Resistance should never have a far-reaching definition. Specific events, actions, and ideologies comprise a war, meaning that no single definition of resistance should qualify as a standard. Resistance through the Holocaust manifested itself in different ways, spiritually, nonviolently, armed and unarmed.
The danger of narrowly defining resistance which was circulated by post-cold war scholars and painted with prejudice. The bulk of Holocaust research being post-cold war, it is easy to see why many historians would prefer to view the term ‘resistance’ broadly when considering that much of the opposition came from communists or leftist parties. The danger of doing this limits the scope of understanding the different types of resistance that …show more content…
When Jews were relocated and forced to live in the ghettos, enclosed and restricted districts meant to segregate Jews in Germany, many their movements underground in order to cumulate armed resistance with one Holocaust survivor noted “Jewish armed resistance . . . , when it came, did not spring from a sudden impulse…. it was the culmination of Jewish defiance, defiance that had existed from the advent of the ghetto.” (USHMM, 10)
Many also note the spiritual resistance, meaning the “continuance of religious traditions and the preservation of cultural institutions,” (USHMM, 2) that people of the Jewish faith in Germany undertook as a type of defiance and shows not only the danger of having strict standards for definitions of resistance but also how disrespectful they can be to those who pursued their religious freedom knowing the price they may have had to pay. Failure to count spiritual resistance fails to understand the events and the motivations behind their deliberate actions. Many people who partook in spiritual resistance and participated in clandestine prayer that was illegal in ghettos were “Orthodox Jews who opposed the use of physical force viewed prayer and religious observances as the true and only weapons.” (USHMM, …show more content…
Many noted that while resistance did emerge it was “largely ineffective and lacked broad support,” (USHMM, 2) and while the purpose of this paper isn’t to argue over the failures of partisan groups of Jews and non-Jews and why they crumbled under the onslaught of Nazi aggression, and while resistance did sometimes play a vital role, there was still a limited chance of emerging victorious.
While armed resistance has sparked over the course of different wars and throughout history it was this specific brand of injustice and outrageous behavior on the part of the Nazi government that resulted in armed resistance by Jews being relegated to ghettos and ignores the different parts of its resistance which included circulating undergrounds documents and papers to inform citizens of the war and its stages, also using acts of sabotage which entailed stealing documents and machinery.
Consequently, using narrow definitions also fail to look deeper into the purpose of resistance and fail to recognize the motivations behind it. Armed resistance didn’t happen until the realization of what the Nazis intended to do with the Jewish population came to light; with scholars calling the armed resistance in ghettos an “act of desperation that arose from the realization that all Jews were to be killed.” (USHMM,
The danger of narrowly defining resistance which was circulated by post-cold war scholars and painted with prejudice. The bulk of Holocaust research being post-cold war, it is easy to see why many historians would prefer to view the term ‘resistance’ broadly when considering that much of the opposition came from communists or leftist parties. The danger of doing this limits the scope of understanding the different types of resistance that …show more content…
When Jews were relocated and forced to live in the ghettos, enclosed and restricted districts meant to segregate Jews in Germany, many their movements underground in order to cumulate armed resistance with one Holocaust survivor noted “Jewish armed resistance . . . , when it came, did not spring from a sudden impulse…. it was the culmination of Jewish defiance, defiance that had existed from the advent of the ghetto.” (USHMM, 10)
Many also note the spiritual resistance, meaning the “continuance of religious traditions and the preservation of cultural institutions,” (USHMM, 2) that people of the Jewish faith in Germany undertook as a type of defiance and shows not only the danger of having strict standards for definitions of resistance but also how disrespectful they can be to those who pursued their religious freedom knowing the price they may have had to pay. Failure to count spiritual resistance fails to understand the events and the motivations behind their deliberate actions. Many people who partook in spiritual resistance and participated in clandestine prayer that was illegal in ghettos were “Orthodox Jews who opposed the use of physical force viewed prayer and religious observances as the true and only weapons.” (USHMM, …show more content…
Many noted that while resistance did emerge it was “largely ineffective and lacked broad support,” (USHMM, 2) and while the purpose of this paper isn’t to argue over the failures of partisan groups of Jews and non-Jews and why they crumbled under the onslaught of Nazi aggression, and while resistance did sometimes play a vital role, there was still a limited chance of emerging victorious.
While armed resistance has sparked over the course of different wars and throughout history it was this specific brand of injustice and outrageous behavior on the part of the Nazi government that resulted in armed resistance by Jews being relegated to ghettos and ignores the different parts of its resistance which included circulating undergrounds documents and papers to inform citizens of the war and its stages, also using acts of sabotage which entailed stealing documents and machinery.
Consequently, using narrow definitions also fail to look deeper into the purpose of resistance and fail to recognize the motivations behind it. Armed resistance didn’t happen until the realization of what the Nazis intended to do with the Jewish population came to light; with scholars calling the armed resistance in ghettos an “act of desperation that arose from the realization that all Jews were to be killed.” (USHMM,