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1942 Jews in the Face of the Holocaust: Attitudes and Survival

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1942 Jews in the Face of the Holocaust: Attitudes and Survival JEWS IN THE FACE OF THE subject HOLOCAUST: attitudes and survival strategies Context7. This text addresses primarily the situa- over time, confinement in ghettos and tion of the Jewish population in occupied physical extermination varied greatly. Polish territories, where conditions for its Contrary to popular belief, Jews engaged survival significantly differed from those in in underground activity and adopted var- West European countries. By and large, de- ious forms of resistance, primarily of a civil spite legal restrictions, Jews lived in their own nature, already in the initial months of the war. homes in countries such as the Netherlands, Legal restrictions imposed by the Germans as Denmark, France or Belgium until deportation. well as difficult living conditions in ghettos led They were also considerably more assimilated to organisation of public self-help and healthcare within those societies than Jews in pre-war Polish at the start of the occupation. Clandestine edu- territories. In the General |Government, they were cation was also vital. Jewish political parties and confined to ghettos as of 1940 and subjected to their youth wings as well as scouting organisations various forms of repression. Their lives were sub- resumed their activities. Just like leaders of public ordinated to highly specific regulations limiting organisations, they provided aid to those in need movement, mandating forced labour, or visual dis- and expanded their civil resistance networks. This tinction from the rest of society. Similar limitations mainly occurred in larger cities. The fundamental also existed in other East European countries (oc- role of these networks was to seek and pass on in- cupied by the Germans as of 1941) and the Baltic formation on current events, also on the occupier’s states seized by Germany and also, over a certain actions, as well as on public needs. Over time, they period, in Hungary and the Balkans. Not all coun- also distributed leaflets and underground press. tries can be described here, which is why this issue Through these underground networks it was pos- will be presented using the example of the preva- sible to hide people facing, for example, arrest or lent situation in the GG, where the Jews’ attitudes forced resettlement. Contacts were also main- and survival strategies varied greatly. Such diver- tained between ghettos in various cities. sity stemmed from highly autonomous Jewish social life and its organisation in pre-war Poland One form of the civil resistance of Jews in ghettos that had no similar form in West European coun- was to oppose limitations introduced by the tries. Moreover, Poland had Europe’s largest Jewish Germans. Despite prohibitions, Jews engaged in population, which is why the Germans deported secret schooling as well as cultural and religious life. Jews from other countries and constructed death Artists continued to paint, appeared publicly and camps there to murder them on a mass scale. created literary works. A particular form of Jewish expression was poetry. In the Warsaw ghetto, there Attitudes of Jews in the face of the Nazi policy of were theatres and cabarets. Concerts, frequently limiting their rights, exclusion from social life and, serving charitable causes, were organised in many 1 larger and smaller ghettos. In breach of bans, vital element of ŻZW activity was the elimination collective prayer and religious song concerts took of traitors and Gestapo agents whose actions could place in ghettos on major Jewish holidays. harm not only the civilian population of the ghetto but also all members of the resistance movement. Another form of civil resistance by Jews was ac- ademic and documentation activity. Despite ex- Another significant armed group was the Jewish ceptional difficulties during the occupation, some Combat Organisation, which emerged in the face academics continued their studies and even com- of the Grossaktion (Great Action) of deporting menced new projects. An example is work on Jews from the Warsaw ghetto to the death camp the starvation disease conducted in the Warsaw in Treblinka. Its founding members included ghetto by, among others, Izrael Milejkowski. Par- Mordechaj Anielewicz, Icchak Cukierman, Cywia ticularly noteworthy is the activity of the histori- Lubetkin and Arje Wilner. In addition to the an Emanuel Ringelblum. At his initiative, a secret central branch, field units were also established archive was established in the Warsaw ghetto. It in Bialystok, Krakow, Częstochowa, Sosnowiec functioned under the cryptonym Oneg Szabat, or and Będzin. In the autumn of 1942, members of ‘Saturday joy’ and in 1940–1943 was staffed by ap- the Bund, Poalej Syjon and communists joined. proximately 50–60 people. Its purpose was to doc- Mordechaj ‘Little Angel’ Anielewicz led the ument everyday life, the persecution of Jews, as Warsaw ŻOB, whereas the organisational section well as social, political and underground activity. was headed by Icchak ‘Antek’ Cukierman and the Similar archives, although at a much smaller scale, intelligence unit by Johanan Morgenstern. also appeared in several other ghettos: Bialystok, Kaunas, Lodz and Vilnius. ŻOB activity were carried out under the motto ‘We will not give even a single Jew’. Its members The above actions and all other subsequent forms organised attacks on collaborators and spies, of everyday resistance by Jews changed when the including Józef Szeryński, the Commandant of the stage of their physical extermination began. The Jewish police in the Warsaw Ghetto, Jakub Lejkin, deportation of Jews to death camps accelerated a Jewish policeman – deputy commander of the the formation of armed resistance groups. They Jewish Order Service (Jüdischer Ordnungsdienst) were mainly launched by young people. Symbols and the suspected informer Alfred Nossig. Starting of armed resistance during the Second World War from early 1943, they began to produce weapons. include the Jewish Military Union (Polish acronym Smaller campaigns were also conducted such as ŻZW) and the Jewish Combat Organisation (Polish extracting people from the ghetto or setting fire to acronym ŻOB), both founded in the Warsaw ghetto. workshops and sabotaging them. In order to gain The ŻZW was formed earlier, already in November access to weapons, ŻOB members established 1939 (until 1943 it operated under the name the contact with the Home Army. Until the end of Jewish Military Organisation) by persons involved 1942, only several revolvers were obtained from in the youth organisation Betar and revisionist the Polish armed underground. This is also because Zionists. It was headed by Paweł Frenkel. It is the Polish armed underground at that time did not estimated that the ŻZW had approximately 100 have enough weapons. In January 1943, several members in 1940 and by April 1943 this number dozen weapons, grenades and explosives were doubled. The organisation grouped Jewish officers sent to the ghetto. This was influenced by the and junior officers of the Polish Army as well as resistance of Jewish fighters against the Germans members of the Jewish intelligentsia. Jewish during deportations in mid-January. The effect of Military Union members established cooperation the actions carried out by Jewish underground with the Polish armed underground, including the members was rebellions and uprisings in ghettos, Home Army, i.e. clandestine military structures of e.g. Bialystok, Częstochowa and others. The largest the Polish Underground State. In this manner, they of them, the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, lasted from purchased some of their weapons. Military training 19 April until 16 May 1943. Revolts and insurrections was conducted within the ŻZW with preparations also broke out in several death camps: Treblinka, for armed resistance. Weapons were collected Sobibor and KL Auschwitz II-Birkenau. for that purpose, together with own production of grenades, while bunkers, shelters and transit Noteworthy are attitudes toward the Holocaust and tunnels were built within the Warsaw ghetto. A behaviour on the part of leaders and members of Subject 7. 2 CONTEXT Judenrats and officials of the Jewish Order Service, them. Various prophecies, rumours, hearsay and which still elicit controversy and discussion. Jewish information concerning deportees circulated in leadership elites are charged with frequently ghettos. They spoke of horrible crimes committed excessive subservience to the occupier, passivity by the Germans or confirmed beliefs that there was and discouraging their local residents from nothing to fear. Generally, escapees from death resistance and hiding on what was called the Aryan camps returning to ghettos were not believed side. Most criticism is directed against officials or were considered mad with their accounts of the Jewish Order Service, who are accused of considered to be merely ‘harmful gossip’. assisting the Germans in deportation of Jews to death camps. Some Jews decided to serve in the Even more diverse were Jewish reactions to police in the belief that this would allow them and deportation. Most obeyed German orders and were their families to survive. This was nevertheless a willingly transported in the hope that they would short-term perspective, because many of them met survive that way. Yet some attempted to escape. It the same fate after deportations were completed. is not known exactly how many people decided It is nevertheless difficult to assess the degree to to escape during the liquidation of ghettos. This which they were aware of this fact when deciding
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