Study Guide V6.Qxp

Jewish Partisan Educational Foundation Study Guide

The Jewish Partisans from mining train tracks, partisans sabotaged communications lines, exploded Nazi-controlled Between 20,000 and 30,0001 Jews escaped the farms and power plants, and successfully rescued ghettoes and work camps of Nazi-occupied scores of other Jews still imprisoned in ghettoes Europe, fleeing to the forests for shelter where and camps. they formed groups and fought back against the Nazis and their collaborators. These brave Jews Many Jewish Partisans fought alongside local are known as the Jewish Partisans. groups also resisting the Nazi occupation. Making themselves known to other groups held many It is important to note that for most victims of risks, however, as anti-Semitism was widespread the Holocaust, the chance to escape and join the in the rural areas where Jewish Partisans hid and partisans never came. Only very few Jews had the carried out their missions. Many thousands of means and the opportunity to escape, and even Russian soldiers, trapped in Eastern Europe after then, the choice was difficult. Most of these Hitler invaded Poland, escaped and formed partisan young people were their families’ lifelines for groups. These Russian partisan groups greatly survival in the ghettoes and aided many Jewish Partisans in their struggle camps, smuggling in available to fight and survive in the forests. Among the food and information Russians, however, there was also anti-Semitism. whenever possible. The Nazis and their collaborators also Though people of all ages became Jewish used a method called Partisans, many were very young. Children as Collective Responsibility to young as nine years old fought, and many Jewish deter Jews from escaping the Partisans were between the ages of 17 and 25. ghettos and camps. Collective Most commonly, men and boys carried out all Responsibility meant that for partisan missions, although in some camps, girls each person who escaped, 10 and women worked and fought alongside them. to 25 remaining people would Here is one Jewish Partisan’s story: be killed or executed, beginn- ing with the escapee’s family. Sonia Orbuch was born Sarah Shainwald in Luboml, Poland, a town of 8,000 in Eastern Poland. Daily survival in the forests was very difficult. Exposure In 1941, German troops marched into the village. and starvation posed as great Sarah and her family were forced into the ghetto a threat to the average along with all the other Jewish members of the partisan as did discovery by a community. From the ghetto, they escaped to the Nazi patrol. Shelter was a surrounding forest, where they survived in small dugout in the ground. freezing temperatures for months. (1) Ruben, Ainsztein, Jewish Adequate clothing and food were scarce. The Resistance in Nazi-Occupied Europe, winter months meant enduring freezing tempera- With the help of a sympathetic local peasant, (New York: Barnes and Noble, 1974) tures, but welcoming snow, as it masked the they made contact with a nearby Russian partisan smoke from a campfire. group. With no weapons or training, their best hope of acceptance was Sarah’s uncle, a trained In the face of these challenges to survival, which scout with life-long knowledge of the surrounding often meant risking death to seek or steal food terrain. The partisans accepted the family, and from local villages, the Jewish Partisans organized they joined a few other Jews in the forest encamp- to sabotage and resist the Nazis. Their missions, ment that served as a base for missions of carried out in military-style units, were very sabotage and resistance. successful in destroying thousands of trains. Apart

1 Understanding the Jewish More Information Partisans’ Story on the Jewish Partisans The following are questions to help you reflect The Jewish Partisan on the Jewish Partisans’ story. Educational Foundation recommends these 1. With no reliable source of information, many resources for further Jewish Partisans faced terrible dilemmas, such information. as the decision to leave family members behind to escape to the forest. In the terror and uncertainty of war, this meant they might Books never see their families again, and because of The Defiant Sarah, renamed Sonia by the partisans, carried out Collective Responsibility, their escape could by Shalom Yoran missions mining train tracks and stood guard on cause the deaths of their loved ones. Yet, Uncle Misha’s Partisans the camp perimeter. Her daily duties also included escape might mean a chance at survival. Write by Yuri Suhl your thoughts on this dilemma. dressing the wounds of partisans returning from Defiance battle, with whatever supplies were at hand. 2. Jewish Partisans committed thousands of acts by Nechama Tec Sonia speaks of carrying two grenades with her of sabotage and resistance and rescued scores at all times as a partisan, so that she would have of Jews still imprisoned by the Nazis. This is Films another example of a difficult choice some one for the enemy and one for herself if captured Come and See, a film partisans faced, who lived near ghettos. What by the Nazis. about Russian partisans. is more important: sabotaging the Nazis and Available for rental in some In 1944, Sonia and her parents left the partisans slowing down their operations, or rescuing independent video stores, rather than join the Red Army. They took refuge Jews still imprisoned in ghettos and camps? If and available in VHS and in an abandoned house, which they did not know partisans concentrated on resistance, the Nazis DVD through Amazon.com. was infected with typhus. Sonia’s mother soon might be more quickly defeated, making all The Partisans of Vilna, died, leaving only Sonia and her father. Jews safer. If partisans concentrated on rescue, a film by Aviva Kempner. more Jews might be safe in the forests, but Sonia reflects on her life as a partisan in this way: Available for rental in VHS, there was still no guarantee of their survival. This is the price we paid, but we paid it gladly... in some independent video Write your thoughts on this dilemma. stores. we did it with pride and with hope that the future world will know that there is such a thing as 3. The story of the Jewish Partisans is different Resistance: Untold Stories fighting... that you could stand up and do from other stories of the Jewish experience of the Jewish Partisans, available for purchase whatever you can.” during the Holocaust. In what ways is it through PBS.org. Future different? Does hearing the story of the Jewish Sonia came to the United States, and now resides screening on PBS stations Partisans change your view of Jews during the in Northern California. In 2000 she nominated planned in the near future. Holocaust? Why? Tichon, the peasant who helped her family, as a Righteous Among The Nations, an honor conferred Web Sites on him by the Yad Vashem Memorial Center in Israel. www.jewishpartisans.org http://www.ushmm.org/ outreach/jpart.html

For more information please contact: Jewish Partisan Educational Foundation 2107 Van Ness Avenue Suite 302 San Francisco, CA 94109 415-563-2244 (tel) 415-563-2442 (fax) [email protected]