page_title: Jewish resistance in German-occupied Europe
section_title: Concentration Camps
hierarchical_section_title: Jewish resistance in German-occupied Europe / Types of resistance / Concentration Camps
caption_attribution_description: English: A clandestine photograph of the burning German death camp Treblinka II perimeter taken by Franciszek Ząbecki, eye witness to every Holocaust transport that came into the camp. The Treblinka uprising was launched on 2 August 1943 at 3:45 p.m. During the uprising prisoner barracks were set ablaze, including a tank of petrol which exploded spreading flames on the surrounding structures. A group of armed Jews attacked the main gate. See also hiqh quality photo: http://www.jhi.pl/uploads/image/file/2778/full_hd__MGL9186.jpg Polski: Sekretne zdjęcie palącego się obozu zagłady Treblinka II zrobione przez Franciszka Ząbeckiego, świadka transportów Holocaustu pracującego na stacji kolejowej w Treblince. Powstanie wybuchło 2go sierpnia 1943 o godz. 3:45 po południu. Żydowscy powstańcy którzy zaatakowali bramę główną, podpalili baraki i cysternę z benzyną, która wybuchła.
context_page_description: Jewish resistance under Nazi rule took various forms of organized underground activities conducted against German occupation regimes in Europe by Jews during World War II. According to historian Yehuda Bauer, Jewish resistance was defined as actions that were taken against all laws and actions acted by Germans. The term is particularly connected with the Holocaust and includes a multitude of different social responses by those oppressed, as well as both passive and armed resistance conducted by Jews themselves.
  Due to military strength of Nazi Germany and its allies, as well as the administrative system of ghettoization and the hostility of various sections of the civilian population, few Jews were able to effectively resist the Final Solution militarily. Nevertheless, there are many cases of attempts at resistance in one form or another including over a hundred armed Jewish uprisings. Historiographically, the study of Jewish resistance to German rule is considered an important aspect of the study of the Holocaust.
context_section_description: There were major resistance efforts in three of the extermination camps.
  In August 1943, an uprising took place at the Treblinka extermination camp. The participants obtained guns and grenades after two young men used forged keys and snuck into the armory unit. The weapons were then distributed around the camp in garbage bins. However, during the distribution of arms, a Nazi guard stopped a prisoner and found contraband money on him. Fearing that the prisoner would be tortured and give away the plan, the organizers decided to launch the revolt ahead of schedule without completing the distribution of weapons, and set off a single grenade—the agreed-upon signal for the uprising. The prisoners then attacked the Nazi guards with guns and grenades. Several German and Ukrainian guards were killed, a fuel tank was set on fire, barracks and warehouses were burned, military vehicles were disabled, and grenades were thrown at the SS headquarters. The guards replied with machine-gun fire, and 1,500 inmates were killed—but 70 inmates escaped to freedom. The guards chased those who had escaped on horseback and in cars, but some of those who escaped were armed, and returned the guards' fire. Gassing operations at the camp were interrupted for a month.
  In October 1943, an uprising took place at Sobibór extermination camp, led by Polish-Jewish prisoner Leon Feldhendler and Soviet-Jewish POW Alexander Pechersky. The inmates covertly killed 11 German SS officers, including the deputy commander, and a number of Ukrainian guards. Although the plan was to kill all of SS members and walk out of the main gate of the camp, the guards discovered the killings and opened fire. The inmates then had to run for freedom under fire, with roughly 300 of the 600 inmates in the camp escaping alive. All but 50–70 of the inmates were killed in the surrounding minefields or recaptured and murdered by the Germans. However, the escape forced the Nazis to close the camp, saving countless lives.
  On October 7, 1944, the Jewish Sonderkommandos (inmates kept separate from the main camp and put to work in the gas chambers and crematoria) at Auschwitz staged an uprising. Female inmates had smuggled in explosives from a weapons factory, and Crematorium IV was partly destroyed by an explosion. At this stage they were joined by the Birkenau One Kommando, which also overpowered their guards and broke out of the compound. The inmates then attempted a mass escape, but were stopped by heavy fire. Three SS guards were killed in the uprising, including one who was pushed alive into an oven. Almost all of the 250 escapees were killed. There were also international plans for a general uprising in Auschwitz, coordinated with an Allied air raid and a Polish resistance attack from the outside.
caption: Smoke rising from Treblinka extermination camp during the prisoner uprising of August 1943
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