Language:
German
Year of publication:
2013
Titel der Quelle:
Einsicht; Bulletin des Fritz Bauer Instituts
Angaben zur Quelle:
9 (2013) 14-20
Keywords:
World War, 1939-1945 Jewish resistance
;
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)
;
Warsaw (Poland) History Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, 1943
Abstract:
Summarizes the activities of the Jewish resistance in the Warsaw ghetto between 1940-43, and in the uprising in April 1943. Certain characteristics of the Jewish resistance were different from other resistance movements: the Jews were in danger of death whether they engaged in resistance or not; starvation, exhaustion, and isolation significantly hampered their ability to carry out an active and efficient resistance; the surrounding population was mainly hostile or, at best, indifferent; and, finally, the internal debates and lack of unity between different Jewish groups sometimes made their actions ineffective. The resistance and uprising were severely harmed by the isolation of the Jews by the Nazis, and by the limited cooperation with the Polish resistance, partly due to antisemitism rooted in the Polish movement. The Polish underground showed restraint in delivering weapons to the ghetto, which made it impossible for the Jews to come into possession of enough arms and explosives. The Jewish resistants were few, and they only had handguns, grenades, and Molotov cocktails. The Jewish uprising was hopeless from the beginning, but it had a large degree of moral significance and influence on the Jewish resistance in general.
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