Resistance During The Holocaust Analysis

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During WWII, many people, specifically Jewish individuals, suffered under Germany’s oppression; many of those people decided to either actively or passively resist. Those who chose to actively resist would use violence to avoid ignominy from dying in a gas chamber. On the other hand, those who passively resisted would attempt to maintain their dignity by surviving the many hardships they were presented with. In “The Diary of Anne Frank” and “Resistance During the Holocaust”, it explains how individuals would use different methods to passively resist. As a response to conflict, people passively resisted by maintaining hope, preserving culture, and providing safety. Many Jews in ghettos and death camps would passively resist by maintaining…show more content…
In the article “Resistance During the Holocaust”, it listed multiple ways Jews preserve culture in ghettos. Many of them would create poetry and art as a way to maintain culture: “ Other forms of resistance included… maintaining religious customs; drawing, painting, or secretly photographing observed events; and keeping records of ghetto life and hiding them… ” (¶ 6). By creating art and taking records during the Holocaust, many Jews were able to maintain internal meaning. It also allowed them to have some sort of freedom. While the Nazis were trying to trap the Jewish and strip them of rights, one thing they could not take was their creativity and mind. They took advantage of this, as a way to give them some hope. On the contrary, those who support active resistance may debate that a successful attack on the Nazis may give people more hope than art. While news of a successful attack did administer hope, art gives people more hope because it keeps records and it preserves memory. By keeping records, many Jews were able to preserve the memory of who they were. Future generations could learn about them and the Holocaust. Furthermore, the Jewish were not the only ones who would resist by maintaining their culture. Native Americans used this method to resist against white settlers in the early 1800’s. When U.S. settlers began to seep into Native American land, they would attempt to convert…show more content…
These people included Miep Gies and Victor Kugler (Mr. Kraler). In “The Diary of Anne Frank”, the Franks and Van Daans must go into hiding to avoid being persecuted by the Nazis. On the first day they stay in the Secret Annex, Mr. Kraler explains what it is like hiding the Franks: “This is what we call the white market… helping all the hundreds and hundreds who are hiding out in Amsterdam” (Kraler 285). By hiding the Jewish, people were able to save many lives and provide care. They disregarded the rules and risks to help innocent people who did not deserve to be punished. To them, doing what was right was more important than the consequences. On the contrary, others may claim that if they wanted to save the Jewish from Nazi terror, they could do sow by using force to overthrow the Nazis. While it was possible to be a non-Jewish partisans, it was more dangerous than simply hiding and protecting Jews. It is unreasonable to lower your chance of survival when there is a much safer option. Hiding Jews had a bigger impact on their chance of survival, and it did not endanger the lives of those who hid them. This is similar to the Underground Railroad, which existed from the late 1700’s to the Civil War. The Underground Railroad was used to offer shelter to runaway slaves, which were persecuted by their former owners. Both African Americans and white people would work as
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