The Nature of Rescue and Resistance (due Thu., Mar. 11)

[RegalPrincess]

My account was about a 23 year old man named Abba Kovner who decided that he would not just be led to slaughter like a sheep and he wanted other people to feel this way too. He knew that people would deny what was really happening to them, but he gave a speech to try to rally the other prisoners in Vilna to take up arms against the Nazis . He knew early what the Nazi plan was and would not allow this. In the Vilna ghetto the population had fallen from 60,000 to 20,000, but few people were willing to fight back. There was a group formed called the United Partisan Organization (FPO), of which Kovner was a part. This was the first Jewish fighting organization. The FPO try to get the other inmates to fight by telling them that it was for their murdered children and the people that came before them that had died in the camps and ghettos. They knew that they did not have a good chance of living but they were willing to try to bring liberty to others through armed resistance with the high possibility of death. There are so many reasons that these people would want to have these revolts, because the conditions were so bad and they knew that it was the only chance to save anyone. The Nazis had murdered their children, family and friends so they had the right to want to kill the Nazis.
The account from Le Chambon is a good example of the kindness of stranges that does exist in this world. It is amazing to hear about ordinary people who risk their lives for the safety of a stranger. The account about the Danish Jews was also amazing because so many people were saved because of one country's strength against the Nazis. These accounts are clear examples of why we don't have to be bystanders, because there are so many things that we could do, we just need to have the strength that these people have shown us.

[SPARKLE92]

Each of these stories is compelling and inspiring. Resistance certainly does come in many forms and ways. One I though was particulary interesting was the White Rose because they were so young and blunt in their beliefs even though the result is death. It is alwasy wonderful to hear stories of young people who feel so strong and stand up for what they believe in even though it would bring death upon them.
I also though the story of the doctor in the crematorium was interesting. ( I forget how to spell his name exactly) It was a unique twist that Ducttaped put on this story. He was heroic just for being the historian. This is true- withouth thesee people than we would no nothing of these unique occurences and revolts such as the one in Aushwitz.

[TwinkleToes]

I am not 100% sure if Kurt could be considered a true rescuer. Kurt Gerstein was a German SS agent who was secretly against the Nazi Regime. He joined the SA party in 1933, but was kicked out in 1937 because he criticized the Nazi party on how they treated the church.

Then after he was exonerated, he tried to get back into the SA so that he could "destroy" the Nazi's from within. Eventually he got into the SS, and became a lieutenant of the Medical Hygiene faction. It was there that he delivered prussic acid and zyklon b capsules to concentration camps like Belzac. He witnessed the gassing of tens of thousands of jews. He was so disturbed by this horrific site, that he went and told Baron Goran von Otter, the Secretary in the Swedish Legation. But he still delivered the gas capsules.

It was very unsafe for him to divulge information against the Nazi's, and I think it was great that he didn't care about his own life and only wanted to get the truth out. But he continued to deliver poisonous gas. He even committed suicide when the prosecuting parties tried him as a criminal along with the other Nazi criminals. And he's original intent was to get into the devil kingdom and break it down from the inside. But he still took part in the killing of thousands of Jews.

I think it was very brave of him for wanting to expose the horrors of the Nazi party, but I think he could have done it in a better fashion. He was responsible for killing thousands, and that kinda overshadows all the upstanding he did.

[BoySetsFire]

In your post, identify the subject of your reading (in the heading of your post). Then, describe and discuss what the particular act(s) of rescue or resistance was, what motivated the people doing it (in your view). And respond to this: how, if at all, does your knowledge of these acts (perhaps) enrich, enhance, or modify your view of the role of the bystander? Be sure to read through the posts that precede and follow yours, and comment on at least two other acts of rescue or resistance described in those posts.

Note: We will have a test next Tuesday (March 16) on the rise of the Nazis to the Holocaust. This test will include the targeted populations; if you did not get a handout from one of the presentations, ask me at the end of class. I have some extras. If you need notes from a class, ask one of your colleagues.


Basically a few "Aryan" Poles took it upon themselves to help the Jewish resistance in Warsaw, Poland, by supplying them with arms etc. to fight the Germans. It certainly shows one side of the bystander-- how he will/might help, when he really doesn't have to. These people were fine as they were, they weren't harassed by the Nazis and they were considered exactly what every citizen should be, however they chose to put their lives on the line to supply the Jewish resistance with the means to actively fight.

While there were many forms of resistance already talked about, this had to have been one of the most daring. It wasn't as if they were hiding Jews in their house, which was obviously dangerous, but they were sneaking into the Jewish ghettos with weapons, and if they were caught, any chances of survival were small.

After reaching the resistance, they had to survive among fierce fighting-- German dive bombers, artillery, machine gun nests, and at one point, had to avoid being burned alive as the Germans torched as much housing as possible. No one could peek out the windows lest they be shot by ready German and Ukrainian soldiers. At one point the author, Vladka Meed, recounts that one woman, as her building was burning, brought her child up to a window along with a pillow, which she threw to the ground. Intending to jump along with the baby, she got ready, only to be mowed down by ready German guards.

[boardergirl57]

Everyone had some incredible stories..Here is my response to two of which I found very intriguing.
Response to Habeuscorpusnow’s post:
I think this man was incredibly brave. It must have taken a lot of courage and guts to do what he did. He was also very smart, the way he kept the index cards, and the way he smuggled people away from the deportation trains. It must have been unnerving to go up to those trains in front of the Nazi guards and do something like that. I admire and respect Walter Suskind very much.

Response to Snowhite’s post:
This young boy, Chaim Asa, should definitely be recognized. It was very brave and smart of him to understand the letter and tell people about it. By doing this, he saved many people’s lives. I think this is an incredible act of courage and brains for a child.

[lotusdragon89]

Sobibor was one of three Nazi death camps constructed during Operation Reinhard. It was built in March of 1942, and located in Lublin near Wlodawa. It was one of those places where your first night stay was usually your last. Escapes had been made from the camp, and after a while the camp commander, Franz Reichsleitner, planted mines around the fences to diminish the chances of survival.
Shortly after Yom Kippur in 1943 (which is in October), on October 14 to be exact, the revolt began. SS camp staff had made appointments in jewish workshops for different things, and one by one they were murdered. It didn't take long for the rest of the SS to find out what was going on, and then total mayhem ensued. Shots were fired from atop the watchtowers, and prisoners were fleeing the camp. Many escaped the camp, but not many survived the lethal field of mines outside of it. After the revolt the camp was shut down.
This is an obvious response to those who might ask why no one did anything. Reading this article gives me even more respect for those who have the courage to act. Out of 300 prisoners that escaped, 50 survived the war. One of them was Dov Freiberg, who is quoted in saying this "There is no doubt that after the war, while you are laughing and behaving wildly you experience some sort of flash very quickly. You see one picture from Sobibor, and that's enough.." There was the obvious fear of death when it came to revolting, and living was obviously a far better alternative. But no one mentions how hard it must be to live a life after surviving, as we've mentioned in class Anja's suicide in Maus. The scars of living through such an ordeal, cause me to have even more respect for those who lived through it.

[mutchka]

Agg lost post.
Ive just read about a really amazing person, Raoul Wallenburg, who came from an aristocratic family in Sweden, and was responsible for saving over 50,000 Jews from the Nazis. In 1944 he was appointed the First Secretary of the Swedish Embassy in Hungary. (Sweden was pressured into doing this by the US.) However, Wallenburg took this job very seriously, and ended up risking his life and paying large amounts of cash to save lives.
He paid for 335 people to work in a new International Ghetto which he set up to allow Jews to be under his protection during the war. He set up a lot of hospitals, soup-kitchens, etc, by himself, to help the Jews. When the Jews were sent on a death march that year, he drove along side the line of people, handing out hundreds of safe-passage documents to set people free. Later, when Jews were loaded on train cars, he climbed onto the roof of the cars and handed passages through the windows and open doors to as many people as possible, even when the SS men threatened to shoot. He was eventually taken away by the Russians at age 33 after the war and never seen again. His motivation for doing this was obviously conscious- he himself said that he couldnt possible return home without knowing that he had done everything in his power.
Wallenburg's story says a lot about bystanders: even though most people weren't handed as much political power to help out the situation as Wallenburg was, Wallenburg was looked down upon by other members of the Swedish government who had just as much power for helping out the Jews so much. Supposing five more people from the government had stepped in beside Wallenburg and had been just as committed, perhaps three or four or five times as many Hungarian Jews or even Jews in other countries may have been saved.

Two other rescuers I read about:
- I first read about the sonderkommado (inmates at auschwitz forced to work in the crematoria) who planned a pretty big revolt, killing 70 SS men. 853 prisoners died for this rebellion, however these were all people who probably were going to be killed in the camp at some point. After the discussion we had in Ms. Freeman's class about willingness to fight, I think this was an amazing act of bravery, committed out of conscience and probably out of a realization that they had nothing to lose.
-Then I read about women in Berlin whose husbands (Jewish husbands) were put into the concentration camp Rosenstrasse. Through peaceful protests these women stood outside the camp every day- thousands, and as a result saved 1700 men from that camp. Their interest ofcourse was their husbands, but im sure that this extended to a sympathy for everyone in the camp, because they could understand the plight of the other wives with them.

[tortu823]

In an attempt to make Berlin totally free of Jews, the SS began arresting Jews in February 1943 in the “Final Roundup”. In this group were included any Jews in mixed marriages and the mischling, the children of German and Jewish parents. Soon after, a group of women whose husbands and children had been arrested gathered in front of 2-4 Rosenstrasse in Berlin. They had brought food and other items because they believed their families were being kept there. As the day progressed more and more women gathered until by the third day there were more than 1,000 protesters altogether some of which were people who weren’t even married to Jews. The SS was ordered to shoot “warning shots” to try to scare the women away, but they all kept coming back. In the end the Nazis were forced to release 1,700 camp prisoners.

This particular group of protesters had their own happiness and stability to consider. Their husbands and children had been captured. They were fighting to protect the lives of their families. However, not all of the protesters were women in mixed marriages, many non-Jewish men and women joined the protesters. In my opinion, people may have been more willing to protest because Germans were being harmed as well. At the same time, there is power in numbers. It is much easier to protest with hundreds of other people who are there to help than it is to resist on one’s own without the aid and support of anyone else. It is impossible to say whether they would have been willing to protest if the wives of the prisoners weren’t there in the first place.

The Rosenstrasse protest demonstrate one element that often determines the role of the bystander- personal interest. In this case, these women did whatever they could to keep their families together and protect their children. Often times, bystanders are motivated by personal interest to act either to help the victim or the perpetrator. The Rosenstrasse wives weren’t typical bystanders because they would be directly affected by whatever occurred. At the same time, however, they knew that something had to be done, they couldn’t stand around and simply watch their families be taken away. Resisting was the right thing to do. It was the “natural” thing to do as other rescuers have described their actions.

Walter Suskind’s ways of resisting were pretty clever and very risky. If his superiors suspected anything he could have been killed immediately. Someone else with any type of authority would have taken advantage of that in order to save only themselves or their relatives. Suskind’s actions were truly admirable as were those of the people of Le Chambon. It is amazing that so many people were willing to risk their lives to protect these children. No one in the town “ratted” anyone out. In that instance, it seems that they were encouraged by the fact that they were not alone. Their faith was also an important factor in their decision.

[Sparkles]

Jan Zwartendijk arrived in Lithuania from Holland as a businessman who worked for Phillips electronics. He later became the Dutch honorary consul-general a day before the Soviet Union invaded Lithuania.

The importance of Zwartendijk began in 1940 when he distributed his first "Curaracao visa" to the husband of Mrs. Lewin. This visa allowed the holder to leave the country and head for the Dutch-controlled Carribean island of Curacao and the only way through this destination was to pass through Japan. With the help of the Japanese diplomat, Chiune Sugihara, Zwartendijk was able to issue over 2,000 visas.

After Zwartendijk's office was closed in 1940, he returned to German-occupied Netherlands with his wife and three children and continued to work for Phillips electronics. Living in the German occupied location, Zwartendijk was worried that the Gestapo would find out the truth behind the Curacao visa scheme, but this never happened. The only thing that occurred was questioning by the Gestapo after they found his name in the coat of a person who atempted to elude the Gestapo.

Over the years, Zwartendijk didn't care about fame or acknowledgement, but all he wanted to know was how many people were able to pass. Before he died, he was told that he saved many important people such as Zerach Warhaftig, minister in the Israelli government and also a large group of seminarians. He was then accepted into the ranks of the Righteous Among the Nations.

Zwartendijk's actions can influence many people to lend a helping hand. Unlike the US during WW2, he decided to issue visas to those in need of it rather than denying them. If more people were to learn about him, they would be encouraged to do the same.

Abba Kovner and his resistance speech is persuasive, but many might of not listened to him. His courageous character would rather put up a fight then be taken and slaughtered without any resistance.

Miep Gies is basically a person of good will and bravery. She knew the consequences of her actions, but she continued to help the famous Anne Frank and her family.

[Theactionindex]

My reading was also an excerpt from Let the Innocent Blood Be Shed. It was about Magda Trocme, a frenchwoman from Le Chambon. It tells the story of one German Jew that she helped. This woman arrived at her door and said that she heard that in the town someone could help her. Magda said "naturally, come in and come in." She explain that the woman barely had shoes, etc and was outside in heavy snow. She explains that it was very natural to help this person. She sat the woman down near the stove and fed her. The first thing that Magda thought she may be able to do was to get her papers from the mayor. she thought that he would help in a situation like this. He refused when she told him, he situation. he explained that she was endangering everyone and that he would not help. She realized that now the authorities knew she was housing a german jew and that was very unsafe. She then found a catholic family that would take in this refugee. She also acquired a very hard to find item in france at the time, shoes, for this woman.

This reading also tells the story of when she went to ask for help from a french rabbi's wife, because another refugee came to her door. The way this woman reacted to Magda's request for help from the woman's family. This woman refused to help because this person was a German Jew and she was convinced the reason all jews were indanger was because of the german jews.She "othered" this german jew the same way the mayor had with the other.

Through this reading, it seems as though Magda knew that what the Nazi's were doing was wrong. She knew that something needed to be done and from what I can tell about her personality in this reading, she could not stand by and watch these people get taken away. It was human nature she knew it was right, it felt natural to help these people in need so she did.

This reading shows that the bystander can infact become an "upstander" in such oppressive rule. this reading showed that there was a choice she could make as a bystander. She could help this woman or she could close her door to her and do harmdoing as the reading mentioned. She chose what was natural to her and helped to resist the nazi's and help save lives. This passage gives me soo much respect for the people with courage to do what they know is right, knowing what consequences could be in the future for them.

Suskind's story seems quite amazing and that he risked much to save jews during this time. He never stopped trying to save lives wherever he was sent and this quite amazing that he never gave up hope and continued to smuggle people.

the story of the german women protesting their husbands' relocation into the ghetto. these women did not give up hope and stood outside to protest even when warning shots were fired by nazi soldiers. The nazi's did not want to kill Aryan Women and would not. Finally because of their actions and protesting they saved the 1700 men imprisoned in the ghetto. It would be interesting to see if these women still would have protested if these men were not their husbands? question to bring up.

[ScrappyDappyDoo]

Of the readings, i think the most fascinating was the "call to resistance" It was amazing to think that this organization could effectively try to get people to stand up for their rights, rather than lay down and take all the things the germans/nazis were doing. I was amazed at how the document tells the people that they need to stand up and fight or they are actually helping the nazis. It also offers alternative methods such as passive resistance for those who wish not to resist actively."Let everyone be ready to die like a man" is a perfect slogan, because it goes to stress the fact that the jews in camps and those being held captive in other areas are not being treated like men (and women of course). This is one of the most compelling statements to the people to tell them that they can actively make a difference in the way they are being treated.

[darklight]

"I Did What Everyone Should Have Done"

The act of resistance in my article was simply providing shelter and hiding places for jewish peoples during the war. Arie van Mansum helped to also get food for those in hiding. His reason was that if he didn't, he would just be trying to look after himself and no one else and that it was what everyone "should have done". Reading more and more of these articles has made me question who i am and what i stand for. I now have a new urge to be an upstander ideally, but in reality, i have no clue what my human instincts will cause me to do...