Abstract
The concept of Jewish resistance in the historiography of the Holocaust has evolved over time. Towards the end of the Second World War, two opposing positions surfaced regarding its nature. Over the next two decades, the often emotionally charged debate spilled over the borders of academic discourse and engendered distorted notions that became entrenched in many quarters of the Jewish world and beyond. By the 1970s, consensus was forming among many scholars for an approximate and inclusive definition of the concept of Jewish resistance. By the end of the twentieth century, researchers began considering Jewish resistance less and less as a special category of behaviour, and started to discuss it in the context of a broader exploration of the life of Jews under the Nazi domination.
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Notes
R. Stauber, Lekach Ledor (Jerusalem: Yad Ben Zvi, 2000), pp. 20–33.
P. Friedman, ed., Matlyrs and Fighters, The Epic of the Warsaw Ghetto (New York: Frederick A. Praeger, 1954).
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The first such monograph was A. Cohen, The Hehalutz Resistance in Hungary (Boulder, CO: Social Science Monographs, 1986); the original version in Hebrew was published in 1984 and an article on the subject appeared in Yad Vashem Studies in 1982.
D. Michman, Hashoah Vechechra, Hamusgah, Minuach, Vesugiat Yesod (Tel Aviv: Moreshet, 1998), pp. 160–89. Michman shows how in German historiography the discussion of resistance to the regime also included a discussion about what constitutes resistance. In many ways this was similar to the discussion about Jewish resistance.
Y. Bauer, They Chose Life: Jewish Resistance in the Holocaust (New York: The American Jewish Committee, 1973), p. 32; Michman, Hashoah Vechechra, p. 161.
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Ibid., pp. 293–4.
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For example, Isaiah Trunk’s seminal study of the Judenrat discusses the attitude of the official Jewish leadership to armed resistance, as does Dan Michman’s volume for the Open University in Israel on Jewish leadership. Regarding Belgium, in a more recent work, Dan Michman brings together several articles that explore Amidah in that country. D. Michman, ed., Belgium and the Holocaust: Jews, Belgians, Germans (Jerusalem: Yad Vashem, 1998); idem, Hahanhaga Hayehudit (Tel Aviv: Hauniversita Hap’tucha, 1987); I. Trunk, Judenrat: The Jewish Councils in Eastern Europe under Nazi Occupation (New York: Macmillan, 1972). Menachem Shelach’s volume on the Jews of Yugoslavia includes a chapter on Jewish partisans. It offers little in-depth analysis and is similar to the approach of the anthologies. M. Shelach and Y. Lowinger, ‘Yehudim Beshurot Hapartizanim’, in Toldot Hashoah: Yugoslavia, ed. M. Shelach (Jerusalem: Yad Vashem, 1990), pp. 427–64. Jewish participation in Yugoslav partisan units is also the focus of Jase Romano, Jevreji Jugoslavije 1941–1945. Zrtve genocide I ucesnici Nardnooslobodilackog rata (Belgrade: Jevrejski Istorijski Musej, 1980).
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A. Cohen, ‘Hap’olot Hamachteret Hahalutzit Behungaria, Mertz-August 1944’, in Yad Vashem Studies, 14 (1982), 189–203; idem, Hamachteret Hehalutzit Behungaria, 1942–1944 (Tel Aviv: Bet Lochamai Hagetaot, 1984); idem, The Halutz Resistance in Hungary, 1942–1944 (Boulder, CO: Social Science Monographs, 1986).
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For more on the Working Group, see Y. Bauer, Jews For Sale: Nazi-Jewish Negotiations, 1933–1945 (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1994); J. Campion, In the Lion’s Mouth, Gisi Fleischmann and the Jewish Fight for Survival (New York: University Press of America, 1987); G. Fatran, Haim Maavak Hisardut? Hanhagah Yehudai Slovakia Beshoah (Tel Aviv: Moreshet, 1992); A. Fuchs, The Unheeded Cry: the Gripping Story of Rabbi Weismandel (New York: Mesorah Publications, 1984); Rozett, ‘The Relationship between Rescue and Revolt’.
N. Tec, Defiance: The Bielski Partisans (New York: Oxford University, 1993), p. vii.
Ibid., p. 82.
Ibid., p. 180.
B. Engelking, Holocaust and Memory: The Experience of the Holocaust and its Consequences: An Investigation Based on Personal Narratives (London: Leicester University Press, 2001), pp. 81–214, 236–42.
For example, see D.M. Zektser, Evreiskii Narod Sovmestno s drugimi narodami v bor’be s natsizmom v gody Velikol Otechestvennoi voiny, 1941–1945 (Kharkhov: Rzneet, 2000); Mezhdunarodnyi simpozium ‘Uroki KHolokosta i sovremennaia Rossiia’ (2-i: 1998: Moscow); Ten’Kholokosta: Materialy mezhdunarodnogo simpoziuma ‘Uroki Kholokosta i sovremennaia Rossiia’ (Moscow: Fond Kholokost, 1998); Plenum Evreiskogo Antifashistskogo Komiteta Evreiskii narod v bor’be protiv fashizma’ (3-i 1945: Moscow); Evreiskii narod v bor’be protiv fashizma: Materialy II7 antifashistskogo mitinga predstavitelei evreiskogonaroda i III plenuma Evreiskogo Antifashistskogo Komiteta v SSSR (Moscow: Der Emes, 1945).
R.S. Gottlieb, ‘Remembrance and Resistance’, in Resisters, Rescuers, and Refugees: Historical and Ethical Issues, ed. J.J. Michalczyk (Kansas City: Sheed and Ward, 1997), pp. 19–32.
M.R. Marrus, ‘Varieties of Jewish Resistance’, in Major Changes within the Jewish People in the Wake of the Holocaust, Proceedings of the Ninth Yad Vashem International Historical Conference, Jerusalem, June 1993, ed. Y. Gutman (Jerusalem: Yad Vashem, 1996), pp. 269–300.
Ibid., p. 283.
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Rozett, R. (2004). Jewish Resistance. In: Stone, D. (eds) The Historiography of the Holocaust. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230524507_16
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230524507_16
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