New Perspectives on Jewish Resistance: Reconsidering the Holocaust

Session Submission Type: Panel Session

Abstract

In the aftermath of the Holocaust there were understandable efforts to uncover instances of Jewish resistance in order to dispel the perception that Jews had been unwilling to fight. There were also many attempts to re-define resistance more broadly, and to include behavior other than armed resistance.

This panel raises new questions about Jewish resistance. How should we define Jewish resistance? Where and when was resistance effective? What kinds of resistance, if any, were rational? Have we overemphasized resistance and minimized trauma and breakdown?
What do we now know about Jewish resistance that was not known or recognized immediately after the Shoah?

We also focus on new work on Jewish resistance that is only now being uncovered and analyzed, and how that influences and changes our views of Jewish resistance.

This panel represents an interdisciplinary approach with individuals who are historians, sociologists, and political scientists.

Sub Unit

• Holocaust Studies

Chair

• Jeffrey Veidlinger, University of Michigan

Individual Presentations

• Was Resistance to the Nazis Rational? - Zvi Yechiel Gitelman, University of Michigan

• The Untold Story of the Kashariyot: Jewish Women Undercover Agents on the Aryan Side - Lenore J. Weitzman, Jewish Book Council

• Resistance and Trauma in Ghetto Reportage and Diaries - Samuel D. Kassow, Trinity College

Respondent

• Jeffrey Veidlinger, University of Michigan