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Resistance in Concentration Camps. Samir. Introduction.
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Introduction • From 1939 to 1945, millions of people were captured and victimized by Germans, passing through hundreds of concentration, extermination, and forced labor camps. At least three million Jewish men, women, and children died in these camps, mostly by being gassed. Forced labor, poor living conditions, and horrible treatment by the guards either weakened the prisoners’ will of resistance or gave them a reason to resist. • Camps were surrounded by soldiers, barbed or electrical wires, and guard towers. Any who tried to escape were killed. These were huge obstacles that stood in the way of anyone who tried to rebel or escape. • In order for any kind of resistance to happen, the prisoners’ had to organize secret meetings in secret. These were usually led by people who used to be high ranking soldiers or had political power. The organizations and meetings they led planned procedures and escape routes. Members traded newspapers, battle maps, and war information to share news about the camp.
Unarmed Resistance • Some resistance groups worked to get extra supplies and make life easier for the prisoners. • Before Auschwitz had gas chambers used to murder Jews, it mostly had Polish prisoners in it. Army officers and people who had previous positions in infirmary and administrative offices became the leaders of the resistance group in the camp. They were also able to contact Poles outside the camp. In November 1942, members of the resistance group contacted the Polish underground to bring more medical supplies to the camp. The underground stole medical supplies from warehouses and Poles that worked in the Rajsko clinic near the main Nazi camp smuggled them in the camp. However, it was only enough for a small fraction of the prisoners.
Unarmed Resistance Pt. 2 • There were also attempts to tell the outside world about what happens in the camps. Most civilians didn’t know about the horrible treatment and murder of the prisoners. • On April 7, 1944, two Slovakian Jews named Alfred Wetzler and Walter Rosenberg escaped from the camp Birkenau. The Nazis are in a state of alert for three days after an escape, so they hid in a bunker near the camp fence until it was over. After that, they walked for many days until they got to Slovakia. Then they gave a long report about what happened in their camp to the Jewish leaders. This and other news of the gassings were confirmed the next month by two Polish Jews that escaped. Jewish activists asked the Allies to bomb the camps, but they refused, making winning the highest priority. • Also, many Jews used spiritual resistance against oppression. Since the Nazis tried to annihilate them from history, they preserved their history and culture through practicing their religion, creating cultural institutions, giving secret education, and collecting and hiding documentation.
Armed Resistance: Treblinka • At Treblinka, an underground organization planned an armed rebellion and a mass escape. When they learned about the Warsaw ghetto revolt and the last transport of Jews came in from Warsaw, the leaders said it was the time to strike. On August 2, 1943, they put their plan into action: to steal arms from the warehouse, kill the guards on duty, set the camp on fire, destroy the extermination area, and help the others escape into the forest. The flames and reports of the revolt brought German reinforcements to the camp. Many of the prisoners died, including all the resistance leaders, but 200 others escaped, and 20 of them even survived efforts to recapture them. • A few months after the revolt, the Germans closed and destroyed the camp, planting trees on top of it to hide the traces of the mass murders.
Armed Resistance: Sobibor • In Sobibor, a rabbi's son named Leon Feldheinderformed an underground organization in July 1943. Transports of Jews into the camps has been slowing down then and the prisoners could tell that the end was near. In September 1943, another transport brought a Soveit army officer named AlexandrPehersky. He was given command of the resistance group. Him and Feldeinder planned to lure officers into storehouses by asking to get new coats and boots, and attack them with knives and axes. Then they would take their weapons and ammunition, set the camp on fire, break through the gates, run through the minefield, and escape into the forest. This plan was put into action on October 14, 1943, killing 11 Nazis and letting 300 prisoners escape. 200 avoided capture, but only a small number survived until the end of the war. Same as Treblinka, the Germans destroyed Sobiborand planted crops over it to hid any evidence.
Armed Resistance: Auschwitz-Birkenau • In Auschwitz-Birkenau, another underground network of Jewish and non-Jewish prisoners planned a revolt. However, many of them backed out after the failure of the Warsaw uprising and when the Polish underground outside the camp became aware that the Nazis knew of their plan. But members of the Sonderkommando, who operated the crematoria and other camp facilities, still went ahead with the plan. On October 7, 1944, they used dynamite they had smuggled from a nearby munitions factory to blow up a crematoria. After the explosion, 600 prisoners escaped, but all of them were later captured or killed. 3 months later, four women were accused of giving the dynamite to the resistance group and were hanged in front of the rest of the prisoners.
Bibliographyb’basdf.d • Resistance during the Holocaust. Washington, D.C.: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 1997. Print. • "Holocaust History." Jewish Resistance. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Mar. 2013. • "Holocaust History." Non-Jewish Resistance: Overview. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Mar. 2013. • "The Holocaust: A Learning Site for Students." Nazi Camp System. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Mar. 2013. • "Holocaust History." Photograph. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Mar. 2013.
