Jewish Partisans: Heros of WWII

November 7, 2015Gideon
There were plenty of Jews who were either outside the German controlled areas, or were able
to escape the Nazi concentration camps and join the Partisans. They fought the Nazis from all
directions, wearing verity of uniforms. They served bravely in higher percentage relative to their
size, and receiving significantly high number of medals compared to their size, to a point that
the Soviets stopped awarding medals to Jews because of the
implications. [http://www.ynet.co.il/articles/0,7340,L-4601024,00.html]
The inaccurate common belief that Jews did not fight the Nazis is based on the fact that over
six million civilian Jews were murdered by the Nazis. The Holocaust victims had no
combat training, no weapon, no military structure, and no intelligence services to worn them
about where the Nazis were taking them. They were no match to the well trained and well
equipped German forces.
The numbers tell the story:
About 1,500,000 Jewish soldiers fought the Nazis. 550,000 Jewish soldiers served in the US
army. 500,000 Jewish soldiers served in the Red Army. 100,000 Jewish soldiers served in the
Polish army. 30,000 Jewish soldiers served in the British army. About 20,000 Jews served in the
Partisan guerrilla forces. 5,000 Israelis served in the British brigade.
About 250,000 Jewish soldiers were killed in WW2. Over 200,000 Jewish soldiers who served in
the Red Army were killed while combating the Nazis. 120,000 of them were killed on the battle
field. 80,000 were captured by the Nazis and then were murdered by them. 38,338 is the
number of casualties of Jewish soldiers who served in the US armed forces. 11,000 were killed,
7,000 of them in combat.
160,000 Soviets Jewish soldiers received medals. 36,000 American Jewish soldiers received
medals.
Deep within the forests of WWII Poland, Lithuania, Belarus and the Ukraine, more than 20,000
Jews fought against the Nazis and Nazi collaborators. From as many as 100 tiny encampments,
armed brigades, often from holes in the ground, with whatever weapons they could construct,
trade for or steal, men, women and children organized to engage the German Army. They
executed tactical missions attacking the Nazis and their collaborators, blowing up trains,
bridges, police stations and telegraph lines. Most of them had witnessed the murder of their
families and friends before escaping to the forest. They carried out treacherous missions with
abandon, when possible carrying two grenadesone for their target and one for themselves in
case of capture. By 1944, Partisan vigilance had made the forests so dangerous that Nazi
soldiers were afraid to enter.[http://www.jewishfilm.org/fiscal_sponsorship_partisans.htm]

Jews escaped from Nazi ghettos and camps to form or join organized resistance groups. The
Jewish partisans were mostly Jewish teenagers, male and female, who fought against the Nazis
during World War II. The majority of them had no military experience. They escaped the ghettos
and work camps and joined organized resistance groups in the forests and urban underground.
While Non-Jewish partisans could sneak back to their homes for security and safety, the Jews
had no place to go. They were constantly moving through the shadows on the edges of the
cities and towns. Outsiders who came to fight the Nazis like Russian partisan groups in Poland
valued Jews who knew local terrain and could act as their scouts. Ten percent of the partisans
were women. Some were fighters and scouts; the majority was part of the vital infrastructure,
cooking for the group and caring for the sick. The Jews joined hundreds of thousands of nonJewish partisans who fought the Germans, but they had to worry about anti-Semitism among
the non-Jewish partisans. Often they formed all-Jewish groups to protect themselves from their
old neighbors. Jewish partisans fought the Nazis not just physically; it was important to the
Jews, since the Nazis wanted to take away their dignity and self-respect to hold prayer services
and teach Jewish children to read Hebrew. The first known Jewish resistance was in Belgium, in
1939, when the group The Jewish Solidarity was formed. Most of the Jewish partisans operated
in Eastern Europe. The Jews in France joined the resistance in 1940, after the Nazis took over
most of the country, leaving the south of France in control of their collaborators, the Vichy
French.
In the spring of 1941, after the Germans invaded Greece, which had two large Jewish
populations-in Solonika and Athens, Greek Jews joined the two main resistance groups, the
National Liberation Front and the National Popular Liberation Army. In Italy, many Jews joined
underground resistance groups like the Garibaldi and Freedom and Justice Fighters.
The partisans had few arms and little ammunition but were successful because they knew the
lay of the land and how to use the terrain to their own advantage. The partisans lived under
harsh conditions without real shelter to protect them from sub-freezing temperatures and storms
in the winter, or from the heat and rain in other seasons. Medical supplies were scarce, and
partisans died from infection and disease spread by lice. Bandages were washed and reused
whenever possible. Most successful partisan activities took place at night, under camouflage of
the dark and with the help of the local population. Without the locals who gave them food and
information, the non-Jewish partisans would never have made it through the war.
Jewish groups had an even tougher time, because in some areas there was vicious antiSemitism even among the locals, and so sometimes the Jews had to use force to get supplies
and information from them. The partisans begged, borrowed, bribed and stole whatever they
needed and did whatever they had to do in order to survive and fight against the Nazis. [Jewish
Partisan Educational Foundation]

The Bielski partisan group was one of the most significant Jewish resistance efforts against Nazi
Germany during World War II. The Bielski group leaders emphasized providing a safe haven for
Jews, particularly women, children, and elderly persons who managed to flee into the forests.
Under the protection of the Bielski group, more than 1,200 Jews survived the war.
[The Bielski Partisans United States Holocaust Memorial Museum]
Poles, Ukranians and White Russians, for example, were all used to killing Jews themselves
and therefore quite unwilling to have them join their fight, even against the common Nazi
enemy. In fact, the Home Army stated categorically that Jews would not be accepted into their
organisation. They and the Polish underground actually directed a campaign against Jewish
partisans, whom they described as criminal and subversive elements in the military. Polish
police and peasants (as well as those in many other Eastern European countries) were
encouraged to kill or hand over to the Germans many Jews who had fled to the forests.
The Jewish partisan units had names such as Struggle, Death to Fascism, Avengers and
For Victory. Their philosophy was encapsulated in their stated objective of revenge and
rescue. Some of the activities the Jewish partisan groups undertook were: attacking and
harassing German troops directly, cutting railway lines, establishing links between partisan
groups throughout Europe and setting up underground networks to rescue Jews and transport
them out of occupied Europe. http://www.holocaust.com.au/mm/j_partisans.htm
On July 20, 1941, the Germans order the establishment of a ghetto in Minsk. Within days of
the ghettos establishment, thousands of Jews are killed. Jews in the ghetto formed an
underground resistance network in August 1941. Members of the underground set up a printing
press and newspaper to distribute information to the ghetto population. The underground also
contacted partisan units outside the ghetto to find hiding places for Jews in the ghetto. In March
1942, the Germans carried out an action in the Minsk ghetto in which thousands are killed.
Shortly thereafter, members of the underground began leaving the ghetto for the forests where
they formed partisan units and fought the Germans. The partisans in the forests worked to
rescue Jews from the ghetto and bring them to the forests, where they established partisan
bases. Approximately 10,000 Jews fled the Minsk ghetto for the forests by 1944. Many lost their
lives in the attempt.
In January 1942 The Jewish Army of France (Armee Juive; AJ), is established by Zionist youth
groups in Toulouse, France. The AJ operateed throughout France, but was particularly active in
the southern regions. Members were recruited from both Jewish and non-Jewish youth and
resistance groups and were trained in military and sabotage activities. AJ members smuggled
money out of Switzerland to France to distribute to Jewish relief agencies. This money helped
thousands of Jews in hiding. The AJ assassinated some of those who cooperated with the
Germans and smuggled about 500 Jews and non-Jews across the border into neutral Spain. In

1943 and 1944, the AJ establisheed close ties with Allied forcesincluding General Charles de
Gaulles Free French of the Interior (FFI) forces. In 1944, during the liberation of France, the AJ
participated in uprisings in Paris, Lyon, and Toulouse against the German occupation.
On January 21, 1942 after reports of mass killings of Jews at Ponary, outside Vilna, members
of Zionist youth movements established the United Partisan Organization
(Fareynegte Partizaner Organizatsye, FPO) in the Vilna ghetto. The organization prepared to
resist the Germans in the event that the ghetto is threatened with destruction and established
contact with other ghettos to acquire weapons and encourage resistance. In early September
1943, the Germans deported Jews from the ghetto and were confronted with resistance by FPO
members. The FPO decided to abandon the ghetto and fled to the nearby forests to fight the
Germans from the outside. The last group of resistance fighters escaped the final destruction of
the ghetto on September 23, 1943. They left the ghetto through the sewers and joined partisans
in the Rudninkai and Naroch forests.[http://www.ushmm.org/outreach/en/article.php?
ModuleId=10007743]
In the summer of 1942, about 300,000 Jews were deported from Warsaw to Treblinka. When
reports of mass murder in the killing center leaked back to the Warsaw ghetto, a surviving group
of mostly young people formed an organization called the Z.O.B. (for the Polish name,
Zydowska Organizacja Bojowa, which means Jewish Fighting Organization). The Z.O.B., led by
23-year-old Mordecai Anielewicz, issued a proclamation calling for the Jewish people to resist
going to the railroad cars. In January 1943, Warsaw ghetto fighters fired upon German troops as
they tried to round up another group of ghetto inhabitants for deportation. Fighters used a small
supply of weapons that had been smuggled into the ghetto. After a few days, the troops
retreated. This small victory inspired the ghetto fighters to prepare for future resistance.
On April 19, 1943, the Warsaw ghetto uprising began after German troops and police entered
the ghetto to deport its surviving inhabitants. Seven hundred and fifty fighters fought the heavily
armed and well-trained Germans. The ghetto fighters were able to hold out for nearly a month,
but on May 16, 1943, the revolt ended. The Germans had slowly crushed the resistance. Of the
more than 56,000 Jews captured, about 7,000 were shot, and the remainder were deported to
camps[http://www.ushmm.org/outreach/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007745]
Often, too, a Jew who managed to escape the ghetto, andat terrible riskreach the forest
with his own weapon, would be forced to retrace his steps and return to the ghetto. Such
experiences owed to the sad fact that even within the resistance movement, anti-Semitic
elements could not be held in check. This regrettable state of affairs deterred many Jews from
fleeing to the forests. Certain changes for the better began in the summer of 1942, when the
Supreme Partisan Headquarters in the Soviet Union extended its authority over the majority of
partisan units in Eastern Europe. For example, an ever-increasing number of family camps, to

which Jewish partisans were admitted with their households and relatives, were established
throughout Byelorussia.
Such arrangements, which saved several thousand helpless Jewswomen, children, the
elderly, and the sickwere maintained until the region was liberated by the Red Army in the
summer of 1944. These changes, however, came too late: the vast majority of the Jewish
population already had been annihilated by mid-1942.
The facts speak for themselves: when many Jews yet remained alive, they could not find
partisan camps to which to escape. And once such camps existed, few Jews had survived to
join them. Consequently, the number of Jewish partisans in the forests of this area never
exceeded 15,000. For them, partisan warfare served both national and personal objectives. On
the one hand, it contributed to the active role European Jews played in the international war
against Nazism. On the other hand, it fulfilled their desire to avenge the murders of their
families and fellow Jews.
Facing endemic anti-Semitism and the scorn of their non-Jewish comrades-in-arms, they
yearned to prove themselves on the field of battle. Indeed, many distinguished themselves,
derailing enemy trains, blowing up bridges, and engaging in hand-to-hand combat. A
considerable number earned decorations for heroism and valour. No ribbon or medallion,
however, could ease the sense of isolation often experienced by Jewish combatants serving in
predominantly Byelorussian, Lithuanian, or Russian battalions.
The Jewish fighters combat potential found its ultimate expression in the wholly Jewish partisan
units. Established in 1943, these included mostly former members of Zionist and other youth
movements, which had been reorganized in the ghetto underground. Led by talented
commanders, virtually all of whom evidenced a degree of Jewish national consciousness, these
units maintained a remarkable sense of Jewish identity. This was characterized by use of the
Yiddish language for military communication, as well as for cultural and folkloric expressions,
such as poetry and song.
Cultural activities continued even after the Jewish units were disbanded or absorbed, for
political reasons, into nationally-mixed partisan units. Here, as in the all-Jewish units, the
combatants found many and varied ways to express their individuality. One example is the time
spent in the evenings around the campfire. The atmosphere of comradeship there facilitated
expression of the participants feelings and hopes through the medium of song. Lyrics focused
mainly on themes such as homesickness, concern for family still in the ghettos, grief for
murdered loved ones, and the desire to take revenge. [http://holocaustmusic.ort.org/resistanceand-exile/partisa