Resistenza ebraica al nazismo: rassegna bibliografica, a cura di Stefano Aliberti

Yuri Suhl, Ed essi si ribellarono. Storia della resistenza ebraica contro il nazismo, Milano: Mursia, 1969 

Risvolto di copertina:

In queste pagine l’Autore ha raccolto un’ampia e organica serie di testimonianze che portano alla luce – forse per la prima volta in maniera esauriente -  la resistenza opposta dagli ebrei contro il nazismo. E’ un argomento poco noto o addirittura ignorato. Infatti, se un episodio eroico della Seconda guerra mondiale, quale fu la rivolta del ghetto di Varsavia, è universalmente famoso, non si sa, in genere, che quasi in ogni ghetto e in ogni campo di lavoro o di concentramento esistette un’organizzazione ebraica clandestina, rivolta da un lato a sostenere il morale dei prigionieri e ad alleviarne le sofferenze e, dall’altro, a favorire le fughe, raccogliere armi, ordire e compiere atti di rivolta. Questo libro tocca una questione ancora controversa e scottante. Esiste infatti una corrente d’opinione che scorge, nell’atteggiamento dei perseguitati contro i persecutori, delle vittime contro i carnefici, solo una supina rassegnazione e quasi una colpevole acquiescenza. Una simile visuale nasce dal fatto che ci si è basati soprattutto sulle relazioni ufficiali e su documenti di parte nazista. Rifacendosi invece a fonti ebraiche, in gran parte inedite o pubblicate in jiddish, l’Autore ha scelto e posto in prospettiva le testimonianze più vive e drammatiche – opera spesso degli stessi protagonisti – sulla lotta che i «figli di David» condussero a Auschwitz, a Sobibor, nei ghetti di Minsk, Treblinka e Vilna, nei villaggi dell’Ucraina e nel cuore della stessa Berlino. La lettura di queste pagine, che traggono dall’anonimato e collocano in giusta luce avvenimenti e personaggi straordinari nella loro semplice umanità, oltre a risultare avvincente per la forza stessa dei fatti narrati, reca un contributo di altissimo valore su un aspetto ricco di significato della grande tragedia bellica il cui ricordo incombe ancora sull’umanità.

Indice:

Ringraziamenti – Introduzione

 I. Storia della resistenza ebraica nel ghetto di Czestachova (di William Glicksman) – II. Rivolta a Sobibor (di Alexander Pechersky)  – III. Il gruppo di Herbert Baum. Resistenza ebraica in Germania negli anni 1937-’42 (di Ber Mark) – IV. «La picccola Wanda dalle lunghe trecce bionde» (di Yuri Suhl) – V. Zofia Yamaika (di Esther Mark) – VI. «Il medico primario Remba» (di Yuri Suhl) – VII. «Il compagno Mordechai». Mordechai Anielevich, comandante dell’insurrezione del ghetto di Varsavia (di Emmanuel Ringelblum) – VIII. L’insurrezione del ghetto di Varsavia (di Ber Mark) – IX. La rivolta di Treblinka (di Samuel Rajzman) – X. La rivolta del ghetto di Vilna (di Ruben Ainszstein) – XI. La prova (di Yuri Suhl) – XII. Il movimento di resistenza nel ghetto di Vilna (di Abraham H. Foxman) – XIII. La rivolta degli ebrei di Marcinkonis (di Leyb Koniukowski) – XIV. La rivolta di Lachwa (di Aaron Schworin, Chaim Shkliar, Abraham Feinberg, Chaim Michali) – XV. La rivolta del ghetto di Tuczyn (di Mendel Mann) – XVI. Fuga dal campo di Koldyczewo (di Joseph M. Foxman) – XVII. La resistenza degli ebrei slovacchi (di Emil F. Knieža) – XVIII. Fuga e morte della «staffetta» Mala Zimetbaum (di Giza Weisblum) – XIX. Incarico clandestino a Auschwitz (di Yuri Suhl) – XX. Cinque fughe da Auschwitz (Erich Kulka) – XXI. Rosa Robota «eroina» del movimento clandestino di Auschwitz (di Yuri Suhl) – XXII. I partigiani ebrei di Horodenka (di Joshua Wermuth) – XXIII. La resistenza del ghetto di Minsk (di Yuri Suhl) - XXIV. I bambini-guida del ghetto di Minsk (di Jacob Greenstein) – XXV. La storia del sorprendente Oswald (Shemuel) Rufeisen (di Jacob Greenstein) – XXVI. Il «piccolo dottore». Un eroe della resistenza (di Leonhard Tushnet) – XVII. Dadia Misha (zio Misha) e i suoi partigiani. Distruzione della casa del soldato (di Misha Gildenman) – XXIII. Dadia Misha e i suoi partigiani: L’attacco (Misha Gildenman) – XXIX. Dadia Misha e i suoi partigiani. David di Yarevitch (di Misha Gildenman) – XXX. Gli ebrei bulgari nel movimento di resistenza (di Matei Yulzari) - XXXI. Diario di un partigiano ebreo a Parigi (di Abraham Lissner) – XXXII. Persecuzione e resistenza degli ebrei in Italia (di Massimo Adolfo Vitale) – XXXIII. Il movimento di resistenza ebraico nel Belgio (di Jacob Gutfreind).

Note

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Lucien Steinberg, La Révolte des Justes. Le Juifs contre Hitler, Paris : Fayard, 1970

Rabats:

« Six millions de Juifs se sont-ils laissé massacrer comme des moutons? ». A cette angoissante question qui pèse sur l’histoire de notre temps, Lucien Steinberg apport enfin une réponse définitive. Avec la sûreté d’un historien, il dresse, dans La Révolte des Justes, la première vue d’ensemble de la Résistance des Juifs contre Hitler. Avec la minutie d’un expert qui a étudié toutes les archives existantes, il décrit l’action des résistants juifs dans tous les pays occupés par les bourreaux du IIIe Reich. Et le lecteur, qui a pourtant l’impression de ne rien ignorer du martyre du peuple juif, découvre, avec étonnement et admiration, l’autre face du problème : partout où les Juifs l’ont pu, ils ont résisté – pratiquement à mains nues et sans aide extérieure – contre le plus puissance machine de guerre de l’histoire. Les faits d’armes dévoilés pour la première fois dans La Révolte des Justes sont, en effet, véritablement extraordinaires : des réseaux juifs opéraient à Berlin – au cœur de l’empire nazi ; dans l’Italie fasciste, les partisans juifs ont, entre autre prouesses, délivré leurs frères dans une attaque unique d’un camp de concentration ; en France, Juifs ont milité au sein de tous les réseaux et créé même des organisations de combat propres ; en Belgique, les résistants juifs ont su retourner à leur profit le « Judenrat » mis en place par les SS ; l’héroïque insurrection du ghetto de Varsovie n’est pas le seul soulèvement  d’un ghetto en Europe de l’Est ; des détachement armés juifs ont combattu dans les maquis de la Russie et des Balkans ; et la révolte de Treblinka n’est ni la seule révolte ni la seul acte de résistance dans un camp de la mort… Œuvre historique monumentale sur un combat jusqu’ici ignoré, fourmillement d’hommes et d’actions qui donnent une dimension nouvelle au mot « héroïsme », éclairage original du passé du peuple juif : La Révolte des Justes est le livre qui manquait sur l’histoire et du judaïsme et de la seconde guerre mondiale.

Table:

PREMIÈRE PARTIE – LE JUIFS CONTRE HITLER:

1. La Résistance juive – 2. Le grand retournement – 3. Le « Front juif »

DEUXIÈME PARTIE – AU CŒUR DE L’EMPIRE NAZI :

4. Les résistants juifs dans le IIIe Reich – 5. Le combat de Herbert Baum – 6. L’Union pour la Paix et la Liberté – 7. L’émeute des détenus juifs de Sachsenhausen

TROISIÈME PARTIE – DANS L’ITALIE FASCISTE :

8. Ambiguïtés mussoliniennes – 9. Après la chute du Duce – 10. Les partisans italiens

QUADRIÈME PARTIE – LE JUIFS DANS LA RÉSISTANCE FRANÇAISE :

11. Les Juifs en France - 12. Les communistes juifs - 13. Les Juifs dans les groupes de combat communistes – 14. Les organisations juives en France – 15. Les organisations juive de Combat – 16. Le débarquement d’Alger

CINQUIÈME PARTIE – SOUMISSION OU RÉSISTANCE? Les exemples belge et hollandais :

17. Résistance juive en Belgique – 18. Le retournement d’un « Judenrat » - 19. Le sauvetage de la population juive – 20. Le drame hollandais – 21. Le secours danois

SIXIÈME PARTIE – LES SOULÈVEMENTS DE GHETTOS :

22. Les Juifs dans L’Europe de l’Est – 23. Les premières révoltes des ghettos – 24. Le ghetto de Varsovie – 25. Le symbole – 26. Bombes à Cracovie – 27. Vilna : la Résistance récusée – 28. Kovno : le voyage d’un poète – 29. Bialystok : l’échec du technocrate – 30. Minsk : Modèle d’une Résistance communiste homogène – 31. La guerre des partisans à l’Est

SEPTIÈME PARTIE – LES REVOLTES DES CAMPS DE LA MORT :

32. La victoire de Sobibor – 33. Treblinka : Poésie et Vérité – 34. Auschwitz et son insurrection

HUITIÈME PARTIE – LES CONTRASTES DE L’EUROPE CENTRALE ET BALKANIQUE :

35. De la forteresse de Theresienstadt aux maquis slovaques – 36. Les partisan juifs des Balkans – 37. Roumanie : succès relatif des méthodes traditionnelles – 38. Hongrie : Peut-on négocier avec les SS?

CONCLUSION - SOURCES

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Meir  Grubsztein (Ed.), Jewish Resistance during the Holocaust: Proceedings of the Conference on Manifestations of Jewish Resistance, Jerusalem, April 7-11, 1968, Jerusalem:  Yad Vashem, 1971. 

Back Cover:

The Conference on the Problems connected with the Jewish Resistance in the Holocaust, whose proceedings comprise this volume, is the most important of the conferences on Holocaust research held so far – both with respect to the number of participants and with respect to the contests of the lectures and the discussions. It was marked by the lively participation of the outstanding Holocaust researchers from Israel and abroad – Austria, Canada, Czechoslovakia, France, Great Britain, Italy, the Netherlands, the United States, and Yugoslavia. There were four main subject-headings: (a) The Jewish struggle till the beginning of the extermination, (b) the stand of the Jewish masses (the general public, the parties, and the youth movements), (c) the resistance and the armed struggle (the revolts, the partisan activities, and Jews in the various regular Allied armies), (d) rescue attempts in and outside the occupied areas. The lectures are concise summaries of the researches done on the above topics. The discussion that followed the lectures are of special importance in that the participants included historians who did not deliver lectures. The proceedings contained in this book constitute a broad spectrum of views on and approaches to the problems of Holocaust research, especially the research into the Jewish resistance.

Contents:

Foreword

OPENING SESSION:

Introductory Remarks (Aryeh Tartakower) – Greetings – Twenty-Five Years after the Warsaw Ghetto Revolt (Yitzchak Zuckerman)

FIRST SESSION:

Jewish Resistance – An Examination of Active and Passive Forms of Jewish Survival in the Holocaust Period (Leni Yahil) – Sources for the Study of Jewish Resistance (Nachman Blumental) – Debate

SECOND SESSION:

Jewish Political Activities Against the Nazi Regime in the Years 1933-1939 (Nathan Feinberg) – Debate – The Struggle for Survival of the Jewish Community in Germany in the Face of Oppression (Abraham Margaliot) - Debate – Jewish Education under the Nazis – An Example of Resistance to the Totalitarian Regime (Joseph Walk)

THIRD SESSION:

The Place of the Jewish Political Parties in the Countries under Nazi Rule (Nathan Eck) – Debate – The Day-To-Day Stand of the Jews (Meir Dworzecki) – Debate – On Documentation Projects as an Expression of Jewish Steadfastness in the Holocaust (Zvi Shner) – Debate

FOURTH SESSION:

The Attitude of the Judenrats to the Problems of Armed Resistance Against the Nazis (Isaiah Trunk) – Jewish Leadership – Policy and Responsibility (Zvi A. Bar-On) – Debate - Youth Movements in the Underground and the Ghetto Revolts (Israel Gutman) – Jewish Resistance in the West (Leon Poliakov) – Debate

FIFTH SESSION:

The Place of the Ghetto Revolts in the Struggle Against the Occupier (Joseph Kermish) – Jewish Partisans – Objective und Subjective Difficulties (Shalom Cholavsky) – Factors Influencing the Relations Between the General Polish Underground and the Jewish Underground (Michael Borwicz) – Debate

SIXTH SESSION:

Jewish Resistance and the European Resistance Movement (Henri Michel) – Debate – The Participation of Jews in the Allied Armies (Lucien Steinberg) – Facts and Problems in the Study of the Fighting of the Jews of the Soviet Union in World War Two (Dov Levin) – Debate - The Planting Ceremony at the “Avenue for  the Just” in Honour of Herman Langbein (Aryeh Tartakower)

SEVENTH SESSION:

Eulogy on Shaul Esh (Jacob Robinson) – Escape Routes and Contacts During the War (Livia Rothkirchen) - The Palestine Jewish Community and its Assistance to European Jewry in the Holocaust Years (Yehuda Slutzki) – Debate – Efforts at Aid and Rescue During the Holocaust (Aryeh Tartakower)

EIGHTH SESSION:

Kiddush Hashem over the Ages and its Uniqueness in the Holocaust Period (Yosef Gottfarstein) – Debate – Summing-up (Jacob Robinson) – Organizing Future Activities (Aryeh Tartakower) – Debate – Concluding Remarks (Aryeh Tartakower)

Appendix - Lectures delivered in French:

La Résistance Juive dans la Résistance Européenne (Henri Michel) – Les Différentes Formes de la Résistance Juive en France (Leon Poliakov) – Quelques Problèmes Relatifs à l’Etude de la Participation des Juifs dans les Forces Armée Alliées (Lucien Steinberg)

Indexes

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Reuben Ainsztein, Jewish resistance in Nazi-occupied Eastern Europe: with a historical survey of the Jew as fighter and soldier in the Diaspora, London: Paul Elek, 1974 

Back cover:

There is a widespread belief that the Jews were estranged from the use of arms and devoid of martial qualities through their entire history in the Diaspora, and that even in the Nazi period there was a general absence of physical resistance among them. Mr Ainsztein challenges this belief, and presents a radical new account of the Jews in history, showing them to have been neither born victims nor born martyrs, but rather at all times to have included their share of fighters possessed of a spirit of active resistance. Its extended introductory historical survey makes this book the first comprehensive history of Jewish resistance in any language. The main part of the book, devoted to the two countries where the overwhelming majority of European Jews lived, fought and died as a result of the Final Solution, gives the English-speaking reader the first critical assessment of the Polish Underground State and objective overall account of the Soviet partisan movement. In his historical survey Mr Ainsztein , opposing to the traditional views of the 19th-century Jewish historians Graetz and Dubnow the ‘anti-lachrymose’ views of Jewish history represented by Professor Salo W. Baron, considers the Jew as fighter and soldier from the destruction of the Jewish state by Rom to 1939. After examining the Jewish military record in Antiquity and revealing that the Jews were not only formidable warriors but also seamen and pirates, he traces the Jewish military story through the Dark Ages, when both Christian and Muslim worlds made every effort to deny the Jews the right to bear arms. He shows that even in the Middle Ages the Jews remained a people of fighters, whose martyrs were not religious fanatics but the heirs of Masada tradition. He brings out the close connection between Jewish emancipation since the French Revolution and the Jewish struggle to regain the right to bear arms, and concludes his historical survey with an analysis of the unique role played by Jews in creating and leading the Red Army. In the main part of the book, Jewish anti-Nazi resistance is dealt with in all its main aspects: the action of individuals and groups in defence of their lives  and human dignity; participation in the partisan war waged on Polish and Soviet soil against the German and their local allies; underground activities and revolts in the ghettoes of Warshaw, Minsk, Vilno, Bialystok, Cracow and the rural ghettoes; and escapes from and revolts in death camps of Treblinka, Sobibór and Auschwitz. Using Soviet and Polish material, the author establishes clearly that Jews played a crucial role in both Polish and Soviet partisan movements. Mr Ainzstein  has drawn upon an exceptionally wide range of sources – in Polish, Russian, Yiddish, Hebrew, Lithuanian, Belorussian, Ukrainian, German and other languages – to achieve as through a coverage of the subject as the continued impossibility of unhampered research in the Soviet Union allows. His book makes a new and important contribution to the understanding of both Jewish and European history.

Contents:

List of Maps – Aknowledgement – Note of Names and Transliteration

Introduction

Part ONE – FATALISTS OR FIGHTERS:

1. Antiquity and the Dark Ages – 2. The Jews of Spain and Portugal - 3. Medieval Europe – 4. The Jews of Eastern Europe - 5. The Middle Ages of Polish-Lithuanian Jewry

PART TWO – THE FIGHTERS AND SOLDIERS RE-EMERGES:

6. From Asser Levy to Captain Dreyfus – 7. From Esther Manuel to Jakob Wolf – 8. Polish and Russian Jews Choose Self-Emancipation – 9. Jews in the Polish Insurrection – 10. Jews as Military Serfs – 11. Russian Jews as Fighting Men – 12. The Test of the Progrom

PART THREE – ON THE BRINK OF THE FINAL SOLUTION:

13. The Jews in Poland – 14. Soviet Jewry

PART FOUR – ELEMENTAL  RESISTANCE:

15. A Summary of the Final Solution – 16. The Behaviour of Poles, Russian and Jews – 17. The Myth about fatalistic and Helpless Galician Jew – 18. Resistance through Flight – 19. Revolts in the Small-Town Ghettoes

PART FIVE – JEWISH PARTISANS:

20. Jews as Pioneers of the Soviet Partisan Movement – 21. Polish Jews in the Soviet Partisan Movement – 22. Vilno Region – 23. Novogrudok Region – 24. Polesye – 25. Volyn – 26. With Saburov’s Brigade Group – 27. In Medvedev’s Detachment – 28. With Kovpak’s Partisan Division – 29. Jews and Poles in Volyn – 30. The Size of the Jewish Participation – 31. The Political Background in Poland – 32. Jews among the First Polish Partisans – 33. Lublin Region – 34. Kielce Region – 35. Commanders and Organizers – 36. Bialystok Bezirk – 37. Galician Distrikt – 38. Jews in Home Army Partisan Units

PART SIX – THE FIGHTING CITY-GHETTOES:

39. Minsk: ‘The Ghetto Means Death’ – 40. Vilno: The Tragic Failure – 41. Byalistok: Ghetto and Forest 

PART SEVEN – THE WARSAW GHETTO REVOLT

42. Warsaw: The Road to Resistance – 43. Warsaw: Himmler Defied – 44. Warsaw: The Uprising – 45. Warsaw: The Epilogue

PART EIGHT – REVOLTS IN THE DEATH CAMPS:

46. Revolts of the Sonderkommandos 1005 – 47. The Revolt in Treblinka – 48. The Sobibór Uprising – 49. The Auschwitz Revolt

Summing Up

Notes – Select Bibliography – Index

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Michael R. Marrus (Ed. by),  Jewish resistance to the Holocaust, Westport; London: Meckler, 1989 

From the “Introduction”:

Consideration of Jewish resistance to the Nazis during the Holocaust has been a subject particularly difficult to untangle from present-day concerns. Understandably, it has not been easy to place the matter judiciously in its proper perspective and to write about it dispassionately. Yet the very substantial historical work undertaken in recent years (much of it in Israel, using Jewish sources) permits up to speak knowledgeably and objectively about a wide range of resistance activity – from the forests of Belorussia in the east to the French countryside in the west. Definitions of “resistance” vary, of course, and the disputes over what the term encompasses usually reflect significant differences of opinion over Jewish reaction in a wider sense. Historians worry over the extent to which resistance by Jews constitutes Jewish resistance – that is to say, resistance undertaken, at least to some degree, on behalf of a Jewish cause. Another problem, as with all issues having to do with the victims, is to set particular kinds of resistance within the framework of particular society and establish the relationship, if any, that existed with the general resistance against Nazism. Clearly the circumstances of resistance varied widely across German-dominated Europe, and the near-suicidal revolts in ghettos or camps, for example, did not have the same dynamics as did the organization of networks that smuggled Jewish to safety in the West or helped them maintain their existence underground. As research accumulates, we are able to compare the activities of Jews to the resistance of other groups against the Nazis. The articles in the section assist this process, as well as conveying the wide scope and diversity of resistance activity.

Contents:

Series Preface

Introduction (Michael R. Marrus)

PART ONE – GENERAL:

Jewish Resistance and the European Movement (Henri Michel) - The War against the Jews 1939-1945 (Yisrael Gutman) - Resistance – A Constant in Jewish Life (Lionel Kochan) - Forms of Jewish Resistance during the Holocaust (Yehuda Bauer) - Problems of Jewish resistance Historiography (Konrad Kwiet)

PART TWO - GHETTOES, FORESTS, AND CAMPS IN EASTERN EUROPE:

The Fighting Leadership of the Judenräte in the Small Communities of Poland (Dov Levin) - The Resistance Movement in the Ghetto of Minsk (Yuri Suhl) - The Judenrat in Minsk (Shalom Cholawsky) - The Genesis of the Resistance in the Warsaw Ghetto (Yisrael Gutman) - Youth Movements in the Underground and the Ghetto Revolts (Israel Gutman) - Note: Why was There No Armed Resistance against the Nazis in the Lodz Ghetto? (Isaiah Trunk) - The Jews of Volhynia and Their Reaction to Extermination (Shmuel Spector) - Hewish Family Camps in the Forests – An Original Means of Rescue (Yitzhak Arad) - Jewish Prisoners Uprisings in the Treblinka and Sobibor Extermination Camps (Yitzhak Arad) - The Birkenau Revolt: Poles Prevent a Timely Insurrection (Tzipora Hager Halivni) - Escapes of Jewish Prisoners from Auschwitz-Birkenau and Their Attemps to Stop the Mass Extermination (Erich Kulka)

PART THREE - SLOVAKIA AND HUNGARY:

Escape Routes and Contacts during the War (Livia Rothkirchen) - The Role of the Czech and Slovak Jewish Leadership in the Field of Rescue Work (Livia Rothkirchen) - The Role of the Jews in Slovakian Resistance (Yeshayahu Jelinek) - He-Halutz Underground in Hungary: March-August 1944 (Asher Cohen)

PART FOUR - WESTERN EUROPE:

Resistance of German Jews against the Nazi Regime (Helmut Eschwege) - Some Notes on Resistance (Arnold Paucker) - A Methodological Approach to the Study of Jewish Resistance in France (Renée Poznanski) - Legality and Resistance in Vichy France: the Rescue of Jewish Children (Hillel J. Kieval) - The Zionist Underground in Holland and France and the Escape to Spain (Haim Avni)

Copyright Information – Index

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Joseph Rudavsky, To live with hope, to die with dignity: spiritual resistance in the ghettos and camps, Northvale, N. J.: Jason Aronson Inc., 1997 

Back cover:

“Jospeh Rudavsky’s To Live with Hope, To Die with Dignity, is an important overview of how Jews in the ghettos of Eastern Europe attempted to maintain their Jewish identity. In exploring the dimension of Kiddush HaHayyim, the Jewish sanctification of life, Rudavsky brings to light many little-known examples of how Jews, both religious and secular, used all the means at their disposal to resist Nazi dehumanization. By illuminating these heroic acts of self-definition, Rudavsky has given us a work which speaks to all who are interested in the Holocaust, Jewish history, and the human condition” (Mark Weitzman)

Contents:

Introduction

PART I - THE GENESIS OF THE JEWISH CONCEPT OF KIDDUSH HAHAYYIM:

1. Kiddush Hahayyim: The Genesis of a Jewish Concept

PART II – THE GHETTO: A TOOL FOR EXTERMINATION:

2. The Ghetto as a Tool for Extermination

PART III – KIDDUSH HAHAYYIM AND THE GHETTO COMMUNITY:

Introduction -Towards a Definition of the Jewish Community – 3. Educational Activities – 4. Cultural Activities – 5. Religious Activities – 6. Zionist Activities – 7. Underground Press

PART IV – KIDDUSH HAHAYYIM IN GHETTO LITERATURE AND ART:

8. Individual Creativity – 9. Poetry and Song – 10. Short Stories and Essays – 11. Eyewitness Accounts – 12. Art in the Ghetto – 13. Kiddush Hahayyim in the Concentration Camps and Death Camps

Part V:

Epilogue – Appendices – Bibliography - Credits

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J. M. Glass, Jewish Resistance During the Holocaust: Moral Uses of Violence and Will, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004 

Inside Flap:

The effectiveness of both political and spiritual resistance by Jews during the Holocaust is little understood. The general belief is that Jews did little to resist but the evidence shows just the opposite. The Jews resisted in considerable numbers and resisted against a regime and collaborators that dedicated themselves to their death. This book tells the story of Jewish violent and spiritual resistance; how powerful violent resistance was in sustaining personal and collective identity and how violent resistance saved lives, punished collaborators and threw roadblocks into the German policy of mass murder. Jews in the undergrounds and partisan communities demonstrated enormous courage under almost impossible odds. And their actions were often fierce and uncompromising. Yet the very fierceness of resistance raised moral issues that survivors even now find troubling. Spiritual resistance, as well, tells a story of unarmed, defenseless Jews unwilling to give up their faith, refusing to allow their will to be broken by German aggression. While spiritual resistance saved few lives, it still enabled Jews to sustain an identity and courage in the midst of the horror of mass shootings, gas chambers and crematoria.

Contents:

Introduction: Memory, Resistance and Reclaiming the Self

1. The Moral Justification of Killing - 2. Collective Trauma: The Disintegration of Ethics - 3. The Moral Position of Violence: Bielski Survivors - 4. The Moral Goodness of Violence: Necessity in the Forests - 5. Spiritual Resistance: Understanding its Meaning - 6. Condemned Spirit and the Moral Arguments of Faith - 7. The Silence of Faith Facing the Emptied-out Self - 8. Law and Spirit in Terrible Times

Notes - Index - Bibliography

Casella di testo

Citazione:

Resistenza ebraica al nazismo. Rassegna bibliografica, a cura di Stefano Aliberti, "Free Ebrei. Rivista online di identità ebraica contemporanea", V, 2, novembre 2016

url: http://www.freeebrei.com/anno-v-numero-2-luglio-dicembre-2016/resistenza-ebraica-al-nazismo-rassegna-bibliografica-a-cura-di-stefano-aliberti