Jewish resistance during the Holocaust
In the Netherlands the only pre-war group that immediately started resistance against the German occupation was the communist party. During the first two war years it was by far the biggest resistance organisation, much bigger than all other organisations together. A major act of resistance was the organisation of the February strike in 1941 in protest against anti-Jewish measures. In this resistance many Jews participated. Within the underground communist party a militant group was formed: de Nederlandse Volksmilitie (NVM, Dutch Peoples Militia). The leader was the Jewish Sally (Samuel) Dormits, who had military experience from guerrilla in Brazil and participation in the Spanish civil war. This organisation was formed in first instance in The Hague but became mainly located in Rotterdam. It counted more about 200 mainly Jewish participants. They made for instance several bomb attacks on German trains with troops and arson attacks on cinemas, which all were forbidden for Jews. Sally Dormits was caught after stealing a handbag of a woman in order to obtain an identification card for his Jewish girl friend, who also participated in the resistance. Dormits committed suicide in the police station by shooting himself through the head. From a cash ticket of a shop the police could find the hiding place of Dormits and the police discovered bombs, arson material, illegal papers, reports about resistance actions and a list of participants. The GESTAPO was warned immediately and the day two hundred people were arrested and in the following months many more connected people of the communist resistance in Rotterdam, The Hague and Amsterdam were arrested. The Dutch police participated in torturing the Jewish communists. After a trial more than 20 were shot to death, the most others died in concentration camps or were gassed in Auschwitz, only a few survived. The war grave of Dormits has recently been destroyed by municipal authorities in Rotterdam.
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Organizations
- American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee
- Antyfaszystowska Organizacja Bojowa
- Betar
- Fareinigte Partizaner Organizacje
- HaShomer HaTzair
- Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee
- Zionist youth movement
- Żydowska Organizacja Bojowa
- Zydowski Zwiazek Walki
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Jewish resistance fighters
- Mordechaj Anielewicz
- Dawid Apfelbaum
- Yitzhak Arad
- Herbert Baum
- Bielski partisans
- Masha Bruskina
- Eugenio Calò
- Franco Cesana
- Icchak Cukierman
- Szymon Datner
- Marek Edelman
- Abba Kovner
- Zivia Lubetkin
- Dov Lopatyn
- Moše Pijade
- Haviva Reik
- Hannah Szenes
- Dawid Wdowiński
- Shalom Yoran
- Simcha Zorin
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See also
- Anti-fascism
- History of the Jews during World War II
- Jewish Brigade
- Resistance during World War II
- Rosenstrasse protest
- Special Interrogation Group (SIG)
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External links
- “Jewish Resistance: A Working Bibliography.” The Miles Lerman Center for the Study of Jewish Resistance. Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Washington, DC. PDF version available here
- Jewish Resistance During the Holocaust from Holocaust Remembrance Network
- About the Holocaust
- Jewish Partisan Educational Foundation
- Jewish Partisan Group Near Vilna
- Kurzbiographien
- Partisan Rachel Rudnitzky After Liberation
- Partisans in Vilna
- Partisans of Vilna
- Rozka Korczak & Abba Kovner with members of the United Partisan Organization (FPO)
- Vilna Partisans
- Interviews from the Underground: Eyewitness accounts of Russia's Jewish resistance during World War IIdocumentary film and website
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum - Armed Jewish Resistance: Partisans
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Notes and references
- ^ Gilbert, Martin. The Holocaust: The Jewish Tragedy. London: St Edmundsbury Press 1986
- ^ Ruby Rohrlich, ed. Resisting the Holocaust. Oxford and New York: Berg Publishers, 1998.
- ^ Theodore S. Hamerow. On the Road to the Wolfs Lair: German Resistance to Hitler. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1997
- ^ See, e.g., Herbert Lindenberger. Heroic Or Foolish? The 1942 Bombing of a Nazi Anti-Soviet Exhibit. Telos. 135 (Summer 2006):127–154.
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