Resistance of Jews during World War IIin Occupied Polish Territories Using the Example of Uprisingsin Extermination Camps and Revolts in Ghettos Cover Image

Opór Żydów w czasie II wojny światowej na okupowanych ziemiach polskich na przykładzie powstań w obozach zagłady i buntów w gettach
Resistance of Jews during World War IIin Occupied Polish Territories Using the Example of Uprisingsin Extermination Camps and Revolts in Ghettos

Author(s): Sabina Bober
Subject(s): Fascism, Nazism and WW II, History of Antisemitism
Published by: Instytut Studiów Politycznych PAN
Keywords: Jews; self-defence; Holocaust; Germany; ghettos; extermination camps;

Summary/Abstract: Attempts by Jews to save lives during the Holocaust took various forms depending on the situation and the period of occupation. Until they were concentrated in the ghettos, they were not fully aware of the great danger they were in. Nobody could have imagined that the Germans would decide to kill them en masse and that extermination camps established especially for them would be used for this. Left to themselves, wanting to survive, they had to take up various forms of struggle. Not everyone was able to hide on the Aryan side to avoid deportation to a camp or slow vegetation in the ghetto. Each attempt to save a life was a heroic act of opposing the extermination that the Germans had planned for all Jews. It was much more difficult to oppose them in concentration camps, where there was a permanent struggle and human life was of no value. Faced with the constant threat, the Jews decided to fight not only to preserve their lives, which were of the highest value, but also the dignity that the SS men tried to kill in them in the camps.The uprisings in Auschwitz, Sobibór and Treblinka prove that the prisoners had a great will to live. Similarly, revolts and uprisings in the ghettos showed that the imprisoned Jews were able to oppose the extermination policy of Nazi Germany.

  • Issue Year: 50/2022
  • Issue No: 3
  • Page Range: 191-216
  • Page Count: 26
  • Language: Polish
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