Owing to the careful organization and overwhelming military power of the Nazi regime, groups of historians have come to understand that the Jewish population of Europe was ultimately unable to resist persecution at the hands of the staunch anti-Semites. Thus, the Jews had gone like sheep to slaughter; and had essentially allowed themselves to be led to death. However, one cannot merely conclude that the European Jewry played a completely passive part in their own near annihilation; one needs to look towards why the Jews did not seem predisposed to fight back or protect themselves against the formidable Nazi’s. While there was some resistance, it was inhibited by a number of diverse factors – Jewish isolation, disbelief in the Nazi’s ultimate
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During the German occupation, the Polish town of Lodz was drained of all Polish nationals and was reinvented as a newly-occupied German settlement. The German authorities expelled the Poles from the area surrounding the city and thus, the Lodz Ghetto was effectively completely cut off and isolated from possible contact with any non-Jewish and non-Nazi groups of people. As a concept, the ghettoes were ultimately a tool to isolate Jews from the non-Jewish populations of Europe – they were often closed off by walls, barbed-wire, fences and gates. Jewish people only interacted with themselves, the Jewish ‘governments’ that were put in charge of the specific ghettoes, and with members of the Nazi military. Trunk explains that the Jews in the Lodz Ghetto could expect no assistance from the non-Jewish populace as the Nazi’s ensured that this group of people were not given the opportunity to seek help or information from anyone outside of their demarcated …show more content…
Henri Michel reflects back on the period of World War Two in an attempt to understand why the passivity of the Jewish people – he came to find that throughout this epoch of time, the most severely oppressed groups did not defend themselves and rarely rebelled. In his mind, this group of people was not only made up of Jews, but included those who ultimately faced total humiliation and death (Soviet prisoners of war, concentration camp prisoners and slave
During the German occupation, the Polish town of Lodz was drained of all Polish nationals and was reinvented as a newly-occupied German settlement. The German authorities expelled the Poles from the area surrounding the city and thus, the Lodz Ghetto was effectively completely cut off and isolated from possible contact with any non-Jewish and non-Nazi groups of people. As a concept, the ghettoes were ultimately a tool to isolate Jews from the non-Jewish populations of Europe – they were often closed off by walls, barbed-wire, fences and gates. Jewish people only interacted with themselves, the Jewish ‘governments’ that were put in charge of the specific ghettoes, and with members of the Nazi military. Trunk explains that the Jews in the Lodz Ghetto could expect no assistance from the non-Jewish populace as the Nazi’s ensured that this group of people were not given the opportunity to seek help or information from anyone outside of their demarcated …show more content…
Henri Michel reflects back on the period of World War Two in an attempt to understand why the passivity of the Jewish people – he came to find that throughout this epoch of time, the most severely oppressed groups did not defend themselves and rarely rebelled. In his mind, this group of people was not only made up of Jews, but included those who ultimately faced total humiliation and death (Soviet prisoners of war, concentration camp prisoners and slave