Jewish Resistance During the Holocaust
Page 25
Winnicott, Donald W. 1958. Collected Papers. London: Tavistock.
Wygoda, Hermann, ed. 1998. In the Shadow of the Swastika. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press.
Yehude Yaar [Forest Jews]. 1946. Narratives of Jewish Partisans of White Russia, Tuvia and Zus Bielski and Abraham Viner. As told to Ben Dor. Tel Aviv: Am Oved.
Yoram, Shalom. 1996. The Defiant: A True Story. Trans. by Varda Yoram. New York: St. Martin’s Press.
Zable, Arnold. 1991. Jewels and Ashes. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co.
Zimmels, H.S. 1977. The Echo of the Nazi Holocaust in Rabbinical Literature. London: Ktav Publishing House, Inc.
Zuckerman, Yitzhak. 1993. A Surplus of Memory: Chronicles of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. Trans. and ed. by Barbara Harshav. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Zuker, Shimon. 1981. The Unconquerable Spirit: Vignettes of the Jewish Religious Spirit the Nazis Could Not Destroy. Trans. by Gertrude Hirschler. New York: Mesorah Publications.
Index
abortions, in partisan camps 84 Achdut Haavoda underground 42 agency, drained 149 Akiba, Zionist underground
organization 42 Aly, Gotz 118 anger, in ghettos 45 Anielewicz, Mordechai 31 anti-Semitism
in partisan groups 96–7 Polish 53–4, 96–7, 98 Russian 9, 10 Warsaw 37
Arad, Yitzhak 49, 50, 97
Arendt, Hannah criticism of Judenrate 19–20 Eichmann in Jerusalem 20, 161
Auschwitz knowledge of 45 memorial 135 selections in 142–3 transportation to 20–2 underground community of
resistance 3
Baranowicze region 58 Bauer, Yehuda 93 Begin, Menachem 42 Beitar, Zionist-revisionist
underground organization 42 belief, power of 15 Bell, Aaron 166 Berger, Schlomo 3, 6 Berkovits, Eliezer 162 Bialystok ghetto 22, 24, 37
Judenrat in 34
underground in 45 Biebow, Hans 185n Bielski Brigade 9–13, 55–62, 80, 99
fighting brigade 60–1 internal conflicts 68–9, 76 interviews with survivors 62–78 relations with Russian
commanders 58, 59, 89 relations with Soviets and local
population 62 social hierarchy 56–7, 60–1 use of violence 87
Bielski, Asael 55 Bielski (Bell), Aaron 61, 73–8 Bielski, Sonia 5, 61
interview with 62–7 Bielski, Tuvia 9–10, 13, 55 leadership of 56, 59–60, 99–100 Bielski, Zush (Zeisal) 9, 10–13, 55, 57
and value of violence 81 Bielski, Zvi 9, 10–11 Blaichman, Frank 14–15 Bledzow, Charles 68 Bleichman, Frank 6 Borowski, Chiena 49 bribes 45 Browning, Christopher 118 Budapest 21, 27 Bund, Jewish labor union 42 Byelorussia
forests of 37, 55 Jewish resistance in 93 see also Bielski Brigade
catatonia, in ghettos 139 Césaire, Aimé, Les Armes Miraculeuses 86
children 17 in ghetto hospitals 28–30 in ghettos 37–8, 40–1 and Kiddush haShem 162 and Kinder selection in Lodz 138 in partisan camps 84
199
children – continued study of Torah 35 theological status of 132
Chwojnik, Abrasha 49
collaborators 122, 178n executed by partisans 14, 75 and partisans 73–4
community among partisans 72, 84, 89 Rousseauian 100, 113, 180n and self 99–101, 113 within ghettos 21
compassion 7, 166–7 contingency, role in survival 16 cultural practices 6, 153
and conditioning 13 importance to partisans 12
death acceptance of (with faith) 105 envied 145 and resurrection 121 see also mortality rates
death camps, knowledge of 34, 45, 131 despair, and spiritual resistance
33–4 diaries 103 Diaspora, tradition of non-violence
52 dislocation 124, 131 dissociation 44, 116–18, 139
and indifference 163 as mode of survival 145 D’ror, Zionist youth organization 42 Duffy, Peter, The Bielski Brothers 55–6, 62
Edelman, Marek 133 Efrati, Rabbi Shimon 130 Eichmann, Adolf 27 ethics
dilemmas 124, 133, 155–7 and survival 68 evil, Manichean 87
faith 6, 7, 33, 119 and despair 135–6 in God 105, 129–30 in Jewish community identity
105 loss of 139–40, 165–6 and mysticism 160–3 power of 151 and soul-death 137–40 theological 132–3, 136–7
family, centrality of 21, 24, 94
Fanon, Frantz The Wretched of the Earth 81 theory of violence 85–6, 88–9
Farfel, Siomka 80 fear, control of 75 Fisch, Rabbi Yehezkiah 159, 161 food rationing and supplies
in ghettos 38, 51–2, 126–7,
185n malnutrition 38, 175n, 185n soup kitchens 51
forced labor see labor brigades Freud, Sigmund, The Future of an
Illusion 100–1 Frucht, Major Isidor 49 funerals, in ghettos 123
Gandhi, Mahatma, passive
resistance 152 Gaststeiger, Sergeant 38 genocide, principles of 134–5 Gens, Joseph 48, 95 German policy
as contradiction of economic
self-interest 133–4 ghettoization 13 as group madness 167–8 towards ghettos 20–4 underground understanding of
45 vocabulary of killing 45–6 Germans biological phobia of Jewish bodies 117–19, 125–6, 134, 168 reaction to resistance 82
ghettoization 13 effect on inhabitants 37–42, 83–4
ghettos administration in 48 catatonia in 139 community support within 21 conditions in 35–6, 37–42, 141,
183n deaths in 93, 123, 137–8, 175n, 183n demoralization and breakdown in
19–24, 32–4 despair in 135–6 diaries of 103 difficulty of escape from 15, 30,
48, 76, 94 disintegration in 43, 72–3, 182n hospitals in 28–30, 52 passivity in 83–4 physical assaults 124–5 practices of domination in 131 survival in 153 and transfer to death camps 131 see also Judenrate; underground
resistance; Vilna; Warsaw gift-giving 45 Glazman, Joseph 49 Goldhagen, Daniel 118, 133 Gordonia, Zionist youth group 42 greed 68 Gross, Jan, Neighbors 37 Grossman, Chaika 34 guilt
and conscience 130–1 lack of 3
Halakhah 157 Hanoar Hatzioni, Zionist youth group 43 Hashomer Hatzair, Zionist youth group 43
health in partisan groups 61, 79 practices in ghettos 125–7
Hechalutz, Zionist pioneer youth movement 42 Hekhalot Rabbati 157–8 Hilberg, Raul 19 Hill, Benno Muller 118 Himmler, Heinrich 185n Hitachdut, Zionist youth group 43 Horn, Joseph 163, 164, 165–6 humanity, disintegration of
144–5 Hungary, extermination of Jews in 21, 27
ideology, role of 44–5
infants allowed to die 18, 172n killed at birth 24
informers, Jews as 83 Irgun Tzvai Leumi, Zionist-revisionist military wing 42 Israel, state of 74
Jabotinski, Vladimir 42 Jewish Fighting Organization (JFO) 31
Jewish identity 2–3 among survivors 146–7 and group identity 113–14 importance to partisans 11,
33–4, 77
and rescue of self 147 Jewish Military Association 32 Jewish police 104
Warsaw 41–2 Jewish Self-Help organization 51 Judenrate (in ghettos)
collaboration with Germans 19–21, 49–50, 54 escape discouraged by 15–16,
76 failure of leadership 84–5 fear of reprisals 15–16, 30–1,
46–7, 49 knowledge of death camps 34 relations with rabbis 108, 155 relations with underground
resistance 31, 53, 85 view of violence 83–4
Kamm, Ben 6 Kaplan, Chaim A. 182n Kiddush haShem (martyrdom)
105–6, 148, 150, 152–4 children and 162 and will to live 159
killing Bielski Unit’s view of 12–13 morality of 45
Kinderaktion, in ghettos 41, 138 Klingberg, Rabbi Shem 159 Kohn, Nahum 97–8 Korczak, Januz 127–8 Kovner, Abba 31, 49, 50 Kovno ghetto 22, 24, 32–3, 35, 37
Judenrat 156 Kinderaktion in 41 underground 45
Kowalski, Zygmunt 36 Krakow 125–6, 141–2 role of rabbis in 151 Kroll, Dr 125, 126
labor brigades 131–2, 133–4, 161 Langer, Lawrence 135–6, 142
survivor testimony 143, 144–9 leadership, covert in ghettos 84–5 Lerman, Miles 5, 19, 23, 24, 107 Levi, Primo 134–5
Levin, Don 93 Lewin, Abraham 38, 42 life, struggle for 39 Lithuania
forests of 37 Jewish resistance in 93, 178–9n sympathy for Jews’ plight 36 see also Vilna
local populations 178n dangers of hiding Jews 30 inability to trust 36 leaflets distributed to 31
Lodz ghetto 20, 22, 38, 90, 134,
146, 185n Kinder selection 138 and removal to Auschwitz 20,
185n suicides 157, 183–4n
London News Chronicle 52 Lublin 158 luck, role in survival 3, 143, 149 Lvov ghetto 22
madness German policy as 167–8 rabbinical defenses against
103–4
and violence 89–90 Maidanek, memorial 135, 164 Maimonides, Moses 121–2, 153–4 malbush, role of 57 malnutrition, in ghettos 38, 175n,
185n Manicheanism 87 Markov Brigade partisans 16 martyrdom see Kiddush haShem Masada, tradition of 44 mass reprisals
German policy of 13, 46–7
Judenrate fear of 15–16, 30–1 Meisels, Rabbi 133, 157–8 memory 147–8 Mendel, Rabbi 33 Mir ghetto 37
underground 45
morality 149 corrupted in ghettos 41–2 of killing 45 redefined 68 and resistance 24–5, 44
mortality rates among partisans 55, 79, 93 children 52, 172n in ghettos 93, 123, 137–8, 175n in labor groups 131–2 Warsaw 21, 52
muteness 129, 144, 145 mystical theology 158, 159–60 mysticism, and faith 160–3
Nalibocka forest, Byelorussia 57–8 natality, importance of 67–8, 69–70, 146 Nesvizh, Poland, ghetto 27–8
New York Times, report on Vilna
ghetto 46 Ninth Fort (outside Kovno) 45 Nissenbaum, Rabbi Yitzhak 154 Novogrudek, massacres at 56, 71
Operation Erntefest (Operation Harvest Festival) 133
oppression and faith 139 kills self 87–8
Oshmann, Sonya 6 Oshry, Rabbi, Kovno ghetto 35, 41, 124, 161 Ozer, Rabbi Chaim 152–3
partisans command organization 79 community support among 72,
84, 89 demographics of 93 lack of guilt 3–4, 5 and morality of killing 45 political organization 83, 100 recruitment of fighters 24 revenge and retaliation 6–7,
81–2, 99 size of units 80 Soviet (Russian) groups 9, 10,
79, 91–2, 95–6 survival in 18–19 use of violence 7, 83–4 see also Bielski Brigade
Platon, General 58, 59 Plazow labor camp 141, 147 Poalei Zion, Zionist labor section
42
Poland Hasidic Judaism in 151 Jewish resistance in 93, 180n occupation of 38–9, 122 see also Lodz; Warsaw
Poles anti-Semitism 53–4, 96–7, 98 brutality towards Jews 36, 92–3 proscribed from trading with Jews
51
segregation from Jews 125–6
view of Jews’ plight 36, 53–4 Polewka, Adam 53 Polish Army (AK), hatred of Jews
97 Polish resistance, Jewish contacts with 52–3 political organization, as moral authority 44
political resistance 30, 31–2 in ghetto undergrounds 42–3 and orthodox theology 151 spiritual resistance as 105
Ponary (execution site near Vilna) 34, 39 knowledge of 45, 47 prayer 112–13, 150
rabbinical response 103–4 see also spiritual resistance rabbinical teaching 7 responsa 155–7, 162
rabbis courage of 33, 105–6 and ethical dilemmas 124, 133,
182n in Krakow 151 moral authority of 108–10 and occupation of Poland 122 protection of sacred objects
106 relations with Judenrate 108 and resistance 104, 154 see also Oshry; Shapira
Rasheen, Vernon 6 reason, and faith 137 refugees 38–9
in Warsaw 52 Reichsbahn, role of 177n religion
and self 100–1, 136
see also theology religious identity 107–8 religious practices 153
in death camps 154, 182n in forests 144 in ghettos 35, 39–40, 107, 122
religious practices – continued importance of, to survivors 69–70, 146
as response to despair 152 remnant mentality, Warsaw 53 rescue
imagery of 44, 45 as motivation of resistance fighters 55, 59, 99–100
resistance passive 152 revision of morality 24–5, 44 to group madness 167 see also Bielski Brigade; partisans;
underground resistance;
Warsaw Uprising Resnik, Nisr 49 resurrection of the dead 121 retaliation 6 revenge 6, 44, 55, 71–2
personal commitment to 14–15 and violence 81–2, 99 Ringelblum, Emmanuel 32, 52–3,
104, 148, 151, 162 Rudashevski, Yitzhok 39 Rumkowski, Chaim 20
sabotage 50, 82, 92 sacrifice, religious 160–1 Sanctification of the Name of the
Lord 105, 150 Schindler, Oscar 141–2 Schulman, Faye 81 self
and community 99–101 and dissociation 163 and faith in God 128–31 and group action 79, 82 Hasidic 160–1 killed by oppression 87–8 liberation of 25 preservation of 104, 110–14 reclaimed by violence 84 resistor 21 and silence 129, 144 spiritual resistance and 147–8
and survival 145–6 transformation of 143, 146–7 Shapira, Rabbi Kalonymus Kalman 5, 6, 121, 149, 184n consolation of faith 135, 136,
139–40, 150 and sacrifice 132 theological writings 114–16,
118–19, 128–30, 134 Shapiro, Rabbi Abraham 156 shoes, children’s 135, 164 Sierpe, Poland 123 Sobibor 21, 132
escape attempt 149 soul-death, and faith 137–40 Soviet Union
Jews in 11 and partisan brigades 58–9 see also Byelorussia
Speer, Albert 185n
spiritual resistance 7, 32–3 attitude of Bielskis to 10–11, 12 and facing death 181n and faith in Jewish identity 105 as psychological refuge 104–5,
110–14, 163–7 rejected by partisans 15, 105,
107 and rescue of self 147–8 Shapira’s writings 114–16,
118–19 Strehn, Corporal Mathias 38 study 35, 152–3
as religious act 166
suffering idealized 163 righteousness of 164–5
suicides, Lodz ghetto 157, 183–4n
survival among partisans 100 and ethics 68 and faith 143–4 and luck 3, 143, 149 role of contingency 16, 153–4 spiritual resistance and 149–50 and will to live 159
survivors and guilt 141–2 pride in children 4–5 stories 1–2, 103 see also partisans
Switzerland 39 Szwajger, Dr Adina Blady 28, 29, 40
Tannenbaum, Mordechai 31 Tec, Nechama, Defiance: The Bielski Partisans 55–6, 66
theology 33, 128 concept of divine justice 166–7 and concept of fate 105–6 Hasidic Judaism 110, 151, 152,
160–1 mystical 158, 159–60 role of 150, 153 status of infants and children in
132 Theresienstadt ghetto 22 Torah, study of 35, 152–3 Tory, Abraham 45 Trakinski, Simon 11, 15–18 transport, and dislocation 124,
131, 177n Treblinka 21, 34, 45, 132
underground resistance 3 charismatic leadership 84–5 in ghettos 22–3, 24, 30–1, 34–7,
42–8 interdependence in 43–4 links with partisans 50 and morality of killing 45 in Vilna 45–6, 47, 48–51 Zionist units 27
United Partisan Organization 47, 50–1 United States, survivors’ lives in 13, 18
vengeance see revenge
Vilna ghetto 16, 22, 24, 37 Aktion (1943) 95–6 conditions in 39–40 escape to forests from 95–8 Judenrat policy 46–7, 48–9, 50,
95 reprisals 93–4 underground organization 45–6,
47, 48–51, 95 Viner, Abraham 60 violence
discriminatory use of, by partisans
83–4 and madness 89–90 psychological value of 81–2,
84 reciprocal 86 and recovery of self 85–94,
100–1
Wallenberg, Raul 82
Warsaw deaths (1942) 21, 157, 172n deportations (1942) 53, 158–9 ghetto 22, 24, 32, 38, 127–8,
141 Jewish police 41–2 refugees in 52 soup kitchens 51 underground resistance 31–2,
42–3 Warsaw Uprising (1943) 23–4, 45 weapons
acquisition of 49, 53 required by partisan groups
95–6, 98 Westerbork (Netherlands) 22 will
loss of 144, 165–6
to live 159 Wittenberg, Itzik 46, 48 women
, in Bielski Brigade 59, 65 work brigades 131–2, 133–4, 161 work permits 39, 94 workshops, at Bielski base area
57–8 Wylezynska, Aurealia 53
Yellin, Chaim 31, 33 Yitzhak, Rabbi Levi 159–60
206 Index
Zaczepice village, Byelorussia 83 Zionists, underground units 27,
Zemba, Rabbi Menachem 159, 162 30, 31–2, 42–3
Zionist-revisionists 42 Zukerman, Yitzhak 31