They Fought Back Author:Yuri Suhl Too long there has been an unchallenged myth that European Jews went passively to their deaths. This misconception Yuri Suhl has met head on, gathering into a superb and comprehensive anthology account of resistance written not only by survivors but also by the great historians of the holocaust. Every account is illustrated, and a number of thes... more »e accounts were commissioned especially for this volume.
Here is hitherto unavailable evidence that a Jewish resistance group existed in almost every ghetto and concentration camp, active in sabotage, and in many instances carrying out successful armed revolts. A spectacular "first" in English is the account of the Baum Group that operated in the heart of Nazi Germany itself, prepared by the eminent historian Ber Mark. Warsaw, Bialystok, Lachwa, Tuczyn, Minsk, Vilna - the roll call of the fighting ghettos is presented in full. Here is the story of the illegal taking of pictures of the victims of the gas chambers of Auschwitz to alert the world, and Jews themselves, to the real meaning of their "transportation east." And here are the very pictures.
Here is the complete story of the Sobibor revolt, where the underground killed ten top Nazi officials, effected a mass escape of six hundred prisoners, and caused the closing of this death camp. Included also are powerful stories of the Treblinka, Auschwitz, and Koldyczewo revolts.
Little known is the story of the hard-hitting Jewish partisan brigades in the forests of Poland and the Ukraine. And documentation is not limited to Eastern Europe. Mr. Suhl present accounts of Jewish resistance in Paris ("Diary of a Jewish Partisan"), and in Italy and Belgium - further evidence of the indomitable struggle that lit fires of hope across Europe. With these narratives of unparalleled drama, his volume tells the truth about Jewish courage and steadfastness, giving a new view of a people who fought back under unimaginable difficulties and who, in agony and honor, wrote a heroic testament of life.« less