References
(1) Bergen Doris “War and Genocide” Roman & Littlefield 2016
This source discusses the challenges faced during the resistance movement. If one became part of an armed resistance group. That individual could expect their family to be slated for early killing or their entire village to be wiped out in retaliation. The author claims that due to this armed resistance a very complicated issue for Jews. Despite this though the Jewish resistance did pull off some high-profile acts against the German’s, who retaliated with brutal reprisals and mass killings.
This source is relevant although it does not discuss the armed resistance in detail, it provided some important details about challenges that they faced; when trying to resist. The act of reprisals discouraged some from resisting the Germans, for fear it would lead to the immediate death of their families. These facts / pieces help fill in gaps in the picture of the armed resistance movement.
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(2) Králová, KateÅ™ina. “‘Being Traitors’: Post-War Greece in the Experience of Jewish Partisans.” Journal of Southeast European & Black Sea Studies, vol. 17, no. 2, June 2017, pp. 263–280. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1080/14683857.2017.1324277.
This source was a very intriguing source as it talks about Jewish partisans who were persecuted after the war in their own country. The key claims made by this source are that Jewish partisans who joined active Greek or leftist partisan units, were eventually entangled in the ensuing struggle inside Greece at the end of world war II. Whether or not these people actively planned to participate in leftist revolutionary movements against the Greek government, became a key issue according to the source. This led to the Greek government to take harsh action against Jewish partisans, who had just finished fighting the Germans for Greece.
The relevance of this source is significant although it does not directly discuss active resistance. It helps paint a very descriptive picture of the challenges that these individuals would face after the war was over, in non-Soviet occupied countries. This is important to discuss as the focus of this while on armed resistance, is about the lives of the partisans during and immediately after. How did their relationship with their own independent or other partisan units affect their struggle after the war?
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(3) Frantisek R. Kraus “But Lidice Is in Europe” Council of Jewish Communities in the Czech Lands. 1965
This source is quite interesting as it describes the German massacre at Lidice in retaliation for the assassination of Reinhard Hydrich who was assassinated by partisans on May 27th 1942. It describes in detail the Germans execution of reprisals and the subsequent massacre that would take place. This offers a new dimension to partisan activities and how they would reverberate into the greater war.
I chose this source because it shows the risk that the partisans took. Success was generally met with death for hundreds or thousands of other Jews. This shows the complications that many partisans had to face once they knew that things like Lidice would happen if they attacked German units. They had to grapple with the reality that their actions may send t5housands to their deaths yet also the fact that those individuals were slated to be killed anyways.
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(4) Margot Stern Strom. “Facing History And Ourselves: Holocaust And Human Behavior” Facing History and Ourselves National Foundation inc. , 1994
The claims of this scholarly source are varied. It is more a collection of stories and historical analysis.
One critical claim is that some Jews who tried to acquire weapons to resist were hampered / not aided by other gentile resistance groups. These groups argued that the Jews had a different agenda than just liberation from German rule. In other nations outside Poland and eastern Europe most Jews joined general partisan units which were more accepting of them and their aid.
While the information is not all encompassing. It helps to shed light on some critical issues that Jews who wanted to fight faced in some instances. Particularly the unwillingness of the general Polish resistance to help the Jews. These complications would in some instances prevent armed Jewish resistance of the Germans and lead to all Jewish Units. The contrast to Poland with western Europe's armed resistance is quite astonishing. Jews were willingly accepted in French units and Greek units as seen from the other sources. This presents a conundrum for Poland which repeatedly claims that their citizens were merely “bystanders” to the Genocide. Refusing to provide aid when asked is almost as bad as giving ammunition to the other side.
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(5) Nechama Tec. “Defiance The Bielski Partisans” , Oxford University Press 1993
This scholarly/ secondary Source primarily focuses on the Bielski Partisan unit a Partisan unit in Poland that was founded by Jews who escaped the Germans. Led by some ex-military individuals, this was one of the largest armed Jewish resistance units in the war. The book claims that unlike contrary to belief the Jews who could fight did and with courage against the odds. They survived off the land trying to aid their brothers and sisters to escape the Germans.
This source is a critical component as its in depth view and analysis paints a picture of day to day activities and struggles of a partisan unit. This source describes the relationships between the unit and other units Jewish or non-Jewish. These things are very important and the wealth of information in this book allows one to get a real grasp for what it was like. This makes it one of the center piece’s for the project on armed resistance. This is due to the in-depth detail it describes things from Tuvia’s descriptions.
(6) Yehuda Baur. “A History Of The Holocaust” Nili Keren, Franklin Watts ,1982
According to this Scholarly / secondary source Jewish Partisans were active in the eastern and the western theaters. Here though a stark contrast appears. According to the source Jews who wished to resist in the east faced many hurdles to do so. In places like Poland etc. the unwillingness of free partisans to aid Jews prevented resistance. In many cases the partisan units would take the weapons from their Jewish counterparts and rape Jewish Women. The Soviets would eventually take over all official partisan units and enforce a stricter discipline but due to the animosity between ethnic groups the Soviets were not necessarily enthusiastic about full on Jewish partisan units due to those tensions. Overall though roughly 15,000 Jews are said to have participated in the eastern front.
In the western front the Jewish partisans were generally aided in places like France and cooperation was encouraged. This led to more overt acts initially as well as a more coordinated disruption of the German war effort. Despite their small numbers roughly 2,000 The western front Partisans hit above their weight and many were well equipped and supplied to their eastern counterparts.
This source is very useful / relevant as it draws a clear distinction of differences the Armed Jewish resistance faced depending on their location. This would drastically impact their ability to resist the Germans and take overt actions. This would also impact relationships between partisans and their native countries after the war.
(7) "Jewish partisan." Britannica Library, Encyclopædia Britannica, 10 Dec. 2014. library.eb.com/levels/referencecenter/article/Jewish-partisan/609304. Accessed 28 Mar. 2019.
This source claims that the Jewish Partisans who took up arms did so in different ways. In the west they did so with other none Jewish elements while in the east due to a long current of anti-Semitism amongst some partisan units Poland’s AK home army specifically this was a challenge. The partisans not only faced animosity from other partisans but issues with supply procurement and adequate shelter. Despite this many Jewish partisan units both focused on killing German occupiers and disrupting their supply lines. Other partisan groups decided to help liberate Jews instead of focusing on the Germans. Some with great success and others with mixed success.
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Photographic sources
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Early Years - top to bottom not including header -
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Later Years-
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(4) - already cited first page
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Aftermath -
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