Many people questioned why the Jews didn’t just simply
resist their oppressors. When held at gunpoint, doing anything but complying
with the Nazis was a suicide mission. Not knowing what was to come with each
passing the day, the Jews will to live overpowered their fears of being
executed by rebelling. This commitment
to life led many Jews to become skilled at bribery, forgery, theft, and spying,
which in turn led to smuggling and sabotage.
The Zionists were some of the boldest and most aggressive rebels. Their goal was to escape to Palestine in order to establish their own Jewish country. These were highly skilled men, capable of assembling their own machine guns, piece by piece, and creating their own grenades by wrapping a saturated rag around bottles of gasoline. These men, though, were aware of the inevitable outcome, but committed themselves to die fighting. They wanted to kill as many Nazis as possible. Men like these inspired others to take action and fight for their freedom.
Three uprisings took place in the Treblinka, Sobibor, and Aushwitz-Birkenau concentration camps from the summer of 1943 to the fall of 1944. These insurrections came with little success as only a few escaped while hundreds of other inmates were killed, captured, and hanged.
The Zionists were some of the boldest and most aggressive rebels. Their goal was to escape to Palestine in order to establish their own Jewish country. These were highly skilled men, capable of assembling their own machine guns, piece by piece, and creating their own grenades by wrapping a saturated rag around bottles of gasoline. These men, though, were aware of the inevitable outcome, but committed themselves to die fighting. They wanted to kill as many Nazis as possible. Men like these inspired others to take action and fight for their freedom.
Three uprisings took place in the Treblinka, Sobibor, and Aushwitz-Birkenau concentration camps from the summer of 1943 to the fall of 1944. These insurrections came with little success as only a few escaped while hundreds of other inmates were killed, captured, and hanged.
In Treblinka, in Poland, the Jewish underground leaders developed an escape plan using makeshift weapons and grenades to storm the fences. Unfortunately, the plan failed when an SS officer was shot when he discovered that an inmate had some Polish money, which was forbidden. Many died in the fight inside the camp. Some Jews escaped, but German soldiers pursued them into the fields and captured or shot all but about one hundred before they could reach the woods.
In the Sobibor uprising in eastern Poland, Jewish rebels dug a tunnel under the fences and mined areas. When the tunnel collapsed, the rebel commander decided to conduct their escape by killing group of SS men, then taking their weapons and raiding the camp arsenal. All had gone according to plan until anxious camp prisoners panicked and ran for the gates before the total operation could be put in effect. A battle broke out between the guards and prisoners with both sides having a great amount of casualties. Only a few hundred prisoners escaped, most of which were caught, shot, or killed by the mines.
In Aushwitz, a revolt erupted on October 7, 1944. The revolt was unusual in that it was started by Sonderkommandos, the special units of Jewish inmates who transported dead bodies to the crematories. They planted explosives under the ovens. The dynamite was smuggled by four girls who were working there. The revolt was triggered by blowing up one crematory and damaging another. A gun fight broke out, causing a number of SS men to die. The Jews who tried to escape during this time were killed. The four girls who supplied the materials were tortured and hanged.