Resistance in the Camps
Stacia Miksys

Resistance within the camps can be defined many different ways. Some may see resistance as work slow downs, sabotage, escapes, attacks, or as organized resistance groups…

 Auschwitz

Many prisoners in Auschwitz had more than one job. Some worked in the carpentry shop, kitchen, or infirmary. These prisoners could provide a lot of resources. If that did not make resistance a little complicated, then the fact that there were multiple resistance groups certainly did. Groups could developed based on occupation, as it did with the Sonderkommando, or ideology, like with the Kampfgruppe Auschwitz, and some smaller groups formed based on nationality. Witold Pilecki created the Union of Military Organizations, many times referred to as ZOW.

From its beginning, the group had three goals: keeping up morale and supplying outside news, giving food and clothing to organization members, and taking over the camp by force if necessary. Members were recruited in groups of five, and no one knew who was in the group besides the five people they had recruited and the person who had recruited them. This was so no one could inform on a large number of members. Members of the resistance tried to attain high positions within the camp, such as working in the infirmary. They wanted to be the ones with access to the most resources.

Pilecki’s notes reveal that there were many plans for revolt, but none of them ever took place. The group tried to get information about the camps and their resistance efforts to the exiled Polish government. Pilecki escaped in April 1943 in order to try to convince the Polish underground to help the prisoners. They would not help because they believed the organization in the camp to be too weak.

After Pilecki’s escape, Col. Juliusz Gilewicz took charge of the Zow. By this time the group had grown about 500 members. In 1944, the ZOW formed a coalition with the Kampfgruppe Auschwitz led by Jozef Cyrankiewicz, which they called the Camp Military Council. Each group Sonderkommando that worked the crematoria was eventually killed. In May of 1944 the 12th Sonderkommando pressured the Camp Military Council to revolt even though they did not expect to survive it.

A collective revolt was repeatedly postponed until October 7 when a German capo discovered plans made by the Sonderkommando. The SS guards began fighting, and 3 of them were killed by the Sonderkommando, who destroyed Crematoria IV. Five members of the ZOW were discovered and killed by the Nazis after trying to escape. The group was always prepared and had many plans, but an uprising never took place. This also means that Auschwitz avoided the casualties of a large scale revolt.



 Sobibor

There was first talk of resistance in the camp in early 1943. In late June there was a transport of prisoners from Belzec. When they realized where they were, they revolted and were killed. Notes left behind explained to the rest of the prisoners that they had been told that work awaited them in other camps after theirs was closed and finished. They had been given quality food and treatment, but their arrival at Sobibor proved that they were only about to be killed. They left these warnings, and the rest of the prisoners began to seriously consider a revolt.

With the decrease of transports, the prisoners realized that once the transports stopped, they Nazis would have no use for them and they would probably be killed. A group was loosely organized that summer when a new transport was brought in. Feldhendler, one of the group’s leaders, decided to work with new arrival Alexander “Sasha” Pechersky. They began to organize a revolt, and in the beginning of October felt a new urgency. They had to act before the weather changed and it would be impossible for anyone who escaped to survive. In the meantime, transports had slowed and part of the camp was being taken down.


During their planning, two capos named Pozycka and Cepik approached the group, wanting to help. They were not trusted and it was important that as few people as possible knew about the group’s activities for safety purposes. The group decided to let the capos participate because they could move and speak with different prisoners more freely.

After the execution of nineteen inmates on October 12, the plans for the revolt were finalized. There were to be three phases. During the first phase, knives and axes were to be obtained and prepared. In phase two, there was to be a “silent elimination of Nazis”. They would be called to tailor and cobbler shops within the camp, told that an item of theirs was finished. There they would be attacked by armed inmates. After the inmates were lined up for roll call in the evening, the third phase, mobilization for revolt and escape, was to begin.

On October 14, 1943 the plan was put into action. The capo Pozycka’s duties were taken by another, SS Ryba, that night. This disrupted the group’s plans, but they could not postpone it because the other prisoners sensed that something big was going to take place, even though many did not know what, and one of the stronger SS officers was absent that day. Eleven SS men were killed in the tailor and cobbler shops, and phone lines were cut to prevent any calls for backup. During roll call, the uprising began. Four Ukrainian guards were killed in addition to the eleven SS men. Half of the 600 inmates escaped, but about 100 of those were captured or killed. The other 200 were caught or killed later. About 50 prisoners survived the revolt.



 Treblinka

In 1943 transports were slowing down in Treblinka as they had been in Sobibor, and inmates began to worry. In February or March, a small group of people created an Underground in order to obtain weapons and organize a revolt and escape. They called themselves the “Organizing Committee.” There were at least four groups of twelve members in the Underground, which consisted of the Organizing Committee members and their trusted friends. To avoid giving one another up under questioning or torture, no one knew who anyone else was. The Underground eventually grew to about 60 members, and their focus was on acquiring weapons.

In order to free everyone one of their challenges was that they would have to liberate the Lower and Upper Camp. The date and time for the uprising were difficult to establish for two reasons: most of the people would not escape the camp and would die, and those who did escape who have a very hard time finding shelter or safety.

Bloch and Friedman were two very active prisoners while in the Upper Camp, but once transferred to the Lower Camp, they put together a similar Organizing Committee and began to coordinate with the Upper Camp. It was still nearly impossible to set a date for the revolt. Eventually it was scheduled for August 2, 1943. Similarly to the revolt in Sobibor, there were three phases for the revolt. Prisoners needed to get any weapons they had found and
take over and destroy the camp during the first two phases. Escaping from the camp into the nearby forests was the last phase.

The plan went into motion at 4pm that day. Inmates had obtained knives, axes, revolvers, rifles, and grenades. Around 3:30 a suspicious SS officer was shot as he began to question some prisoners, which caused the revolt to begin early. Because of this, prisoners were unable to get the armored car they had wanted for escape, and did not have the chance to cut the phone lines. The other SS officers had heard the shot and barricaded themselves within their barracks and called for backup. Members of the Underground did take this time to use their weapons and destroy whatever they could. Even though the guards were not killed as planned, about 350-400 inmates escaped. Many were eventually caught and killed, and it’s estimated that about 100 who escaped actually survived.



Ravensbrück

There was a prominent group of French resisters in this camp. They tried to avoid any work in the camps because it would help the Germans. One of the more famous resisters is Germaine Tillion. In order to avoid work, such resisters would have to escape their lines after roll call to hide, commonly among elderly women. If caught, they would face severe punishment. Although no type of armed revolt took place, these prisoners did drain the camp (although only a little) by not working and still being fed. Besides this, they tried to raise morale among the inmates and give them hope. They traded newspapers, maps, and information about the war, and held secret meetings to share news and information. They did run the risks of resistance.

Dachau

In 1939 men within the camp decided to stick together and form a base for resistance. The resistance’s members were international.

They had four goals. The first was to keep as many inmates alive as possible. The second was to show the good side of Germany, and that it could be humanitarian. Destroying and sabotaging production of arms was the third goal, in hopes that the war might end earlier. The fourth one was to help all prisoners adjust to life in the camp and endure the cruelty of the SS.

On April 28, 1945, the resistance attacks in order to avoid evacuation for death marches. City hall was attacked, police disarmed, and a siren triggered so the SS would believe Americans were attacking. The evacuations were stopped, but the rebels were caught. Three inmates and three citizens were killed, but most of the resisters escaped.


Buchenwald

There were many resistance cells within the camp. In 1938 the German Communist party members within the camp created a resistance group, whose goal was to put their members into any high, central posts that inmates could attain. Many of the other cells that developed were based on nationality.

In 1943 there was general underground movement called the International Underground Committee. Most of the members sabotaged the arms department within the camp and brought arms into the camp.

Once the camp’s evacuation had begun in April 1945, the members of the resistance further sabotaged the SS by slowing down the evacuation process so it was uncompleted. On April 11 the underground members captured several of the remaining SS men in the camp and held them until the camp was liberated later that day.

…Others might accept a sort of spiritual rejection of the Nazis in the camps as resistance. Artists and poets who wrote while in the camps were in some way defying the Nazis, as were all those who passed information or tried to educate others. Any committee or person who tried to meet “philanthropic, religious, educational, and cultural community needs” within the camps was disobeying the Nazis.

Theresienstadt

The library within Theresienstadt was a source of escape for prisoners. It was stocked with any books that were confiscated from inmates upon their arrival, and so was very large and active. Getting books from the library was a very normal, human activity, and as such was a way for inmates to avoid being completely dehumanized and humiliated by their captors. It was a link to their past and provided them with hope for the future.

This particular camp was made up of rather prestigious people whose death might be noticed, and it was supposed to serve as the model camp for outsiders. The library was supposed to be a way to keep these prisoners occupied, but it really allowed for intellectual and spiritual growth. This growth was resistant to Nazi belief.