they had no alternative but to stay.
How did Jewish communal organizations act and react to
circumstances in 1933-9?
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To what extent can the Jewish councils in the ghettos be held
responsible for helping to oil the wheels of the machinery of
destruction?
The Judenrt in Warsaw was able to appeal to the German military in the first year of occupation when the occupying administration had not been fully formalized. By taking advantage of the conflicts in interest within the German powers the Judenrat was able to play each side off the other and delay the formation of the Ghetto by an entire year. Adam Czerniakow was the head of the Warsaw Judenrat, he committed suicide on Jul 23rd, 1942.
They organized the Jewish Ghetto police who oversaw the deportations. But the deportations were only done under the threat that a refusal to cooperate would lead to immediate reprisals and also on the mistaken assumption that those leaving were in fact heading for work camps, not death camps.
What were the internal divisions and conflicts within ghetto society?
Conflict would have been more likely in the severe conditions in the Ghetto. Rations were very low and the Jews of Warsaw, while representing 30% of the population of Warsaw were crammed into a Ghetto that was only 2.4% the size of Warsaw.
How should we define 'resistance' in the context of the Holocaust?
Armed resistance was not the only form of resistance from the Jews during the Holocaust. And it was far from the most widespread. Any action that defied German authorities can be seen as a form of resistance. This includes the widespread smuggling operations that took place to get forbidden goods into the Ghetto, the construction of hiding places or underground bunkers within the Ghettos themselves, jumping from the death trains, often in sub-zero conditions whilst naked, the falsification of ‘Aryan’ identification papers,
Why was there relatively so little armed resistance, and does the
relative lack of armed resistance mean that Jews went 'like sheep to
the slaughter'?
In the late stages of the Ghetto the Jewish political organizations within the Ghetto coalesced into two united fronts. The Jewish Fighting Organization and the Jewish Fighting Union. The JFU was better armed since it had better contacts with the Polish Resistance outside the Ghetto. The JFU wanted to escape the Ghetto and fight from the countryside while the JFO wanted an armed show down with the Germans in the Ghetto itself.
On January 18th, 1943 the Germans began a second round of deportations. By this time it was widely known that those sent were more than likely going to their deaths. The JPU and JPO began armed resistance and after four days they had gained control of most of the Ghetto. In response the Germans moved in mass units and shelled the resistance movement out building by building, killing any and all Jews they captured. The fighting continued up until May 16th. Approximately 7000 Jews were killed in the fighting and another 6000 were killed in captivity. This was one hell of a heroic failure since only sixteen casualties were recorded by the occupation authorities throughout the uprising. Valiant but wholly ineffective.
Resistance within the concentration camps themselves was often very difficult to organize owing to the extreme conditions they were under and the demographic makeup of those interned. The Jews wee from various different countries all over Europe with their own languages customs. The Jews themselves, despite Nazi ideology, were far from a homogenous whole.
Was life in the concentration and extermination camp simply a
struggle of all inmates against all others? (Were there examples of
solidarity? Think also of gender differences of there are any)
The Germans used psychology against the Jews in order to gain their assistance in the organization of their own deaths. By appointing leaders of the camps, the individual barracks and then the individual work squads and rewarding these leaders with better rations and temporary exemption from the gas chambers they bought the co-operation of many Jews in the efficient running of the camps.
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