CLICK ON A PHOTO, IT WILL ENLARGE IT AND SHOW THE DESCRIPTION.

RESISTANCE

A PARTISAN

A PARTISAN, is a “member of an organized body of fighters who attack or harass an enemy, especially within occupied territory,” and during World War II these groups destroyed railroad tracks, blew up fortifications, ambushed German-occupied towns, and disrupted communications in order to stop the invading Nazis. The lives of partisans were incredibly tough. In most cases if a Jew escaped into the forest and encountered a 100% Russian or Polish groups they were robbed or shot. Most did not accept Jews unless they brought a weapon. Also notice there are no pictures of children because they could not survive there. There were a lot of Jews in the Markov Brigade because Col Markov' prewar wife was Jewish, so he was more accepting of young Jewish men and women.

BEIELSKI PARTISAN GROUP

BIELSKI PARTISAN GROUP, members of the Bielski Partisan Unit in Nalibocka forest, 1943. Aron Bieski is front row, center.

BELORUSSIAN RESISTANCE

BELORUSSIAN RESISTANCE, Byelorussian guerillas posing in a forest, circa 1943; note PPD-40 submachine gun, Mosin-Nagant M1891 rifle, and German bayonet. The partisan movement was so strong that by 1943–44 there were entire regions in occupied Belarus, where Soviet authority was re-established deep inside the German held territories. There were even partisan kolkhozes that were raising crops and livestock to produce food for the partisans. During the battles for liberation of Belarus, partisans were considered the fourth Belarusian front. As early as the spring of 1942 the Soviet partisans were able to effectively harass German troops and significantly hamper their operations in the region.

DR GISELA PERL

DR. GISELA PERL, was born in Siget (now belongs to Romania). After graduating high school, she went on to study medicine and later specialized in gynecology. With the Germans invasion of the city in 1944, Dr. Pearl was sent with her family to the ghetto and later to Auschwitz. Because of her medical background, she was sent to work in a clinic in the camp. Dr. Pearl is famous in the camp for helping pregnant women in abortions because, the debt of a pregnant woman, was dead in the gas cells, or undergoing difficult experiments by Dr. Mengele. Dr. Pearl performed the abortions late at night and in hiding, with her bare hands and without appropriate medical equipment, at considerable risk. Later Dr. Pearl was moved to Bergen-Belsen, where she lived until the liberation of the camp. After the release she became aware of the death of her family members, including her husband and son. Heartbroken, she tried to commit suicide but failed. Her daughter, Gabriella, who was hidden during the Holocaust, survived. In 1947 she immigrated to the United States. Her initial application for citizenship was met with refusal given by Americans' suspicions of collaborating with the Nazis in the war. Later, and in light of the involvement of American politicians in the matter, she received American citizenship in 1951 and returned to work as a gynecologist at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York and became a world-renowned specialist in the field of fertility, it is said that she helped with the birth of more than 3,000 babies.

ELIAHU BORAKS MEMBER OFF JEWISH UNDERGROUND IN VILNA AND BIALYSTOK GHETTOS

ELIAHU BORAKS, MEMBER OF JEWISH UNDERGROUND IN VILNA AND BIALYSTOK GHETTOS, at the outbreak of the war, he was drafted and served in the Polish army. In 1940 he arrived in Vilnius.

FIGHTERS OF THE WARSAW GHETTO UPRISING

FIGHTERS OF THE WARSAW GHETTO UPRISING, from right: Małka Zdrojewicz, Bluma and Rachela Wyszogrodzka. They took shelter in a bunker with a weapons cache and were forced out by SS soldiers. Bluma Wyszogrodzka was shot. Małka Zdrojewicz and Rachela Wyszogrodzka were marched to the Umschlagplatz and deported to Majdanek concentration camp, where Rachela Wyszogrodzka was murdered. Małka Zdrojewicz survived the war and moved to Israel.

FRANK BLAICHMAN

FRANK BLAICHMAN, born in the small town of Kamionka, Poland, on December 11, 1922, Frank Blaichman was just sixteen years old when the German army invaded his country in 1939. Following the invasion, German officials issued regulations intended to isolate the Jews and deprive them of their livelihood. Frank took great risks to help his parents and family survive these hardships. With a bicycle, he rode from the neighboring farms to nearby cities, buying and selling goods at each destination. He refused to wear the Star of David View This Term in the Glossary armband and traveled without the required permits, but his courage and fluent Polish ensured his safety. When word spread that the Jews of Kamionka were to be resettled in a nearby ghetto, Frank hid in a bushy area outside of town. He stayed with a friendly Polish farmer and then joined other Jews hiding in a nearby forest. In the forest, the threat of being discovered was constant and Polish hoodlums beat any women who left the encampment. Frank encouraged the men to organize a defense unit. He obtained firearms by posing as a Polish policeman, using an overcoat he had found. After a German attack on the partisans’ encampment killed eighty Jews, the survivors left the forest to hide with sympathetic farmers. Always on the move, they killed German collaborators, destroyed telephone lines, damaged dairy factories, and ambushed German patrols. Frank’s squad joined a larger all-Jewish unit, with strong ties to the Polish underground and Soviet army. They were responsible for protecting 200 Jews living in a forest encampment. Only 21, he was the youngest platoon commander in the unit and escorted the future prime minister of Poland to a secret meeting with Soviet high command.

GERMAN RESISTANCE TO HITLER

GERMAN RESISTANCE TO HITLER, a group of leading Socialists arrives at the Kislau camp. Under SA guard, a group of leading Socialists arrives at the Kislau camp, one of the early concentration camps. Local Social Democratic party leader Ludwig Marum is fourth from the left in the line of arrivals. Kislau, Germany, May 16, 1933. Landesbildstelle Baden.

GROUP OF PARTISANS

GROUP OF JEWISH PARTISANS, fighters in Soviet territories, circa 1942-1944. (Wiener Holocaust Library Collections)

GROUP PORTRAIT

GROUP PORTRAIT, of a Jewish partisan unit operating in the Lithuanian forests. Many of its members had been involved in resistance activities in the Kovno ghetto. Lithuania, 1944.

IRENA SENDLER

IRENA SENDLER, Irena Sendler was a Polish Roman Catholic social worker in the city who already had links with Zegota, the code name for the Council for Aid to Jews, and in December 1942 Zegota put her in charge of its children’s department.

JEWISH PARTISANS GRODNO AREA

JEWISH PARTISANS GRODNO AREA, the "Lenin" Partisan Brigade, active in the Zhetl region, Poland, during WWII. The Jews in Grodno were separated in two closed ghettos. The first ghetto was located in the center of the old city near the local fortress and crowded together 15,000 Jews classified as “productive.” The second, 1.5 miles away, held 10,000 in a larger area. Deportations from Grodno began in November 1942. Thousands of Jews were sent to Auschwitz, to the transit camp of Kielbasin (on their way to the death camps) and to Treblinka. Soviet troops liberated Grodno on July 14, 1944. About 200 Jews from the city were still alive, including partisans. Ambushed a German tank in Byelorussia (Belarus),1943.

JEWISH PARTISANS OF MONASTIR

JEWISH PARTISANS OF MONASTIR, on 22 June 1941, Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union. Heading the Regional Communist Central Committee was an open supporter of Bulgaria. The Macedonians were split over the question of annexation – did the annexation of Macedonia to Bulgaria mean liberation or occupation? This dilemma continued for two years, and for a long while almost no action was taken against the fascists. A few isolated incidents of sabotage are recorded, as well as the establishment of a few groups of rebels that soon failed and broke up. Those Jews willing to join battle units went underground and organized attacks – and then fled in the face of military might. Earlier, in May 1941, about a month after the annexation of Macedonia to Bulgaria, approximately 100 rifles and some ammunition was stockpiled in the house of Benjamin Russo, in the hope that it would be used against the Nazis and their collaborators. Despite their difficult circumstances and the constricted living space in the Jewish quarter, the Jews of Monastir attempted underground activities: Jewish homes were used to store and repair weapons, make copies of and distribute propaganda material, collect equipment for first aid and give shelter to the partisans. Totaling some 10 percent of the town’s overall population, the Jews comprised close to three-quarters of all underground activists. Even though the heads of the communist parties warned the young Jews against joining combat units, many initiatives taken by the youth of Monastir to find a way to join different partisan units succeeded. The partisans fought against the Chetnics (Yugoslav units that supported the Germans), the Bulgarian, German and Italian units. Each member of the underground was given a nickname, making it is difficult to know the exact number of Jewish fighters. The estimate is that dozens of young Jewish men and women from Monastir fought in the different units. In 1942, Victor Meshulam (known as “Bustrik”), Mordechai Todelano (“Spiro”) and Joseph Russo (“Pipo”) joined the “Damyan Gruev” unit (named after the Macedonian hero who fought in the 1903 revolt against the Turks). Joining the “Yana Sandrinski” unit were: Benjamin Russo (“Kiki”), Mordo-Mordechai Nachmias (“Lazo”) and Nissim Alba (“Miki”). Aharon Aroesti and Yosef Lazar were returned to Monastir with the suggestion that they continue to operate in their local underground unit. On the eve of the deportation, in March 1943, eight more youths managed to join the partisans: Shlomo Sadikario (“Mo”), Shmuel Sadikario (“Simoliko”), Albert Kasorela (“Berto”), Albert Russo (“Kote”), Estreja Ovadja (“Mara”), Jamila Kolonomos (“Tsveta”), Stella Levi (“Lena”) and Adela Faradji (“Kata”). Joining the Greek partisan units were: Shmuel Kalderon (“Bima”), David Kalderon, Marcel Demajo, Joseph Pipo Hason, Mantesh Ischach, Pinchas Ischach and Helena Leon Ishach. In addition, the brothers Albert (Avraham Segev) and Moshe Kasorela, and Joseph and Shimon Aroesti fled Monastir. They waited for a partisan unit to contact them, but when the message was delayed, they fled to Albania, where they joined the partisans after the Italian surrender. One of the first fighters was Rafael Bationo, one of the organizers of the anti-fascist revolt in the Sanjak region. Bationo, known by his underground name as Misha Tzevtakovich, was killed in battle in 1942. Aharon Aroesti, Marcel Demajo, Mordechai Todelano, Mordo-Mordechai Nachmias, Estreja Ovadja, Joseph Piso, Shlomo Sadikario, Shmuel Sadikario, Yitzhak Sarfati and others also lost their lives in battle. Many of those who died were senior officers. Shlomo Sadikario, who was killed in the battle at Kumanovo, was the commissar of the brigade. His brother Shmuel, who was commissar of the parachute regiment, was killed in 1945. Among the partisans was a parachutist from the Jewish Brigade, Nisim Testa-Arazi, born in Monastir, who parachuted into Serbia in April 1944. When Testa volunteered to parachute into enemy territory, he didn't know that his entire family, which he had left behind in Monastir when he emigrated to Eretz Israel in 1939, were already dead.

JEWISH PARTISANS VILNA AREA

JEWISH PARTISANS VILNA AREA, 'Avengers' partisan group led by Abba Kovner. Kneeling in the front aiming his gun is Benjamin Levin. The FPO continually pleaded with the Jews of Vilna to join the partisans in a popular uprising. Realizing Vilna’s Jews would not rise up before the final destruction of the ghetto, Kovner sent the majority of the partisans (about 300) into the forest. Those who stayed, including Kovner, took up positions in abandoned buildings and briefly fought the Germans before escaping the destruction. Kovner led the remaining partisans to the Rudnicki Forest where the "Avengers" earned a distinguished record, destroying over 180 miles of train tracks, 5 bridges, 40 enemy train cars, killing 212 enemy soldiers and rescuing at least 71 Jews. Kovner was convinced that Jews could gain self-respect through fighting, and that Jews must fight as Jews. He refused to be absorbed into Lithuanian or Russian partisan groups.

LUBARTOV GHETTO RESISTANCE FIGHTERS

LUBARTOV GHETTO RESISTANCE FIGHTERS, group portrait of a Jewish partisan unit in the Parczew Forest, Poland, 1943-1944. Despite great obstacles, Jews throughout occupied Europe attempted armed resistance against the Germans and their Axis partners. They faced overwhelming odds and desperate scenarios, including lack of weapons and training, operating in hostile zones, parting from family members, and facing an ever-present Nazi terror. Yet thousands resisted by joining or forming partisan units. Only forty Jews had survived the liquidation of the Lubartów Ghetto. Some of them were rescued by the Poles, others hid in the forests. Josek Honiksblum and his wife Bluma survived hidden by the Czekański family in their home at Lipowa 3 Street. Dora Wajnbert with her sister Noma and her one-and-a-half-year-old baby were rescued by Jan Sienkiewicz living at Legionów 55 Street. Among the Jews who escaped the mass murder thanks to their Christian neighbors.

RESISTANCE BY DOCTORS

RESISTANCE BY DOCTORS, some doctors, nurses, and scientists—including Jews who were Nazi targets themselves—risked their safety to care for those being persecuted during the Holocaust. Dr. David Arolianski treats a patient in his clinic in the Kovno ghetto. He was killed in a bunker during the ghetto’s liquidation in 1944. US Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of George Kadish/Zvi Kadushin

RESISTANCE FIGHTER

RESISTANCE FIGHTER, preparing a bomb on train tracks in France.

RESISTANCE IN OCCUPIED EUROPE

RESISTANCE IN OCCUPIED EUROPE, a hanged Belarussian resistance member, Minsk, 1942/1943.

SPIRITUAL RESISTANCE DURING THE HOLOCAUST

SPIRITUAL RESISTANCE DURING THE HOLOCAUST, Warsaw, Poland, Jews around a seder table in a shelter on 6 Leszno St. in the ghetto, reading from the Passover Haggadah.

STANISLAWA LESZCZYNSKA

STANISLAWA LESZCZYNSKA, 127 years ago Stanisława Leszczyńska was born, a midwife who delivered nearly 3000 births in the inhumane conditions of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp.

THE BIELSKI PARTISANS

THE BIELSKI PARTISANS, the Bielski Brothers: Jerusalem in the Woods: they provided food, shelter, and protection to many homeless and endangered Jews. After the war, it was said they created a Jewish homeland in the woods. Since Jerusalem is in a Jewish homeland, that is the title that was given to the photo.

THOUSANDS OF JEHOVAH’ WITNESSES

JEHOVAH’ WITNESSES, included amongst the millions of Holocaust victims.

VILNA GHETTO PARTISANS

VILNA GHETTO PARTISANS, World War II, in Vilna, Lithuania with Jewish partisans who entered the city with the Red Army. Following the events in the ghetto of the 1st of September 1943, the Staff Command of the FPO reluctantly decided not to begin a fight to the death. Among their many concerns was further endangering the inhabitants of the ghetto. Instead they began to gradually send their members to fight in the forests. In the second week of September about 150 FPO members left the sealed ghetto with their weapons via underground passageways or rooftops to the Narocz forest about 120km to the east of Vilna. On the day of the liquidation of the ghetto, the 23rd of September, about 90 FPO members left the ghetto through the sewers to the Rudniki forest. Four of them were caught by the German guards and hanged in Rossa square in front of the Jews who were assembled there prior to their being deported to Estonia. They were the FPO Staff Command members Abraham Chwojnik, his girlfriend Asia Bick, Jacob Kaplan and another young man.

YOUNG PARTISAN

YOUNG PARTISAN, Rachel Rudnitzki, together with other armed comrades in the streets of Vilna during the liberation of the city. July 13, 1944.

WARSAW GHETTO UPRISING

WARSAW GHETTO FIGHTERS, Jews captured during suppression of Warsaw Ghetto Uprising by Vafan SS soldiers. The photograph - from a report submitted by Jürgen Strop, who commanded the elimination of the Warsaw ghetto rebellion. Poland, April-May 1943. First from the right: Hasia Shilgold-Shapira.

MILA 18 MEMORIAL

MILA 18 MEMORIAL, Ulica Miła 18 was the headquarters “bunker” of the Jewish Combat Organization, a Jewish resistance group in the Warsaw Ghetto in Poland during World War II.