Resistance to the Holocaust

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Resistance to the Holocaust

• Belfer Presentation
• Robert Hadley
• Mandel 2001-2002

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Define Resistance

• What does this term mean?
• Physical
• Spiritual
• Cultural
• Emotional

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Physical

• Underground Youth Movements
• Partisans
• Camp Revolts

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Underground Youth Movements

• Hashomer and HeChalutz (Zionist)
• Akiva (Zionist)
• Dror (Zionist)
• Bund
• Betar
• Communists

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Partisan Movements

• Abbe Kovner, Vilna Ghetto
• Bielski Partisans, Belorussia
• Joining Polish and/or Russian Partisan Movement

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Camp Revolts

• Sobibor
• Treblinka
• Auschwitz

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Map of Revolts
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Role of Women in the Resistance

• Intelligence and Reconnaissance
• Couriers
• Fighters
• Educators

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Spiritual

• Maintaining ones Faith in God
• Strength of Human Dignity
• Observing Jewish Traditions
• Kiddush ha-Shem ("Sanctification of God's Name")

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Prayers and Religious observation

• Minyanim (10 or more gathered to pray)
• Religious Holidays
• Fasting and remaining Kosher in face of
  starvation

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Emotional

• Staying alive!
• Helping others stay alive
• Not allowing ones spirit to be defeated
• Resource If you Cried, You died

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Cultural

• Art and Music
• Terezin Requime
• Schools
• Community based programs
• Self Help
• Plays
• Lectures

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Art in the Camps

• How is Art resistance?
• What record do we have of the Holocaust as a
  result of Artists?
• Urge to create in the midst of death

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Cultural Events

• Cultural events took place in the camps and
  ghettos
• Impact and power of such events as Resistance?

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Music in the Camps

• Archive of music program from Terezin
• Importance music played in camp life?

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Schools in the Ghettos

• Primary purpose to nourish the body and the soul
  (see the bread on napkins)
• Aliya Religious boarding schools
• Most Schools were clandestine
• Orphanages Dr Janusz Korczak

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Movies/Videos

• Escape From Sobibor (1989) Showtime
• The Grey Zone (2002)
• Out of the Ashes (2003) Showtime
• Uprising (2001) NBC

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Books

• Defiance The Beilski Partisans by Nechama Tec
• They Fought Back by Yuri Suhl
• The Avengers by Rich Cohen
• The Bravest Battle by Dan Kurzman
• Resistance by Israel Gutman
• Justynas Narrative by Gusta Draenger
• Kazik Memoirs of a Warsaw Ghetto Fighter by
  Simha Rotem
• Unbroken by Len Crome
• Against All Hope by Hermann Langein
• Fighting Back by Harold Werner

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Great Web Sites!

• The Ghetto Fighters House Museum of the
  Holocaust and Resistance.http//www.gfh.org.ilIs
  raeli museum with searchable archives. Many
  articles and pictures online.
• Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership.
  - www.jpfo.comUses the history of genocide and
  resistance to it to argue for the right to bear
  arms.
• Museum of the Slovak National Uprising.http//www
  .muzeumsnp.skMuseum in Slovakia dedicated to
  their 1944 armed uprising against the Germans,
  one result of which was the Jewish Novaky
  brigade.Anniversary of the said Uprising -
  http//www.55snp.sk/en
• Simon Wiesenthal Center - http//www.wiesenthal.co
  mHas material on the Warsaw Ghetto uprising as
  well as general Holocaust information
• http//www.yad-vashem.org.il/ Incredible archives
  of the Holocaust including Resistance

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Online lessons

• http//connections.smsd.org/veterans/holocaust_res
  istance_movement.htm (Great list of FAQs with
  websites)
• http//www.ushmm.org/education/foreducators/guidel
  ines/ (scroll down to Sample lessons, do the one
  on Resistance, powerful tool with students!)
• http//fcit.coedu.usf.edu/holocaust/timeline/RESIS
  T2.htm (Excellent resource on Resistance for
  educators)
• http//edsitement.neh.gov/view_lesson_plan.asp?ID
  275 (Great comprehensive Lesson when pressed for
  time in a unit)

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More Online Lessons

• http//fcit.coedu.usf.edu/holocaust/timeline/RESIS
  T/WARSAW.HTM (Great way to connect with the
  Ringleblum play)
• http//fcit.coedu.usf.edu/holocaust/timeline/RESIS
  T/resistan.HTM (I have used Courage to care in
  the classroomGreat videoand great way to close
  a unit on the Holocaust. Bring Hope back to your
  studentslike I said..bring them out of the
  darkness)

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Even more lessons!

• http//www.holocaust-trc.org/lesson.htm (many
  lesson plans and activities around Resistance and
  resistance movements, all vetted by Mark
  Nataupsky, an excellent educator from Virginia!)
• http//www.holocaust-trc.org/Warsawhs.pdf
  (excellent Resistance Unit created by Sol Factor,
  a Mandel fellow from Ohio. You dont have to use
  the entire unitthe lessons can be extracted
  separately)

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Totten Series

• Teaching and Studying about the Holocaust
• Holocaust Education
• Holocaust Literature