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483 Yehuda Bauer 20  Jewish Resistance in the Ukraine and Belarus during the Holocaust What exactly is meant by “Jewish Resistance?” In parts of Europe, especially in the West, many Jewish individuals joined resistance movements for a variety of reasons. Were these cases of resistance by Jews, or Jewish Resistance? Do we speak only of armed resistance, or do we include unarmed resistance by Jews not able to use firearms but only so-called “cold” weapons (knives, clubs, pitchforks , and other implements)? Do we include or exclude unarmed reactions, such as morale-building activities, flight, hiding, organized smuggling into ghettos, social welfare, or religious activities, all of which were intended to react to this murderous persecution? There was no such thing as “passive” resistance, because the term resistance already denotes activity rather than passivity. It seems essential to define our terms of reference in as clear a manner as possible. It is proposed here that in the conditions of World War II, given the NaziGerman policies of absolute terror and mass murder, any Jewish action, whether by a group or by an individual, that ran counter to real or perceived NaziGerman policies, has to be regarded as active nonacceptance of such policies, that is, resistance. That includes unarmed resistance, such as smuggling food into ghettos; social welfare; educational efforts; keeping religious traditions that were forbidden; underground political activities including publication of newspapers, leaflets, or books; keeping diaries; and more. It also includes, of course, physical resistance, whether with firearms or “cold” weapons—clubs, knives, and so on. This general statement is true for the Ukraine and Belarus as it is for other German-occupied areas. We will differentiate here between areas that had been part of the Soviet 484 Yehuda Bauer Union before 1939, and the areas of what then was eastern Poland (today western Ukraine and western Belarus), occupied by the Soviets in September 1939, as a result of the nonaggression treaty between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany. According to Soviet estimates, in 1941 there were some 2.4 million Jews in the whole of the Ukraine, out of a general population of some 42 million . In Belarus, the estimate is close to 700,000, out of a general population of 10,589,000, for a total of roughly 3.1 million.1 Of these, in eastern Ukraine (pre-1939 borders), about 700,000 Jews remained under German rule; the figure for eastern Belarus is 240,000. For western Ukraine, the estimate is that some 840,000 Jews remained under German occupation; for western Belarus, the figure is 350,000–360,000. The total number of Jews under German rule in all of the Ukraine and Belarus comes to roughly 2.1 million. In the eastern parts of the two countries, about 20,000–25,000 survived altogether; in the western areas the figure is similar, between 15,000 and 20,000. The total is therefore about 40,000–45,000.2 The figures indicate a survival rate of 1–2 percent. By 2011, no detailed research had been done on most of the eastern areas, with the exception of Minsk, the capital of Belarus. Some material exists on Vitebsk (also in Belarus) and a few Ukrainian cities, as well as a number of published memoirs by survivors. Neither the Germans nor the local population in the two countries evinced any interest in the internal affairs of the Jewish communities, so that there is little documentary material available about them. Historical research on the western areas is more advanced than on the eastern ones. Reliance on postwar testimonies, while no doubt problematic, is yet important, because a number of testimonies, independently obtained and in agreement with each other, are a reliable source. At the same time, one has to realize that, while the number of survivors is small, in the aggregate it amounts to tens of thousands of people, most of whom testified as to their fate. On the other hand, we have no evidence from 98 percent of the people involved. Most of the survivors were young, and probably energetic and more determined than others may have been, so that the testimonies we have may not represent the experiences or the attitudes of those who were killed. 1. Shalom Cholawsky, The Jews of Bielorussia During World War II (Amsterdam: Harwood Publishers , 1998), 3:305; Gershon D. Hundert, ed., The YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2008), 140–42. Soviet statistics...

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