The Underground

By: Angela Mesquias

   During World War II Hitler and the Nazis goal was to completely annihilate the Jews. “Operation Barbarossa” marked the beginning of the mass murders of the Jews in June 1941 in Eastern Europe’s occupied areas. During these times many Jews went into hiding and rebelled. Some of them fled to the forests, some went to the mountains or joined rebellion groups. One of the biggest rebelling groups was the Underground Jew Movement.

 The Underground Jew Movement rebelled in the ghettos, and the concentration camps. The Underground Jew Movement was also established to rescue Jews in Western European countries, and to preserve their history.

        Thousands of young Jews in ghettos rebelled against the Nazi’s after hearing that the Germans were sending people from the ghettos to the Treblinka killing center.  In over 100 ghettos in Poland and the Soviet Union the Jews were organized and armed with weapons to fight the nazi’s. In 1943, in the Warsaw ghetto as German SS and police entered the ghetto to take the remaining ghetto inhabitants to the Treblinka killing center, the Jewish group attacked German tanks with Molotov cocktails, hand grenades, and handguns. Even though the Germans were not defeated, it took them a month to deport the people in the ghetto.  This gave thousands of Jews the chance to escape to the forest and mountains and join forces with other rebellion groups.

     The rebellion continued at three killing camps in 1943.  The underground Jew movements planned to kill the Germans guards and escape to the forest. Jewish prisoners that were a part of the underground movement used stolen weapons and attacked the German guards. Although a few Nazi guards died and a few were injured, the Nazis killed most of the prisoners.  A few dozen prisoners escaped.  Nearly 250 died during the fighting and the German SS guards killed another 200 after the attack to teach them a lesson not to rebel.

     The underground Jew movement was also established to rescue Jews in Western Europe such as France, Holland, and Hungary.  In occupied countries, tens of thousands of Jews fled to the forests and mountains to join units to fight against the Nazis.  The underground movement harassed and ambushed small enemy groups and sabotaged their communication and transportation.

     Jews in the camps and the ghettos made a conscious decision to preserve the history and life of their people. They kept and hid diaries and documents, published underground newspapers, continue to observe religious holidays and rituals, and secretly educated their people. So even if they died there history would continue.

      The Jewish Underground Movement could not save the Jewish masses against the Nazis killing machine. What they lacked in support, weapons, and training they made up for it in defiance, courage, survival and hope. 

Http://www.aish.com/holocaust/overview/he05n28.htm. 19 Nov. 2008.

Http://www.aish.com/holocaust/overview/The_Jewish_Underground.asp. 19 Nov. 2008.

Http://www.holocaustforgotten.com/irek-e.htm. 19 Nov. 2008.