Jews of Bielorussia During Wwi by Cholawsky

Author:Cholawsky [Cholawsky]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, General, Religion
ISBN: 9781134408337
Google: QxypDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2018-12-07T01:33:42+00:00

CHAPTER 8

The Resistance

In the previous chapters we have described the terror cast upon the Jewish community, its suffocating isolation, the lack of means and the inner restraints — all the factors that prevented the Jewish underground from conducting resistance, rebellion or self-defense within the ghettos. We should emphasize that the story of Jewish self-defense in the ghettos does not in reality fully reflect the strength of the desire and impulse to revolt and exact revenge that filled the hearts of many Jews, especially the youth.

Eyewitnesses testifying about the Holocaust in their towns and amongst their families are very naturally under the impression of the mass murders they saw with their own eyes and that impression turns into the dominant motive of their testimony. Under the impression of the reawakened experiences of the abominations and killings their minds are diverted from the spirit of revolt that prevailed in the ghettos. Still, that spirit does find reflection in their testimony. One reflection of what was in the hearts of many ghetto Jews was can find in the words of G. Bill of Kobryn: “God Almighty! If only the ghetto had been organized then; if only we had had at least the weapons in order to give the sign for revolt!”1

The question of whether to revolt in the ghetto or to fight from the forest was certainly discussed in many of the underground organizations. However, in many places it was not decided in advance but only in the course of time and as a result of the changing situation. Still, we can affirm that the flight to the forest was included a priori and not only post factum by the Jewish resistance movement in all the ghettos and other communities, even in those which had no underground organizations.

It is possible to classify the Western Bielorussian ghettos according to the criterion of the resistance they displayed, as follows: ghettos where there were calls for resistance; ghettos where there was local self-defense; ghettos where there were preparations for revolt that ended in flight; ghettos where there were local revolts; ghettos where there were revolts but no underground organization; and ghettos from which there were mass escapes.

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