Jewish resistance during the Holocaust
Subtitle: moral uses of violence and will
By: James M. Glass.
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Published: 2004
Place of publication: Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 206
Subjects: World War, 1939-1945 -- Jewish resistance -- Moral and ethical aspects.; Violence -- Moral and ethical aspects.; Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945) -- Moral and ethical aspects.
Description: "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."--Jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 189-197) and index.