by Quagmire » Fri 10 Oct 2008, 16:57:30
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'D')oes anyone know of any research done on the Jews in the '30's? Who left and why? What made them leave when others stayed? Maybe there is an answer there?
Yes. I just read
"No Time To Mourn" for this very reason. The answers were haunting to say the least. There was massive denial, even though some of those who climbed out of the death pits made their way back to the towns to warn the others. They were not believed, except by a few. These were the ones who left, or chose to stay in the ghettos and figured out how to smuggle in arms and create a resistance from within.
After all, the truth was just too awful to be believed by the vast majority. Most could not comprehend the enormity and gravity of the situation.... "Just be a good citizen, do what you're told, co-operate, and things will eventually get better."
This book was written by one of the few who chose to flee to the forests and fight.
snippet of review:
"The author was the only one of his immediate family to escape the Holocaust, his accounts are moving and more than once did I find myself having to reread a paragraph or two to realize that what I'm reading is actually written there. Details of life under German occupation and in a German ghetto, running away from a ghetto and stumbling into the forests in seek of rumored Partisans. Finding them and other groups of entire families as they try to make the best of the situation as they struggle to survive in the forests and wilderness of Eastern Europe while the Germans and their collaborators keep an ever watchful eye out for them. Joining a Partisan group and giving battle to the Germans and those who are helping them by betraying their former friends and neighbors, all of this is recounted with the utmost feeling and, in my opinion, honesty."
and
"It is estimated that there were approximately twenty-five thousand Jews that escaped to the forests during the Holocaust.
The True Story of a Jewish Partisan Fighter states that many historians dismiss the plight of Jewish partisan resistance as inconsequential due to the fact that there were small numbers who survived as compared to the millions who were murdered in the Holocaust. However, these historians fail to understand the enormity of their struggle. As he most appropriately asserts: "The question should not be, why did more Jews not resist, but rather, how, under the circumstances, was any resistance possible at all?"
Take heed and learn from the past, folks. This should be required reading. Also the DVD
"The Partisans of Vilna" deals with the same subject. Very moving documentary.
Quag