The Different Forms Of Jewish Resistance To The Holocaust

There are many different views on Jewish resistance during the holocaust. The two main opposing ideas being that there was no resistance from the Jews and the latter being that Jews did resist Nazi rule and in turn their slaughter. The main argument is the question of what is resistance which is the main problem in trying to understand or pin point the historiography of Jewish resistance. In trying to understand the Jewish historiography of resistance, this essay will start by defining the different forms of resistance as so mentioned in Michael Marrus’s Jewish Resistance to the Holocaust. This essay will also talk about the different spheres where resistance took place and the different movements that were formed in response to the forceful Nazi take over or rule.
It is said by many historians that there are
It requires the creation of widespread and operative resistance networks takes time and as Marrus noted: “Almost invariably, Jews lacked time, which is one reason why so much of their resistance activity never extended beyond the symbolic or the polemic” (1995). Resistance that involves military operations and could be started by an individual or a group of people, including those operating underground, is called offensive resistance. It is said that those who took to offensive resistance also organized protests and wrote literature that doesn’t support Nazi rule while also taking others to safety secretly. Another form of resistance is called enchained which is brought about by people who had very little hope of surviving their horrible living conditions. A very obvious example is that of the Warsaw ghetto uprising. They were fighting for honor and preservation of the Jewish culture and population. However one chooses to define resistance, it is clear that Jews did resist Nazi rule as best as they could under the