| dc.description.abstract | The fate of European Jewry was still unwritten when Adolph Hitler and his Nazi party came into power in January 1933; however, over the course of twelve years he and his followers attempted to eradicate the continent's 9.5 million Jews. Despite the high levels of death and destruction, the Jews did not submit to their oppressors like Hilberg and other scholars had claimed. To resist the Nazis, the Jews often used a pen rather than a gun. By examining the attempts to preserve Jewish history and culture in Poland's Warsaw, ?üo?üdz?ü, and Krako?üw ghettos, I will prove these actions constitute a form of resistance because they were an effort to save Jewish history, values, ideas, concepts, and rules of behavior and circumvent the Nazis efforts to eradicate any trace of Jewish existence. In Warsaw, Emanuel Ringelblum established Oneg Shabbath, the largest underground ghetto archive. He and the highly trained O.S. staff compiled and preserved over 35,000 pages of Jewish history and culture. The members meticulously reviewed everything to ensure accuracy. The collection holds studies, monographs, and testimonies pertaining to every aspect of Jewish life from pre-war to the ghetto experience across Poland. They also gathered information about the Nazis in an effort to provide sources of the barbaric crimes. Along with the preservation, the O.S. served as an outlet to preserve the truth, voice the Jews' concerns and frustrations, and provided the members with hope that their rich and vibrant culture would not disappear. In ?üo?üdz?ü, the staff of the Department of Archives produced the Chronicle of the ?üo?üdz?ü Ghetto, preserved rare books and manuscripts, gathered both German and Jewish documents such as memorandums, orders, official correspondence, proclamations, and photographs, and kept record of every department's activities. The archivists wrote original works on the history of the Ghetto, Yiddish and Hebrew literature, economic issues, questions of culture and religion, ghetto life for children, and detailed biographies on top Jewish officials and other influential ghetto inhabitants. Scholars know of these works thanks to Nachman Zonabend's preservation efforts after the war. In Krako?üw, Gusta Justyna Draenger wrote a detailed account of the Z?çOB's various courageous, creative, and audacious forms of resistance during the final months of the Ghetto while in prison. In addition to that work, she was an editor and writer for the group's clandestine publications in which she called on her fellow Jews to resist the Nazis. The efforts and sacrifices of theses Jews not only produced the foundation for the study of Jewish resistance to the Nazis, they also preserved their history for future generations. In doing so, they provided future scholars with a unique look inside the lives of the courageous people who prevented Hitler's Final Solution from succeeding. | |
