Rescue and Resistance

Jewish Fighting Organization Established

July 22, 1942, Germans began massive deportations of Jews until September 12, 1942

More than 250,000 Jews are deported or killed during this time

July 28, 1942, the Zydowska Organizacja Bojowa or Jewish Fighting Organization is formed

Polish Resistance forces provide training, armaments, and explosives

Mordecai Anielewicz is appointed Commander

Germans Encounter Resistance

January 18, 1943- January 31, 1943

Renewal of Deportations

Germans encounter resistance from the ZOB

Some Jews retreat into hiding places; others take up arms and fight

Germans deported or killed 5,000-6,500 Jews

Warsaw turns into a base for ZOB

Ghetto Destroyed; Uprising Ends

Germans blow up the Great Synagogue

April 19, 1943, General Juergen Stroop begins destruction and deportation of the Warsaw Ghetto Jews

Germans burn building by building to force out the Jews

Over 56,000 Jews were reported captured and sent to forced labor camps or extermination camps out of 50,000 left in Warsaw

1943

 It's one of the great untold stories of World War II In 1943, in German-occupied Denmark, the Danish people find out that all 7,500 DANISH JEWS are about to be rounded up and deported to German concentration camps. Danish citizens spontaneously make their own decision: it's not going to happen. And it didn't. Risking their own lives, the Danes quickly rallied round to save their fellow citizens, and almost all of the country's Jews were able to escape the clutches of the Nazis and find refuge in neutral Sweden

Denmark was a small idyllic country of 4 million people, with a history of taking in immigrants from countries such as Germany, Holland, Sweden, and Poland. Before the war, Denmark's small Jewish population was well integrated into the community.On April 9, 1940, Germany attacked Denmark. From then until 1945, Denmark was under German occupation. Most Danes were pro-British and anti-Nazi, but they were also aware of the need to adjust to living in a German-dominated Europe.  Danes and Germans quickly worked out the terms of occupation. King Christian X remained in Denmark, unlike his fellow monarchs in Norway and the Netherlands who fled to escape the Germans and establish resistance movements in England. The Danish government continued to rule. The Danes agreed to supply rich agricultural produce and other goods to the Germans.By the following year, however, a Danish resistance movement had begun, but it made little headway until 1943. Then the mood in Denmark began to change.

targets and businesses working for the occupiers were hit by a wave of sabotage actions. There was also labor unrest, with massive strikes - widely supported by the populace - in many Danish cities.

Resistance Inside Germany

Many Germans were anti- Nazi

There were many attempts to assonate Hitler

Many groups even formed that were anti- Nazi

Many of the rebels were arrested and put in the camps

Resistance Inside Germany: key dates

The “White Rose” movement were several twenty year olds protesting and fighting for the Jews 1942-1943

The founders of “White Rose” Hans and Sophie Scholl (brother and sister) were executed in Munich in 1942

Harnack is a leading figure in the wide-ranging Soviet spy network was executed in 1942

Bombing of Hitler’s headquarters in 1943 by military officers in an attempt to assonate him

War Refugee Board Henry Morgenthau, Jr., the Secretary of Treasury, persuaded President

Franklin D. Roosevelt to establish the War Refugee Board.

The US confirmed reports of the mass murder of Jews in 1942, but stayed quiet because they felt that the best way to save the victims was to win the war as quickly as possible.

Most rescue efforts were made by Raoul Wallenberg, he protected tens of thousands of Hungarian Jews .

The War Refugee Board played a crucial role in the rescue of as many as 200,000 Jews.

War Refugee Board JANUARY 13, 1944 UNITED STATES TAKES ACTION

US President Franklin D. Roosevelt is urged to establish a government commission to coordinate the rescue of Europe’s Jews because more and more reports of mass killings of the Jews are publicized .

On January 22, 1944, Roosevelt signs Executive Order 9417, establishing the War Refugee Board.

JUNE 9, 1944TOKEN HAVEN FOR REFUGEES IN UNITED STATES US President Franklin D. Roosevelt announces the opening of an Emergency Refugee Camp at

Fort Ontario in Oswego, New York. Close to 1,000 refugees arrive at Fort Ontario in August 1944. They are considered guests and

are technically required to return to Europe after the war, although President Harry Truman announces the at the refugees are eligible for immigration visas and permitted to enter the US on December 22, 1945.

JULY 9, 1944 RAOUL WALLENBERG IN BUDAPEST Raoul Wallenberg arrives in Budapest on assignment from the Swedish legation and the War

Refugee Board to aid in the rescue and relief of Jews in Budapest. By the time Wallenberg arrives, the Germans have deported nearly 440,000 Jews from Hungary

and nearly 200,000 Jews still remain in Budapest and are too facing deportation . In January 1945, Raoul Wallenberg leaves Budapest, in Soviet custody, and is never heard from

again.

AUGUST 2, 1943TREBLINKA UPRISING

This is the date when the Treblinka killing camp came to an end. The prisoners took charge and started killing the guards and were trying to escape. Only 300 escaped and 975 thousand prisoners and soldiers died.

OCTOBER 14, 1943SOBIBOR UPRISING

This is the date when the prisoners from the Sobibor camp mad a plan to also take charge and killed 100 guards and then escaped but 100 were recaptured and shot to death. Over 167 thousand prisoners were killed

OCTOBER 7, 1944AUSCHWITZ SONDERKOMMANDO UPRISING

Gassing operations happened on this date, bringing in 440 thousand Hungarian Jews. Some Jews got loose in the fall and killed all members of the Sonderkommando. Four of the women who smuggled gunpowder out of the factories were hanged on January 6, 1945, weeks before the camp is liberated.

JANURY 17, 1945CHELMNO

Chelmno was a factory that closed down but re-opened in June 1944, and this was because a group of Jewish prisoners were forced to exhume and burn bodies from the mass graves at Chelmno as part of Aktion 1005, the German plan to erase all evidence of mass murder. Germans begin killing the remaining Jewish prisoners. Some of the prisoners resisted and escaped. Three prisoners survived, and at least 152,000 people were killed in Chelmno, after the Germans abandoned the camp.

Work Cited

Rescue in Denmark: http://www.ushmm.org/outreach/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007740

Jewish Partisans: http://www.ushmm.org/outreach/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007743

The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising: http://www.ushmm.org/outreach/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007745

Work Cited

Killing Center Revolts: http://www.ushmm.org/outreach/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007747

The War Refugee Board: http://www.ushmm.org/outreach/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007749

Resistance inside Germany: http://www.ushmm.org/outreach/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007751