Ruby Rohrlich, ed.. Resisting the Holocaust. Oxford and New York: Berg Publishers, 1998. 264 pp. $65.00, cloth, ISBN 978-1-85973-216-8. Reviewed by Stan Nadel Published on H-Holocaust (July, 1999) It is the contention of the editor and some of ing the definition to be used for this volume, her the contributors to this fne collection that "resis‐ introductory remarks and the substance of the tance" to the Holocaust is a topic that has been se‐ following essays clearly come down towards the verely neglected. This contention is hard to con‐ active resistance end of the spectrum. Rohrlich is tradict at a time when it is reported that one of particularly concerned to counter the assumption the few older works on the subject, Reuben Ainsz‐ that resistance to the Holocaust was a male activi‐ tain's Encyclopedia of the Jewish Resistance, has ty, which she does effectively through brief de‐ been deaccessioned by the Cleveland Public li‐ scriptions of the heroic activities of "little Wanda" braries. So, let it be said up front that this is an Teitelboim, Mala Zimetbaum, and Germaine Ri‐ important work, one that will help considerably biere. She points out that resistance was often col‐ in countering that historical neglect--or will if it is lective, and in the cases of the Bulgarians, the Ital‐ added to library collections. Like any collection of ians, and the Danes the collectivity apparently in‐ works by a variety of authors and with a wide volved the majority of their populations. Having range of foci, the parts of this book vary signifi‐ laid out the parameters of the problem, Rohrlich cantly in both quality and interest. But, the quali‐ briefly summarizes each chapter and lets the ty is mostly high and the topics are generally of reader get on with the essays. compelling interest. In the frst of these, Martin Cohen explores Ruby Rohrlich introduces the book with a the issue of "Jewish Ambivalence and Antipathy to consideration of the concept of "resistance," the History of Resistance." Pointing out that well which she reports has been defined in various over one and a half million Jews carried arms ways to cover everything from armed struggle against the Nazis, Cohen explores the reasons why against the Nazis to anything done by Jews to sur‐ the predominant image of the Holocaust is one of vive--and even to any humane actions by non- passive Jews being slaughtered by Nazis, with Jews towards Jews. While never explicitly resolv‐ only the rare righteous gentile standing between H-Net Reviews helpless Jews and total extermination. Cohen at‐ learned about their plans. Learning of their exis‐ tributes this frst of all to the historical image of tence and seeking to head off a repetition of the the Jew as victim. Members of a small minority recent Warsaw ghetto uprising, the Gestapo de‐ widely dispersed among an often hostile Christian manded that the Ghetto leaders turn over the majority, without a state or military of their own commander of the partisans, Yitzhak Wittenberg. and often prohibited from carrying arms, the Cutting through the confusion piled around this Jews of Europe had frequently been victimized incident by several different fctional and histori‐ and their easily overwhelmed efforts at resistance cal accounts, Sterling explores the moral and po‐ had been forgotten. By the nineteenth century, litical dilemmas faced by the ghetto and resis‐ even many Jews had come to see themselves as tance leaders. Jacob Gens, the Judenrat leader in non-violent, an image which lives on in the Holo‐ Vilna, was no Rumkowsky and may even have caust histories of scholars like Raul Hilberg. What been sympathetic to the resistance. But, faced was sometimes a necessary condition of survival with a German threat to liquidate the ghetto im‐ was raised to the status of a virtue--a sign of supe‐ mediately if Wittenberg wasn't produced, Gens rior Jewish morality rather than just weakness. helped the Gestapo arrest Wittenberg. Before the Cohen cites a former partisan who reported arrest was completed, Wittenberg was rescued by social pressure to silence his memories: "The resistance fghters. But that just spread Gens' world started looking at Jews as martyrs. And dilemma to others. Gens announced that the Ger‐ here comes a Jew who says he fought. That's not mans were going to destroy the ghetto and kill ev‐ good. No one wanted to talk to me at all. Because I eryone if Wittenberg wasn't turned over, and the killed." Then too, Cohen suggests that the defini‐ panicked populace demanded that the resistance tion of resistance has often been set higher for turn Wittenberg in. With recent reports indicating Jews than for others. When a tiny minority of the that Soviet forces were on the move west, the French organized a resistance which focused hope that non-resistance would keep the ghetto more on propaganda, raising morale and prepar‐ going till rescue arrived was widespread, and a ing an organization ready to rise at an opportune popular fury was unleashed on the resistance for moment than on armed struggle, that resistance apparently endangering everyone's survival. was raised to the level of a national myth. But, Faced with a choice between turning Witten‐ similar Jewish activities in the ghettos of Nazi Eu‐ berg in and having to fght against their own peo‐ rope have been denied the status of resistance un‐ ple, the leaders of the resistance voted to turn less they actually engaged in relatively large-scale Wittenberg in. Although fction has Wittenberg battles with their oppressors. sacrificing himself for the cause, Wittenberg in Nor did former partisans living in Cold War fact went into hiding from his own organization America feel safe in openly proclaiming their par‐ as well as the authorities. Only when he was ticipation in the activities of the Red Army, con‐ caught was he turned over to the Gestapo, predict‐ tributing further to American ignorance of the ing accurately that the resistance plans wouldn't Jewish partisans. It was a combination of these survive his betrayal. Afterwards, the resistance factors, Cohen argues, which led to the minimiza‐ fighters gave up the planned uprising and mass tion and near forgetting of the Jewish resistance. escape, feeing to the forests and abandoning the people who had pressured them into turning their Eric Sterling explores a fascinating incident leader over to the Gestapo torturers. Gens and his which took place in Vilna. An armed resistance associates were all killed when the ghetto was liq‐ organization had been formed there and was pre‐ uidated two months later. paring for an uprising in 1943 when the Gestapo 2 H-Net Reviews While the story has been told before, it is Ster‐ of resistance to actually enact it. As he does so, he ling's sensitive readings of the practical and moral enhances the readers understanding of both dilemmas faced by Gens, Wittenberg, the resis‐ Levi's writings and his experience of the Holo‐ tance command, and others which makes this an caust. And he does so in a way which is convinc‐ outstanding account. ing even to this historian, who rarely fnds liter‐ In her chapter, Nechama Tec briefly recapitu‐ ary analysis historically convincing. lates the story and the analysis from her book on In the next chapter, Ami Neiberger explores the Bielski partisans, "the largest armed rescue of the formation of social groups in Auschwitz--the Jews by Jews in Nazi occupied Europe" (p. 89).[1] ways in which real and fctive family ties were the While she adds little to what she has already pub‐ basis of groups that helped their members main‐ lished, the chapter is a well written and sharply tain their humanity and survive. Based on numer‐ argued introduction to her longer work and plays ous interviews with survivors, the study shows a strong role in strengthening the current volume. convincingly that the formation and maintenance Tec provides a close analysis of the patterns of so‐ of these groups was an important form of resis‐ cial differentiation, which developed in the parti‐ tance in the death camps. Not in the sense of over‐ san movement in general, Jewish partisan units, throwing the camp regime or leading to inmate and the Bielski detachment in particular (and escapes, but because it frustrated the purpose of does so without any of the intrusive jargon which the camps simply by helping the inmates survive. often detracts from sociological studies). Her anal‐ Neiberger's data is drawn solely from interviews ysis of the experience of women among Russian with women survivors and women's memoirs, so and Jewish partisan units provides a telling refu‐ her analysis may well apply only to the women's tation of those who have accused those writing camp. If so, we have another indication of the im‐ about women in the Holocaust of dragging trendy portance of gender in understanding the experi‐ irrelevancies into Holocaust studies. ence of the Holocaust. But, far from making a This theme is extended in the next chapter by feminist issue out of this, Neiberger fails to ex‐ Judith Tydor Baumel, "The 'Parachutist's Mission' plore the implications of her materials. In a way from a Gender Perspective. Exploring on an Is‐ that's a shame, but the chapter remains valuable raeli national myth, the story of the nearly forty in its own terms. parachutists from Jewish Palestine dropped into In his chapter "Protest and Silence," Nathan Nazi occupied Europe, she focuses on the three Stoltzfus returns to ground he covered at greater women among them and on how both their expe‐ length in his Resistance of the Heart: The Rosen‐ rience and their story were shaped and distorted strasse Protest and Intermarriage in Nazi Ger‐ by political ideology and gender stereotypes.