To understand the different viewpoints respected scholars may hold, an analysis of each author’s essays provides a foundation to assess the varying sides to the issue of Jewish resistance. Marti

While Hilberg immediately dismisses the idea of non-violent reaction as a form of resistance, the other scholars write cohesive arguments on how the Jews resisted the Nazis through non-violent measures. Among the topic of non-violent resistance, there is also a distinction between the “moral” resistance that was the effort to remain human, and the non-violent effort to silently rebel against the Nazis. Bauer describes the latter in the Jewish ghetto effort to smuggle food, write political newspapers, educate their young, and hold religious gatherings without Nazi knowledge. In the Warsaw ghetto alone there were some six hundred illegal minyanim, groups of Jews praying together, who gathered on a regular basis. Also, at least fifty underground newspapers were circulated in the Warsaw ghetto. Exams were held for underground schools to monitor children’s progress, and amazingly the Jews undertook food gathering that helped them stay alive. “Official German food allocations distributed by the Warsaw Judenrat came to 336 calories daily in 1941.” However, “smuggling, illicit production on a considerable scale, and great inventiveness produced an average of 1125 calories daily” (Bauer 42-43). Without Nazi knowledge, the Jews were able to rebel without arms and go against Nazi law.

After comparing the authors’ thoughts on the issues, one may wonder where such differing opinions originate. While Bettleheim provides a unique twist in conventional analysis of the Holocaust, and Cohen and Bauer may show a degree of fault in their arguments, Hilberg presents a less convincing argument on the issue of Jewish resistance during the Holocaust due to the fostering of a racist ideology against Jews.

Along with his assumptions, Hilberg’s reasoning can be seen as placing the blame on the Jews for the actions taken against them. Hilberg states his position in his thesis statement opening his paper: “We must therefore discuss the reactions of the Jewish community and analyze the role of the Jews in their own destruction” (662). For Hilberg to use this sentence nonchalantly as a thesis statement to guide his essay says something about the underlying beliefs of the scholar. He says the Jews “plunged themselves physically and psychologically into catastrophe” (669). Placing the blame of the Holocaust squarely on Jews, Hilberg blatantly shows his racist tendencies through neglecting Nazi guilt.

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