Customer Reviews

They Fought Back: The Story of the Jewish Resistance in Nazi Europe

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This outstanding book is a vast collection of true stories showing that Jews did fight back against the Nazis in WW2, and probably much more than you originally thought. Thanks to the excellent made-for-tv movies "Escape From Sobibor" and "Uprising" there is increased knowledge about the armed revolts at the Sobibor camp and the Warsaw Ghetto. But there were many other examples of Jewish resistance during WW2: the Jewish Underground at Auschwitz, numerous escape attempts (few were successful), the revolt of the 12th Sonderkommando (Jewish prisoners who were forced to burn the corpses from the crematories) at Auschwitz, the Jewish Partisans of Horodenka, the Resistance movement in the Minsk Ghetto (even children were involved), the Jewish resistance movement in Italy, Belgium, France, and even Berlin; and Diadia Misha, a legendary Partisan leader who commanded hundreds of Jewish fighters in the Ukraine. It's all chronicled in this fast-paced book that's both informative and gripping from beginning to end. Although this excellent book is out-of-print, you can still get a used copy from an Amazon.Com seller. If you're interested in the Holocaust then this is a must-have!

I found this book interesting because I learnt a lot about how Jews experienced World War II in various parts of Europe during World War II. The author told me that Byelorussians and Bulgarians were friendly towards their Jewish population, while it was much, much harder to be a Jew in countries like Poland and Ukraine.

Abraham Lissner writes that Western Europeans in general was friendlier towards Jews than Eastern Europeans. How friendly the locals were towards the Jews, say something about how easy it was to hide and/or resist in other ways.

It was interesting to read how many Jews who actually did resist and in which ways they did so.

I found the book quite easy to read. The only things I didn't like was that there was no space in the book between the chapters and the letters were printed very small. I guess it was a way to keep the price down when it was published. I found it just a bit more tiring to read the book that way.

This is an essestial text in the study of the Shoah.

It contains a series of short, stunning narratives that are inspiring and horrifying at the same time. The primary contribution of this text to the litany of material out there, is its refutation of the bizarre notion that Jews went like sheep, passively.

When arms and opportunity met, Jews struck back. Hard.
A must read.

Excellent book! A must read for anyone interested in World War II and the stories and life lessons of the Jewish partisans.