Though the Jewish partisans made up only 10% of the total partisan force of Lithuania, they were responsible for over 79% of the sabotage to Nazi trains.
There may still be some people around who think European Jews went to their deaths in the camps like "sheep to the slaughter." Let's put aside for a moment the implicit assumption that these ordinary citizens of Poland, Germany, France, could have physically "fought back" and kept themselves from being loaded onto cattle cars without massive help from the outside, which was withheld. That's like blaming the rape victim. They were in the same position as the passengers of the planes that flew into the WTC: nothing like this had ever happened before, they weren't soldiers, just people trying to live their lives, they couldn't see into the future. Yes, some sensed danger and left, others tried to leave and couldn't (my family was in both situations before making it to the USA), and most resisted in whatever way they could.
But once the war was on and the Nazi plans began to surface (and in the fog of war it took a while for anyone to figure out just what the Nazis were trying to do - most Jews thought they were going to internment camps for the duration), Jews who had not been rounded up formed into partisan groups and fought (and sang). Even in the concentration camps, including the women's camps, sick starved tortured prisoners staged uprisings.
BTW the partisans didn't blow themselves up, nor did they blow up women and children.

<< Home