Combat and Resistance

“It is impossible to put into words what we have been through. What happened exceeded our boldest dreams. The Germans fled twice from the ghetto… My life’s dream has come true. Defense in the ghetto has become a fact. Armed Jewish resistance and revenge are actually happening. I have witnessed the glorious and heroic combat of the Jewish fighters.”

Mordechai Anielewicz, Warsaw Ghetto, April 1943

Once reliable, substantiated evidence about the murder of the Jews began to emerge and after the deportations from the ghettos had taken place, the undergrounds began launching armed rebellions in the ghettos and camps. In addition, they organized escapes and smuggled Jews from the ghettos to the forests in order to fight in the partisan units, as well as other rescue and hiding efforts. The largest and longest lasting of these rebellions took place in the Warsaw ghetto.

After liberation many of the survivors quickly enlisted in the Allied forces that continued to fight against Nazi Germany.

Approximately 1.5 million Jews fought in World War II in the Allied armies, in the partisan units, in the underground movements and in the ghettos. Hundreds of thousands of Jews fell in battle.

Jewish Armed Resistance and Rebellions

The ghettos buzzed with rumors about the murder of Jews. Most inhabitants, however, found the vague information difficult to absorb, especially in view of the unprecedented nature of the events described. However, resistance groups obtained reliable information about the murders by means of couriers and liaisons outside the ghettos. As the information accumulated, they finally realized that a terrifying campaign of systematic murder, previously unheard of in human history, was being perpetrated. However, they only grasped this awareness after the execution of the deportations from the ghettos,...

Jewish Soldiers in the Allied Armies

Approximately 1.5 million Jews fought in the regular Allied armies. In many cases the percentage of Jews fighting was greater than the percentage of Jews in the population.About 500,000 Jewish soldiers fought in the Red Army during World War II. Some 120,000 were killed in combat and in the line of duty; the Germans murdered 80,000 as prisoners of war. More than 160,000, at all levels of command, earned citations, with over 150 designated “Heroes of the Soviet Union”— the highest honor awarded to soldiers in the Red Army.Approximately 550,000 Jewish soldiers fought in the US Armed...

Warsaw Ghetto Uprising

On July 22, 1942, on the eve of the Ninth of Av in the Jewish calendar, the Germans began the mass deportations from the Warsaw ghetto. By the time they ended on September 21, Yom Kippur, some 265,000 inhabitants of the ghetto had been deported to the Treblinka extermination camp.The deportations were carried out at the Umschlagplatz – a train station and adjacent square situated on the edge of the ghetto. Those deported were packed into sealed, locked freight cars with little water and poor ventilation.When the deportations began the Nazis promised that people who voluntarily reported for...

The Human Spirit in the Shadow of Death

During the war, European Jewry was faced with a constant struggle for its very survival. Yet even under such terrible conditions there were those whose acted in ways that went beyond the necessities of human existence: they risked their lives - deliberately and intentionally - for high causes, including educating their children, maintaining religious values and traditions and sustaining centuries-old cultural activities. Unfortunately, not all those who succeeded survived the hell that was the Holocaust, but their deeds themselves bear witness to power of the human spirit.One phenomenon that testifies...

Combat and Resistance

Jewish Armed Resistance and Rebellions

Jewish Soldiers in the Allied Armies

Warsaw Ghetto Uprising

The Human Spirit in the Shadow of Death

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