Resisters. How Ordinary Jews fought Persecution in Hitler’s Germany

• In Event: Jewish Resistance and Gender during the Holocaust

Abstract

Jewish resistance during the Holocaust is still understood mostly in terms of rare armed group activities in the Nazi occupied East, for example ghetto uprisings or partisan activities. This new research is based on a broader definition and countless hitherto untapped sources, including local police and court records as well as video testimonies of survivors.
Introducing five new categories of resistance, the talk shows how between 1933 and 1945 Jews performed countless resistance acts in Nazi Germany proper, by destroying Nazi symbols, publicly protesting against the persecution, disobeying Nazi laws and local restrictions, and defending themselves from verbal insults as well as physical attacks. Those caught were charged with various criminal offenses and as result of trials in Special and regular courts sentenced to months and years in prison.
The fact that so many German Jewish women and men of all ages, educations and professions defied the Nazis obliterates the common view of the passivity of Jews under Nazi persecution. Their courageous acts, however, still need to be incorporated into the general narrative of the persecution of the Jews in Nazi Germany and the Holocaust in general

Author

• Wolf Gruner, University of Southern California