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The Ones Who Fought Back

By Jillian Sauv

The Jewish Partisans


Who were they? Jews who had
escaped from ghettos, and prison
camps that formed resistance
groups to fight against the Nazis
during the holocaust.
Made up of men, women and
children

The Jewish partisans had to


hide in forests in order to stay
hidden.
Eastern European forests was
where most of the Jews went
for hiding
They could stay hidden in the
thick woodlands and dark
swamps.
They learned to build
underground bunkers in the
forests. Some of the bunkers
even had stoves inside.

Lithuanian Jewish Partisans


This photo is what the Lithuanian Jewish partisans were capable of
doing.
They were responsible for 79% of the train derailments.
This helped prevent many Jews from traveling to the concentration
camps.

One of the most interesting aspects of the partisan resistance that I


learned was how other Jews were discriminated against within the
partisan groups. Some Jews were denied to be apart of the group. Instead
the Jews who were denied helped the partisans survive. The provided
medical attention to the partisans that were injured. They helped supply
them with weapons, clothes and food. They had to smuggle the food from
near by places. Most of the Jews who were denied were women and
children and men who did not have as much military experience.

The Jews who had escaped and were not apart of the
Jewish partisans formed the Jewish Family Camp. This is
where they supplied the partisans with boots and armed
protection.

Initially when I began to research the Jewish Partisans it


fascinated me that there was groups who fought against
the Nazis. I was unsure how the groups were able to form
and I wanted to know more about them. The partisan
groups were formed from different methods. Some by
underground press and radio stations which helped allied
prisoners of war escape prison camps.

The Byelorussian population succeeded in recruiting the


Jews for the partisans by their own underground press.
They were able to forge documents and supplied Russian
prisoners of war with ID papers to help them escape to
the partisans.

The Jewish Partisans had help from many non Jewish


people. The Byelorussian population helped the Jews
immensely by providing them with food given to them in
the ghettos and helped smuggle them out of the ghetto
to join the partisans. Some traveled by foot, others by
train. They hid the Jews in the coal on the trains.

Another question that I had initially was how did the


Nazis not prevent the partisan groups? Later I found that
it was extremely difficult for the Jews to escape even with
the help from other allies. The Nazis were aware they
were escaping and put in place the collective
responsibility . For each Jew that escaped 10 to 25
remaining Jews would be killed. They started with the
escapees family .

Jewish partisans vs Non-Jewish partisans


Non Jewish partisans
joined as ultranationalists, they wanted
to eliminate all foreigners
(Nazis and Jews) or as
socialist- leftist who
wanted to combat
Fascism.
Had support- from local
farmers who gave them
food and shelter.

Jewish partisans
Were not fighting
for nationalism or
anti-fascism.
Fighting for their
lives

There was many obstacles that the Jews faced besides


troubles of escaping.
Not all partisan groups were there to help the Jewish
population. The White Partisans began to kill Jews just
like the Nazis.
They went into the forests and terrorized them in the
beginning the Jews didn'tt have many weapons for
protection.

The polish Jewish partisans sough


affiliation
with polish partisans groups. This was
extremely dangerous because they
could have been robbed or killed for
approaching a partisan unit. However,
many polish partisans welcomed the
Jews to their unit.

Many Jews became part of war crimes


They were accused of looting, rape and murder
They had many attacks one was the Nalibok massacre
The partisans were burning down churches, houses and
raided homes of food and valuables
About 129 men and women were killed during that specific
attack.

The Jewish army in France helped smuggle money out of


Switzerland to France to distribute to Jewish relief
agencies.
Some cooperated with the Germans and smuggled
about 500 Jews and non Jews across the border into
neutral Spain.

The process for this project was difficult at times but it


opened my mind up to many aspects of the holocaust.
I was able to find the answers to all my initial questions.
I found new ways to research that will benefit me in the
future such as finding answers to questions rather than
just collecting information.
Overall I learned the importance of the Jewish partisans
and how loyal and strong the Jewish population was
during the holocaust.

Work Cited
Ackerfield, Lance. "JewishGen - The Home of Jewish Genealogy." JewishGen - The Home of Jewish Genealogy.
Jewishgen.Inc, 9 Sept. 2007. Web. 12 Mar. 2016.
"Armed Jewish Resistance." United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. United States Holocaust Memorial Council,
29 Jan. 2016. Web. 10 Mar. 2016.
"Home | Jewish Virtual Library." Home | Jewish Virtual Library. Jewish Partisan Education Foundation, n.d. Web. 5
Mar. 2016.
"Jewish Partisan Educational Foundation." Jewish Partisan Educational Foundation. Jewish Partisan Education
Foundation, 2006. Web. 15 Mar. 2016.
"Pictures of Resistance: The Wartime Photographs of Jewish Partisan Faye Schulman." Pictures of Resistance: The
Wartime Photographs of Jewish Partisan Faye Schulman. Oregon Holocaust Memorial, 24 Apr. 2013. Web. 18 Mar. 2016.
Portions of this section adapted from Echoes and Reflections A Multimedia Curriculum on the Holocaust (New York:
Anti-Defamation League, USC Shoah Foundation Institute, Yad Vashem, 2005). All rights reserved.
Stuyvesant, Peter. "Jewish Partisan Warfare During WWII." Sitewide ATOM. Theoccidentalobserver, 06 Oct. 2011. Web.
16 Mar. 2016.
Suhl, Yuri. They Fought Back; the Story of the Jewish Resistance in Nazi Europe. New
York: Crown, 1967. Print.

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