VIDEO

Hitler’s Holocaust:  Resistance.  Videocassette.  © MPR Film und Fernsch Produktion GmtH for the History Channel, 2000.  Running Time:  Approximately 50 minutes.

 

REVIEW

 

Hitler’s Holocaust:  Resistance is a slender ray of hope following the darkness that was the previous installment in the series, Mass Murder.  This film focuses on many aspects of armed resistance that took place during the Holocaust, from the planning stages through the actual resistance to fallout afterward.  The instructor should note that other types of resistance, such as spiritual or intellectual forms, are largely not covered.  Bystander issues, however, are also addressed, most notably concerning the United States and Great Britain, what they knew and when.  Their reactions can for the most part be encapsulated as “none at all”.

 

Treblinka is the first camp discussed, and will actually be touched on again later in the film.  During the camp’s operation, approximately 900,000 Jews were murdered there.  Elijahu Rosenthal, who states that he worked in the “Death Command” (sonderkommando), comments:

 

“People were driven in with whips – they didn’t know what was happening.  I saw the children; and I can still see them today.  It took 25 minutes for them to suffocate; then silence.”

 

The bodies were incinerated in open pits, and the fire could be seen for miles.  Some locals complained to the Germans that the smoke was disturbing their sleep – there was a village only 200 yards from the camp…  And what did these people do about it, other than complain?

 

Jan Karski, who we saw in the earlier film Ghetto is again interviewed.  Karski appears here to testify that he gave information to the Allies, but they didn’t do anything with it.  After the German Enigma Code was broken, the Allies knew not only information about German naval movements, but about the camps as well.  Roosevelt and Churchill met in January 1943; Goebbels scoffed at their call for Germany’s unconditional surrender in a speech shortly thereafter.  In fact, this video shows a clip of that speech, where Goebbels begins to utter the word “exterminate”, but stops, recovers, and says “exclusion” instead.  He was of course referring to “the Jewish problem”.  The longer term response from the Nazis was to begin running trains from Berlin directly to Auschwitz.

 

One survivor testifies that early in the German occupation the worst thing anyone could imagine was forced labor.  However, when the camps came into existence, people began to volunteer for that forced labor.  “The worst thing that could happen was now the best.”  The incarceration at Rosenstrasse of German Jews who had been allowed to remain in Germany because of their non-Jewish relatives (generally, German Jewish men who were married to non-Jewish German women) is next examined.  This is one of very few non-violent forms of resistance depicted in this video, and was the only public protest on behalf of Jews living in Germany.  Despite heavy bombing by the British air force on March 1 1943, the protest continued; shortly thereafter, the regime relented, and the Jews were set free.

 

In March 1943 New York Jewish leaders gathered at Madison Square Garden to again try to raise the public’s awareness of the plight of the European Jews.  In a break in the archival footage of the rally, Arthur Herzberg comments, “To believe it was to believe that all hope was gone.  We knew the enormity of the crime.”  Shortly afterward the Allies held a meeting on the island of Bermuda, but it was strictly for government officials with no outsiders allowed.  Gerhardt Riegner, who like Karski had also attempted to alert the world, states, “The reality was they weren’t going to do anything, and that was the worst thing.”  But Israel Gutman, from his perspective as part of the Warsaw Ghetto resistance, took solace and hope in the news the Warsaw Jews were getting that the Soviets were pushing the Germans back on the Eastern Front.

 

Around 300,000 people (other sources: 450,000?) had been deported to Warsaw, and at the time of the ghetto uprising there were still 60,000 living there.  The major question in regard to resistance, though, was how to get weapons?  One way that might surprise your students is the revelation that some guns were purchased from German soldiers fleeing the vicious fighting on the eastern front back toward the West; so testifies Marek Edelman.  The uprising began on April 19 1943, soon after Himmler had given the order for liquidation.  Although only 500-600 Jews were armed, the remainder of the population went into hiding, further delaying the Nazi operation.  The first Jewish victory came when a German armored car went up in flames – prompting an SS retreat.  As Hitler was made aware of these circumstances on his birthday, the 20th, he ordered that the resistance be broken in any way possible – General Jurgen von Stroop was brought in to do the job. 

 

Gutman states that the fighters had an advantage over the soldiers in that they knew the ghetto much better and were able to engage in guerilla tactics, which frustrated the Germans.  However, superior armaments soon won out, as the Nazis began to bomb the ghetto, eventually setting it ablaze.  Almost 12,000 Jews died during the uprising, some shot, and many more either from suffocation or incineration.  Tsvi Nussbaum, the boy in the famous photo from the uprising (see below), gave his account of the end days of the Warsaw ghetto:

 

Jews captured by SS and SD troops during the suppression of the Warsaw ghetto uprising are forced to leave their shelter and march to the Umschlagplatz for deportation. [Photograph #26543]

http://www.ushmm.org/uia-cgi/uia_doc/photos/4215?hr=null (Accessed December 8 2005)

 

“I was almost eight years old.  I was ordered to raise my hands; I remember this day as if it were yesterday.  The boy in the photo represents 1 ½ million Jewish children slaughtered by the Germans.  I wish a million and a half would be standing around me and telling you that the boy in the photo is them…”  (NOTE to teacher:  While Tsvi Nussbaum gives video testimony that the boy in the photo is indeed himself, the website of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum does not.  They make the claim that the boy in the photo is possibly one of three different people, Nussbaum included.)

 

There were a total of 89 uprisings in the camps – it didn’t stop the killings…

 

The film next gives details on a rebellion at Treblinka, where a prisoner locksmith was able to fashion a second key to a strategic door.  Weapons were garnered from Ukrainian guards, one attacked with a kitchen knife.  Prisoners numbering perhaps 70-80 hid in the forests; some were hidden by Poles (some for free, but others for money – your students may ask how in the world at this point any Jews still had money…) – most were captured and killed.  The notorious escape from Sobibor on October 14 1943 is then dealt with.  Details of the insurgency, including a leader emerging who was part of a group of Soviet POW’s, and the aftermath are depicted. While 300 prisoners were able to flee into the nearby forest, only 47 survived the razing of the camp.

 

Partisan movements are dealt with, and the ending events of the Allied approach toward Berlin are discussed in that context.  Said Johan Graf Kielmansegg, a former German army officer:  the partisans were most effective at disrupting supply lines.  One of the more interesting scenes toward the end of the video shows Hitler after the July 20 1944 attempt on his life – he is addressing troops, and has his left arm behind his back.  It shakes uncontrollably.  This corroborates a statement made in the film Hitler:  Seduction of a Nation, where the narrator reports that near the end of his life, Hitler was plagued with nervous illness.

 

While your students, as mine, may not find this particular film in the series to be the most gripping, they will grasp the bravery of the Jewish insurgents, and the oft times hopelessness of their plight.  An important piece of the Holocaust history, this film needs to be seen, to dispel any notion that all of the Jews went quietly, as sheep to the slaughter.

 

PASSAGE/QUOTE FOR CLASSROOM USAGE

 

Before or after viewing the film, ask students to contrast the following quotes:

 

“Where you’re going, they’ll make soap out of you.”

Spoken by a child to Jews being deported

 

“I wish there were a million and a half Jewish children would be standing around me and telling you that the boy in the photo is them.”

Tsvi Nussbaum, the “boy in the photo” (see above) with his hands raised above his head, Warsaw Ghetto

 

These comments can be approached from several angles.  For example, if students are having a difficult time getting started, ask:

 

  1. As Nussbaum is speaking from his perspective as the boy in the photo, how does his experience contrast with that of the child speaker in the first quote?
  2. What can we say about resistance based on these quotes?  What can we say about the ideology of perpetrators?
  3. Discuss life after the war for each speaker – what is the context of the issues each would face?
  4. Where is the hope for the victim?  That is, from where can they draw inspiration?  Were there any events discussed in the film of which the various prisoners might have drawn encouragement?

 

RATIONALE FOR USAGE/UNIT RELEVANCE

 

This film is best used in a unit on resistance.  As Jan Karski states in the film, “The Jewish problem was probably painful and embarrassing to them (FDR and Churchill), but a side-issue nonetheless.”  One wonders if it had been more towards the “front burner” on the Allied war agenda, if so much talk of resistance would even have been necessary…

 

There is a segment of the film on the Warsaw Ghetto uprising.  For a more dramatized look, clips from the NBC film Uprising might be played within close proximity of that part of this film.  In addition, if your students have seen Schindler’s List, there is a brief mention of the Plaszow concentration camp that was the focal point of the Schindler story.

 

CLASSROOM METHOD OF USAGE

 

As stated earlier, the film may be shown in its entirety or broken into segments for smaller blocks of discussion.

 

STUDY QUESTIONS/DISCUSSION GUIDE

 

Prior to viewing the film, you might ask your students to brainstorm a list of all the things (tangible, as well as ideas or emotions) that would be necessary to resist the Nazis.  The teacher should also discuss different forms of resistance (spiritual, intellectual, armed…), as this film deals primarily with armed resistance.

 

Use the following worksheet as a viewing guide for the film.  Students should take notes that may be used for class discussion or a writing prompt of the teacher’s choice. 

 

 

 

Hitler’s Holocaust:  Resistance              Name _________________________________

 

 

This video will discuss several acts of resistance.  Use the form below to record data from the various testimonies.

 

TREBLINKA

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


THE ALLIES

What the Allies knew

 
 
 

 

 

 

 

 

What the Allies did/did not do, and why?
 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 


ROSENSTRASSE

What was it like?  Who was involved?
 
 

 

 

 

 

 

Details on resistance – why did it succeed?
 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 


WARSAW GHETTO

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


SOBIBOR

 

What was it like?  What were the obstacles to resistance?

 
 
 

 

 

 

 

 

Details on resistance
 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 


SOVIET PARTISANS

 

How did Jews fit in?  What obstacles did Jews encounter in trying to join the partisans?

 
 
 

 

 

 

 

 

What did they do?  Were they effective?