The Evolution of Armed Resistance
Clip: 1/27/2025 | 2m 54sVideo has Closed Captions
Kovner wrote a Manifesto, the first published call for Jews to fight back.
When the Nazi war against the Jews began, few Jewish people understood that the German’s ultimate goal was the extermination of all the Jews of Europe. One of the first to understand that was the young resistance fighter (later poet laureate of Israel) Abba Kovner. At the beginning of 1942, Kovner wrote a Manifesto, the first published call for Jews to fight back.
The Evolution of Armed Resistance
Clip: 1/27/2025 | 2m 54sVideo has Closed Captions
When the Nazi war against the Jews began, few Jewish people understood that the German’s ultimate goal was the extermination of all the Jews of Europe. One of the first to understand that was the young resistance fighter (later poet laureate of Israel) Abba Kovner. At the beginning of 1942, Kovner wrote a Manifesto, the first published call for Jews to fight back.
How to Watch Resistance: They Fought Back
Resistance: They Fought Back is available to stream on pbs.org and the free PBS App, available on iPhone, Apple TV, Android TV, Android smartphones, Amazon Fire TV, Amazon Fire Tablet, Roku, Samsung Smart TV, and Vizio.
Learn More
"Resistance: They Fought Back" provides a much-needed corrective to the myth of Jewish passivity.Providing Support for PBS.org
Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorship[ominous music playing] This is the burial pit.
It was a burial pit in 1941.
And in this forest... both Nazis and their collaborators from Lithuania systematically shot... about 100,000 people in these pits.
[stirring music plays] REENACTOR: "One thing is clear to me.
"Vilna is not just Vilna.
"Ponari is not just an episode.
"There is a system whose inner workings are for the meantime hidden from us."
MICHAEL KOVNER: My father said, "Nobody can escape.
"The Jewish people cannot escape from this.
"So what the Jewish people can do, "they can fight for their honor.
That's it.
To fight for their honor."
REENACTOR: "They shall not take us "like sheep to the slaughter.
"All those who were taken away from the ghetto never came back."
It is a call to the population that was left not to foster illusions.
Those who went out of the gates of the ghetto will not come back.
"All the roads of the Gestapo lead to Ponari.
And Ponari is death."
[marching steps echoing] He said Hitler has a plot.
He's planning to murder all the Jews of Europe.
If everyone out of the ghetto was killed... and if there is a plan to kill the rest as well... then there is no other choice left but to resist.
"It is true we are weak and defenseless, "but resistance is the only reply.
"Brothers, it is better to fall as free fighters than to live by the grace of the murderers."
"Resist.
To the last breath."
<end subtitles>
Jewish Partisans in the Forest
Video has Closed Captions
Many groups of Jews escaped the ghettos to fight in the forests, denying these areas to Germans. (3m 26s)
Video has Closed Captions
Even in Nazi death camps, Jews rebelled. (1m 46s)
Questioning the “sheep to the slaughter” myth…
Video has Closed Captions
Children were among the most tragic victims in the Holocaust. (1m 39s)
Video has Closed Captions
Few Jews had access to weapons in the Warsaw Ghetto, but they resisted nonetheless. (3m 41s)
The Role of Women in the Resistance
Video has Closed Captions
Women played an outsized role in the Jewish resistance, risking their lives daily. (5m 36s)
Video has Closed Captions
During the Holocaust Jews did not go to their deaths as sheep to the slaughter; they fought back. (30s)
Video has Closed Captions
The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was the first armed battle against the Germans. (5m 2s)
Providing Support for PBS.org
Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorship
