Psychologist Bruno Bettleheim, in The Informed Heart, outlines a different perspective to understanding Jewish resistance to the Holocaust. He looks at issues from a physiological standpoint, analyzing the reasons for Jewish behavior and claiming, "a nonpsychological analysis of the behavior of these [Jewish] prisoners does not seem adequate for explaining such docility" (Bettleheim 249). This submissiveness Bettleheim refers to his view that "less than a handful among millions" of persecuted Jews resisted the Nazi oppression (250). Bettleheim suggests that this may be because the Jewish persons were so deteriorated by the point of their execution that Nazi murder became an escape - a way of committing suicide (250, 251). Ultimately, Bettleheim comes to the conclusion that the Jews collectively did, in fact, "walk quietly, without resistance, to their death" (264). However, Bettleheim reveals that on an individual basis some fell to their deaths by defying authority trying to gain their autonomy that the Nazis stole. Bettleheim's differentiation between the group and the individual can shed light into why persons acted in certain manners.
Comparative Analysis.
Having seen the authors" stands on the issue, their respective definitions of resistance are a central issue of the discussion between the scholars. Bauer clearly states her meaning of resistance "as any group action consciously taken in opposition to known or surmised laws, actions, or intentions directed against the Jews by the Germans and their supporters" (Bauer 35). The idea of "any action" includes violent and non-violent measures in resisting Nazi persecution. Cohen agrees with Bauer, stating that the definition of resistance during the Holocaust shouldn't be any different than any other situation. All acts, violent or non-violent, that defy Nazi rule should be considered resistance. Smuggling food and creating an underground system of survival, according to Cohen, would be considered resistance in any other situation.
