Antisemitism in the Partisans

R ECOMMENDED FOR Study Guide: H IGH SC H OOL STUDENTS Antisemitism in the Partisans Edited in Consultation with Dr. Michael Berenbaum www.jewishpartisans.org Throughout German-occupied Europe during a matter of blood and genetics, not religious World War II, approximately 30,000 Jewish men identity. Being Jewish was considered a genetic and women fought as partisans. While some defect, not something learned or professed but fought as part of non-Jewish groups, others biological reality. And the Jews were considered formed their own Jewish partisan units. But no a cancer among German society. For Hitler and matter where or within which organizations, all many of his followers, Jews were considered Jewish partisans shared a common vision—to subhuman, and their destruction was not only fight the Nazis and their collaborators and deemed desirable, but necessary for the health to forestall what they feared would be the of the German nation. Under Hitler, in short, obliteration of all European Jewry. Christian religious antisemitism and secular political antisemitism were transformed into racial Like all guerrilla fighters, antisemitism. the Jewish partisans faced the difficult challenges of To better understand the antisemitism Jewish securing food, weapons and partisans faced, it’s important to understand shelter, while surviving enemy the different forms antisemitism took in different attacks. Unlike non-Jewish parts of Europe. It’s also important to consider combatants, though, the Jewish the obstacles Jewish partisans faced just because partisans also had to contend they were Jews as well as the triumphs they with pervasive antisemitism: achieved despite tremendous odds against them. hatred directed at them because they were Jews. Unlike classical guerrilla fighters, they IN THE WEST The strong antisemitic propaganda could not find safety within the local population, By the end of the nineteenth century, the Jews the Nazis used, as shown in this even under occupation. 1943 rally in Berlin, played upon of Western Europe (including Germany), Greece years of antisemitic feelings many and Italy had been granted civil and political people had. The Nazi anti-Jewish Antisemitism had a long-standing presence in rhetoric spread beyond Germany Europe. During the Middle Ages, for example, rights equal to their Christian neighbors. and affected populations, especially Metaphorically and actually, the walls of the in eastern Europe, where Jewish Jews were accused of being Christ-killers, child partisans had tremendous difficulty murderers, well-poisoners, the devil’s helpers or ghetto had come down. This emancipation paved with both locals and fellow the road for assimilation, allowing many Jews to partisans. USHMM Archive. devils themselves. Reviled and disdained, Jews in many countries were confined to ghettos and succeed in numerous professions. Such Jews had forced to wear specially marked clothes—patterns solid grounds for believing that in their regions of of oppression the Nazis would build on centuries Europe, at least, antisemitism was a thing of the later. Jews had even been excluded from certain past. professions and expelled from the countries they In part, this assimilation explains how the Jews lived in simply for being Jewish. of Western Europe were able to blend fairly easily While Jews had experienced antisemitism on into resistance networks: the Maquis (underground) and off for centuries, the kind of antisemitism in France, Liberty and Justice in Italy, and the introduced by the Nazis was radically different Fighting Squads in Holland. But while Jews fought than its previous forms. In Christian Europe, for alongside non-Jews in each of these partisan the most part, Jews were allowed to convert to groups, the painful history of antisemitism had Christianity; that is, while Judaism was despised taught them to be careful in their dealings with and Jews were mistreated, if and when they non-Jews both within and outside the organization. converted, they could be accepted as Christians. As a Greek Jewish partisan recalled, it was best By contrast, Nazi antisemitism allowed no “not to tell we were Jewish.” It was helpful, too, “to appear Christian” by attending church, as he Conforms to Common Core Standards possible escape for Jews. Being Jewish was jewishpartisans.org/standards explained, “If we didn’t do that [the villagers] 1 would not give us any food or the information we In sum, Jewish partisans in Western Europe faced needed.” antisemitic attitudes, but those attitudes tended to be held in check by a variety of forces: by the According to Jewish partisan Bernard Musmund, need for secrecy, by organizational demands, the same caution applied to French partisans. and ironically, by antisemitic beliefs themselves. Before joining the Maquis, Musmund created The emancipation of Jews in Western Europe fake identification and ration cards; after joining, translated into their being somewhat more he was armed. As he describes it, though, he accepted within non-Jewish partisan units. “never met any antisemitism in the underground.” Jewish fighters within the partisan units, even That said, secrecy was of utmost importance to as they fought on behalf of Jewish survival, the partisans, and “nobody discussed personal were often required to hide their Jewishness business.” As Musmund explained, “The less you or it was ‘kindly’ overlooked. IN EASTERN EUROPE Under ordinary circumstances in the world of partisans, the enemy of your enemy is an ally. Thus, one would have imagined that all partisan groups would have cooperated and that partisans would have worked with each other. They would have been drawn together and cooperated with one another because of their common bond— the hatred of German-occupation. But in Eastern Europe, the condition of Jews was far from ordinary. In Eastern Europe, Jews had been a historically hated minority, and religious antisemitism was common. “It was taken for granted,” explained Simon Trakinski, a Jewish partisan from the city of Vilna. “The Catholic Church where I grew up used to remind their parishioners that the Jews killed Jesus. It was a way of life.” Ben Kamm A Jew being threatened by a Polish knew about somebody and the less they knew added, “I went to school with 98% Polish kids partisan. Date unknown. Source: about you, the better.” In other words, while Ghetto Fighters House Archive. and two Jews. We were abused every single day. antisemitic attitudes may have been common ‘Dirty Jew, lousy Jew,’ every single day we had to among non-Jewish French partisans, there was fight.” little opportunity for the French Jewish partisans to find out. In general, the Jews of Eastern Europe were far Additional Resources on Antisemitism in the Partisans less assimilated than their Western European As a member of the Italian partisans, Harry Burger t counterparts, frequently living as second-class explained that hiding his Jewish identity was Take the Antisemitism in the Partisans citizens apart from their Christian neighbors. The video course: aided by the fact that mountain villagers had little average Jew differed from his or her non-Jewish www.jewishpartisans.org/elearning interaction with Jews. “They didn’t know about neighbors in religion, dress, looks, occupation, Jews,” Burger said, explaining that, “In their eyes we t language and accent. Many Jewish men were wore red horns and a big tail. They didn’t know Watch the Antisemitism in the orthodox, sporting beards and sidelocks, black Partisans short film: that we’re normal.” The villagers’ antisemitic caftans and hats. And most Jews spoke Yiddish, www.jewishpartisans.org/films attitudes, in other words, blinded them to Burger’s a language rooted in old German. Moreover, the Jewishness. Burger’s commander, by contrast, t Jews of Eastern Europe were far more populous knew that Burger was Jewish, but didn’t care. As Download additional JPEF lessons, than were the Jews of Western Europe. Eight study guides, and other materials: the Viennese-born Burger explained, “My boss million of the roughly eleven million Jews of www.jewishpartisans.org/resist always said: ‘He’s Jewish, but that’s okay because Europe lived in Poland and the Soviet Union alone. he shoots.’” The partisan commander may well With one in ten citizens having Jewish ancestry, have preferred not to have Jews in his outfit, but Poland had the highest concentration of Jews the need for fighters outstripped any antisemitic in all of Europe. leanings. 2 While violence against Jews in Eastern Europe uncommon, for example, for non-Jews, with the was not uncommon, before the onset of WWII encouragement of the Germans, to go on ‘Jew antisemitism was most often expressed systemically. hunts,’ seeking out Jews who had escaped from the For example, in the second Polish Republic, which ghettos or were ‘passing’ as Aryans. A report to the existed between the two World Wars, Jews were not Polish government in exile explained that, “A Pole allowed to hold government jobs after 1919 when who turns up with a captured Jew is first ordered these positions were nationalized. In the same year, to dig a grave for him. Immediately after his all 6000 Jews who worked in the lumber industry luckless victim is executed, he receives an award were expelled from these positions. Quotas limited of 200 zlotys and the clothes and shoes of the Jewish enrollment at universities, where those Jews deceased.” As the war progressed, such incentives who were admitted had to occupy the back benches grew more and more attractive. According to of the classrooms. And while making up only 10% Simon Trakinski, “If a non-Jew would turn a Jew over to the Nazis, they would give them 50 pounds of salt or 10 liters of kerosene,” both much-needed and hard-to-come-by supplies. The short film, Fighting on Three Fronts: Antisemitism in the Partisans, There are, of course, numerous examples of narrated by Larry King, was produced as an educational tool to non-Jews who not only helped Jews, but saved accompany this study guide.

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