Study Guide Living and Surviving As a Partisan
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Study Guide Living and Surviving as a Partisan “It was a full-time job to stay alive.” —Eta Wrobel, Jewish partisan LIVING AND SURVIVING AS A of the partisan units. Jews also joined the French PARTISAN resistance, known as the Maquis, and fought alongside resisters in Greece and Italy. During World War II, an estimated 20,000 to Jewish partisans faced numerous obstacles. The 30,000 Jewish men and women fought back German army occupied much of Europe and local against the Germans, in military style units. They police forces were under their control. What’s established secret encampments ARTISAN more, enemies of the Nazis were not necessarily P : A member of an organized deep in the forests and mountains body of fighters who attack and harass the friends of the Jews. Hatred or dislike of Jews was and hid beneath straw in barns enemy, especially within enemy territory. widespread, especially in rural areas of Eastern provided by friendly farmers. They Europe. Looks or accent sometimes made it scrounged for food to eat and clothes and fuel to difficult for Jews to blend in. Jewish men, unlike keep them warm in the brutal Polish and Russian their non-Jewish male counterparts, were winters or the cold and wet climates farther west. circumcised and therefore could be easily Despite these hardships, they found ways to hit identified. Many villages harbored Nazi back at their would-be killers, interrupting food sympathizers. Turning in a Jew could earn a deliveries, sabotaging power plants and factories, villager a bag of sugar or a bottle of vodka. Some and blowing up enemy trains. collaborators hated Jews so much they did not bother to collect their bonuses, shooting them on sight. Even in their own partisan units, Jewish partisans were often forced to conceal their Jewish identity lest they be subject to the antisemitism of their partisan comrades. Because of these dangers, Jewish partisans sometimes chose to form all-Jewish resistance units. FOOD Of all the challenges faced by commanders of partisan units, perhaps the greatest was feeding their fighters. Finding food depended on many factors: the proximity of friendly locals, the geography and nature of the country, the size of the partisan unit. Despite wartime shortages, in (1) The Search for Food. Sketch by These brave men and women were partisans, areas free from direct German rule, sympathetic Italian Jewish partisan Eugenio Jewish partisans. Most were civilians. Many were Gentili Tedeschi, 1944. Jewish townspeople and farmers could be relied upon to Partisan Educational Foundation young, and many had left their homes behind. supply partisans with food and other necessities. Archives. Being young freed them from the responsibilities In areas under German control and unsympathetic that tormented those with small children or farmers, the search for food could end in death. elderly parents in the besieged ghettoes. Their struggle to survive against an enemy whose goal To procure food, partisans sometimes had to was to wipe them from the face of the earth is a resort to force. "The friendly Polish peasant little-known part of Holocaust history. provided food for us – and the unfriendly Polish peasant provided food for us as well," recalled Jewish partisans could be found in every Nazi- Mira Shelub. Mira was seventeen when she and occupied country in Europe. Most joined existing her sister escaped to the forests to join the non-Jewish partisan groups. In Lithuania, for partisans. "When unfriendly villagers prepared example, Jews made up approximately ten percent food for the German occupiers, we took the food 1 and left a receipt. The receipt said: ‘The partisans The shopkeeper subsequently turned down were here.’" Blaichman’s offer of payment. Another source of food were storehouses hurriedly abandoned by Germans in the wake of defeat. But THE SKY ABOVE, THE GROUND this, too, brought its share of danger. "The BELOW Germans left mines and hidden bombs behind when they retreated," remembered Leon Idas, a In constant fear of discovery, partisans were Greek-born Jewish partisan. "We saw a nice meal always on the move. Eastern Europe’s vast and in front of us, and we were hungry, but couldn’t dense forests seemed to have been specifically touch it." designed for partisan fighting, and many Jewish partisans, local to the area, knew these forests In order to survive, many Jewish intimately. The Germans did not, and avoided partisans put aside traditional them whenever possible; they could get lost, be dietary restrictions. Gertrude surrounded, killed. Boyarski found herself doing exactly that after six days of The forests also concealed family camps where eating only snow with 14 other Jewish escapees from camps or ghettos -- many partisans. "We found some of whom were too young or too old to fight -- potato peels with worms in hoped to wait out the war, sometimes shielded by them, and the head of a pig. We Jewish fighting groups and their allies. shared this between us. And I Establishing a camp was no easy task. Location was crying as I was eating it, was all-important, as was the size of the unit. but we had gone days without Partisan camps had to be remote, yet close food. It was a treasure." enough to a village or town to secure the As the war ground on, some necessities of life. Some partisan units were small, partisan groups began receiving numbering dozens; others ran into the thousands. much-needed supplies. In Still, large or small, all faced the problems of Eastern Europe, the Soviet providing life’s basic necessities, food and shelter, government supplied Russian to say nothing of protection from the Nazi and Polish partisans from the hunters. sky, airdropping ammunition, counterfeit money – (2) Jewish partisans in front of their In the larger units, everyone had a specific task. shelter in the forest, 1944. Courtesy and occasionally vodka and chocolate! The British of USHMM and Beit Lahamei Some foraged for food, some did the cooking, did the same for the Greek and Italian partisans in Haghettaot. others stood guard or went on fighting missions. the Mediterranean theater of war. There were bakers, weapon cleaners, tailors, and Most partisan groups, however, were quite cut off shoemakers. The bakers and cooks needed from the world, and the difficulty of feeding their firewood year-round. Large stores of firewood had troops was a constant problem for the to be laid in for warmth in winter. Both were jobs commanders. A case in point was the all-Jewish for the wood gatherers. In the quest for survival, partisan unit led by Frank Blaichman. When no skill or talent was left untapped. entering a village store or farmhouse in search of In summer, warm weather allowed partisan food, Blaichman and his men could not have been groups in Eastern Europe to survive with minimal more courteous. But sometimes courtesy wasn’t shelter. "The trees, the sky, the pine needle ground enough, and where courtesy failed, the threat of were our summer home," recalled Mira Shelub. force would succeed. Blaichman recalled, "We went into a Polish grocery, we were polite, we In France, Italy and Greece, three factors greatly said ‘Good evening.’ Please, we would like to buy helped the partisans in their search for food and bread, butter, some chicken.’ They chased us away shelter: the climate was temperate, the local with axes and pitchforks…. Later, when we population tended to be more sympathetic to acquired firearms we returned. We did not point their cause, and antisemitism was less them at anyone, but they could see we were pronounced. armed. They said ‘Gentlemen, how can we help you? – Suddenly we were ‘gentlemen’". Winter, however, showed an altogether different face. Freezing cold temperatures held sway in much of Europe. Add to the threat of death by 2 German bullet, the threat of death from exposure. own footwear by wrapping their bare feet in Questions & Yet partisans found a way to cope. From their strips of cloth and soaking their swaddled feet in Exercises Russian counterparts, they learned to build water until their "boots" froze solid. underground bunkers called zemlyankas, a What clothes partisans possessed often were 1. Throughout the forests and Russian word meaning "dugout". Zemlyankas took swamps of Eastern Europe, Red reduced to rags through constant wear. Any many forms – some even held small stoves – but Army soldiers who had escaped opportunity to score a coat, heavy boots — all were thoroughly camouflaged on the outside. from Nazi captivity formed anything with fur to keep out the cold — was fair (See photo 5) The zemlyankas were key to partisan units supported by the game. If villagers or farmers proved Russian government. Jewish partisan survival in the winter months. Mira, the uncooperative, the partisans "organized", that is, partisans, many of whom had seventeen-year-old partisan, spent her first winter stole, the warm clothes they needed, at gunpoint, escaped from the ghettos, were in such an underground hut, calling it "our winter not soldiers but untrained if necessary. Sometimes clothing was taken from home." civilians surrounded by a hostile the corpses of fallen comrades in local population. What special arms. Enemy dead likewise might obstacles did Jewish partisans yield winter coats and boots. need to overcome in order to German uniforms were especially survive? highly prized trophies: they were What did all partisans need to warm and served as disguises for have in order to survive? Was future missions. A single item of there any difference between Jewish partisans and all other clothing could make a world of partisans fighting the Nazi's? difference, like the wool blanket Was the struggle for survival Greek partisan Leon Idas found any different for Jewish after a successful skirmish with partisans? How? German soldiers.