Was Resistance to the Nazis Rational?

• In Event: New Perspectives on Jewish Resistance: Reconsidering the Holocaust

Abstract

Some Jews were embarrassed by the Holocaust because it might have shown that Jews were weak and unwilling to fight. After 1945 Jews were very interested in uncovering instances of Jewish resistance to the Nazis, and the assertion of dignity and honor. Resistance was uncovered, but perhaps exaggerated and mythologized. Was resistance always the morally right thing to do? Second, was it rational?

Author

• Zvi Yechiel Gitelman, University of Michigan