Jewish resistance under Nazi rule

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. Concepts and definitions The historian Julian Jackson argued that there were three forms of Jewish resistance in the course of his study of the German occupation of France: "first, individual French Jews in the general Resistance; secondly, specifically Jewish organizations in the general Resistance; thirdly, Resistance organizations (not necessarily comprising Jews alone) with specifically Jewish objectives." In his book The Holocaust: The Jewish Tragedy, Martin Gilbert defines Jewish resistance more widely. He recounts widespread individual resistance in many forms. Jews fought oppressors with the weapons they could find. But Gilbert emphasizes that many Jews resisted passively; by enduring suffering and even death with dignity, they refused to satisfy German attackers' desire to see them despair. Gilbert writes, "Simply to survive was a victory of the human spirit." Nechama Tec argues that any of the complex and varying acts of defiance against the restrictive and demoralizing conditions forced upon the Jews of Europe should be considered spiritual resistance. Tec asserts that actions such as ghetto leaders scavenging resources for food and medicine, or the employment and preservation of Jewish art and artists in Germany through the creation of Jewish Cultural Association serve as a passive means of resisting the Nazi aim to destroy the identity and culture of Judaism.