>I wrote:>> a friend of mine -- an anthropologist named Martin Cohen -- has >done a lot of research on this (and he's not the only one). He argues that >there was an amazing amount of Jewish armed resistance to the Nazis, even >in >Germany.
Well, what's an amazing amount? I visited the very moving Museum der Wiederstand in Berlin, in the former OKW (Wejrmacht) HQ, somewhat out of theway, though right byt the Tiergarten. They hanged Stauffenberg and the chief July conspirators there; there werewreaths and flowers still left to them. The museum fully documents every bit of resistance the Germans have found, they had an exhaustive exhibit on DieRote Kapelle, the Red Orchestra, Soviet spies (nonviolent but very effective), the White Rose, etc. Not much on arme Jewish resistance in Germany. The museum is an absolutely must see if you are within 300 miles of it, it will given you renewed faith in the human race. "I struggled on, despairing only when there was merely injustice, and no resistance." (Brecht again, Luke: An den Nachgeboren, To Those Born Later--my own theme poem.) Now in the East it was a different story, Jews held off Stroop's SS in theWarsaw Ghetto for weeks with a handful of pistols and grenades, Jewish partisans played hell with the Nazis in the Pripet marches near Minsk, etc. Jewish resisters burned down Treblinka and revolted at Sobibor. Also, he argues that the U.S. Jewish establishment hates this >stuff and wants to push the image of the European Jews before & during WW2 >as being basically passive victims.<< Plausible, but has he evidence? NB the passive victim stuff was perceived there at the time. ANyone know the great song Dona Dona, a Yiddish hymn written by a songwriter who perished in Auschwitz? "On a wagon, bound for market, lies a calf with a mournful eye/High above him flies a swallow, winging swiftly through the sky/Dona dona dona dona, dona dona don' . . . ." On the other hand there is "We Are coming," the Partisan Song, "This was was written in blood and not with lead" (pehncil lead, that is"); we sing that at Pesach in my house, reminds me I have to get out the songsheet. What would be rationale? Maybe the thought is, we need to be strong and fierce to prevent that from happening again, if the Jews had resisted, more of them would have lived. But from a Zionist point of view, isn't the key thing that you need a nation, mere resistance without land to defend isn;t enough? > > > if true, one reason could be the extent to which the > > resistance was intertwined with the Soviets. the > > documentary makes heavy use of Soviet archives, > > including old reenactments that use Russian soldiers. > > portraying both partisans and Nazi's. Right. Effective resistancewas pretty much Communist. Consider: the White Rose (Catholic) got rolled up in months after its firsat action. The Red Orchestra lasted years. > > > > mbs > >I think it's slightly more sinister: the elite wants passive donors to >their >cause and support for Israel no matter what. Surely. Zionism and >standing-and-fighting are seen as mutually exclusive alternatives. Why? Further, >the Bund tradition of socialist or labor-oriented Jews is anathema, whether >or not the socialists were pro-Soviet. >jgd > Absolutely. As one of the last few in the old tradition, I'm a dinosaur. jks _________________________________________________________________ Join the world’s largest e-mail service with MSN Hotmail. http://www.hotmail.com
