Jewish resistance during World War II
To discuss Jewish resistance in depth, we must first define the concept of “resistance”. Several 20th-century historians have addressed this topic, including Konrad Kwiet, who in 1979 stated that resistance against the Nazi regime includes “any act directed against the ideology and policies of National Socialism”, even those that “unintentionally opposed Nazism”.
It is essential to mention the Hebrew term “amidah”, which, literally translated, means “standing firm”, but in this context, holds a deeper meaning and is crucial in redefining Jewish resistance. Yehuda Bauer, a pioneer historian on the Holocaust and resistance, believes that “amidah” encompasses various acts, such as smuggling food into ghettos, self-sacrifice within families, cultural and religious activities to boost morale, the work of doctors and teachers for individual and collective survival, and armed revolt against Germans and collaborators. In short, it means “not backing down in the face of brutal violence”. The reinterpretation of “amidah” highlights that the boundaries between resistance, disobedience, and adaptation are often blurred.
Those who have already visited our museum know that the main exhibition tells the life stories of three Holocaust survivors from Cluj. Research into the family archive of the three individuals featured in the museum—Julia, Paul, and David—revealed that their letters and notes mention various instances of resistance, similar to those described in the text above.
For example, Julia, along with her two children and her father-in-law, Mór, continued to observe holidays and Shabbat during their time in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp—of course, as much as circumstances allowed. In Mór Lusztig’s prayer book (Mahzor), several names of men were recorded during their journey on the “Kasztner train”, which enabled them to escape from the Cluj ghetto and eventually reach Switzerland. Whenever they held religious gatherings, the men kept records in the Mahzor of the names and birthplaces of all the Jewish participants in the religious services. The entries in the prayer book demonstrate that Jews from Cluj, who had been confined to ghettos and concentration camps, made efforts to preserve their religious rites as far as circumstances permitted.
Photo of Mór’s Mahzor, showing the place and date, Bergen-Belsen, 1944. (Picture source: The Archive of the Lusztig Family © Muzeon)
The list of names and places of birth of all Jews who participated in the religious services in Bergen-Belsen. (Picture source: The Archive of the Lusztig Family © Muzeon)
Another example of resistance is Erzsébet, the wife of one of the individuals featured in our museum, Paul (Pali). Being Catholic, she was not deported during the war and continuously supported her future husband, his family, and their friends. She sent food and medical supplies to them while they were in the ghetto, personally delivered supplies to Jews from Cluj who were in the ghetto in Budapest, and acted as a liaison between various Jews who had been taken to forced labour camps.
A letter possibly sent from the Cluj ghetto by Dezső Iranyi to Mann Erzsébet: “Dear Bőzsike, we are fine. I don’t know exactly what day we will leave. Unfortunately, I only have one pair of shoes, which have completely fallen apart. Please, if you can, send me a pair of brown shoes without fail. Additionally, if possible, send me two to three hundred cigarettes or a kilogram of sour candies, some cheese, butter, canned goods, one hundred milliliters of perfume, a little brandy, and a kilogram of raisins. If you have money, please try to take care of these things because the children need me greatly. God will reward you. Be kind and honor the one who delivers these lines (50). We send kisses to all of you, Dezső. P.S. My father-in-law would need a few packs of pipe tobacco.” (Picture source: The Archive of the Lusztig Family © Muzeon)
Often, those who read and study the Holocaust are left with the impression that Jews were helpless victims, lacking the courage or the means to resist. The frequently asked question is: “Why didn’t the Jews resist?” Elie Wiesel, Nobel Prize-winning author and Holocaust survivor, suggests a change in perspective. He states, “The question is not why all the Jews did not fight, but how so many of them did. Tormented, beaten, starved—where did they find the strength, both spiritual and physical, to resist?”
According to professor and researcher Zoltán Tibori Szabó, “Jews were not passive; it is not true that they went to their deaths like lambs. We know of many attempts at resistance in Cluj, as well as in other places in Northern Transylvania.”
After the German occupation of Hungary in March 1944, the Zionist youth movements in Budapest sought any means to save Jews. Between March and August, between 5,000 and 7,000 Jews crossed the border between Hungary and Romania, fleeing the persecutions of the Holocaust, as part of a rescue operation organised by Zionist youth movements, known as the “Hungarian-Romanian Tiyul”. This action was officially led by Joel Brand, a member of the Budapest Aid and Rescue Committee, who had previously been involved in the illegal trafficking of Jewish refugees from Czechoslovakia and Poland into Hungary. They also forged documents to free Jews from labour camps and death marches to Austria.
The Zionist youth in Budapest visited several ghettos in Northern Transylvania as well, trying to convince people to escape. Unfortunately, most refused, arguing that the family should stay together. Only a few people managed to escape from the Cluj ghetto.
There are also cases where ordinary people helped hide the belongings left behind by Jews, and the bravest even tried to hide Jewish persons. Many people risked their lives sheltering Jews throughout Europe, and such examples also existed in Transylvania. When there was no prior personal connection with those being saved, the acts of rescue were often spontaneous gestures, motivated by fundamental values such as solidarity and human compassion. Anna Pal from Cluj describes her determination to save a Jewish child in this way: “I simply could not turn my gaze away from what was happening at that time, and I did everything possible to take little Andrei and give him shelter. My belief that everything I was doing was right and good gave me strength, which is why I was not overcome by fear.”
Jewish resistance during the Holocaust, although often overlooked, is a testament to courage and the will to survive in the face of unimaginable persecution. Whether it involved armed revolts, escapes from ghettos and camps, the organisation of underground networks, or the preservation of cultural and religious identity, these actions demonstrate that, despite extreme circumstances, the human spirit was not completely defeated. By commemorating these acts of resistance, we keep alive the memory of those who fought not only for their lives but also for human dignity.
In the last two years, Muzeon has been part of the SolRem project, in partnership with PATRIR (Romanian Institute for Peace Action, Training, and Research), NOVACT (International Institute for Nonviolent Action), RKI (Rauhan Kasvatus Institute), IM Cultural Institute, Young Educators – European Association, University of Porto, and CEIPES (Centro Internazionale per la Promozione dell’Educazione e lo Sviluppo). SolRem is a project supported by the “Citizens, Equality, Rights, and Values” (CERV) Program, funded by the European Commission. The initiative aims to raise awareness of the history of resistance and solidarity against right-wing authoritarianism in five targeted countries: Finland, Italy, Portugal, Romania, and Spain.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Arhiva Familiei Lusztig © Muzeon.
Barnabás Bálint: The Tiyul: Rescuing Jews by Smuggling Across the Hungarian-Romanian Border, In: John Paul Newman, Ljubinka Škodrić, and Rade Ristanović: Anti-Axis Resistance in Southeastern Europe, 1939-1945, Ferdinand Schoningh Wilhelm Fink &, 2023.
Facing History & Ourselves: Jewish partisans: Resistance.
https://www.facinghistory.org/resource-library/jewish-partisans-resistance
Gidó Attila: Az észak-erdélyi holokauszt romániai historiográfiája és interpretációja. In: REGIO: KISEBBSÉG KULTÚRA POLITIKA TÁRSADALOM, 2019, 134-184.
John M. Cox: Jonathan C. Friedman: Jewish Resistance Against Nazism, In: Jonathan C. Friedman: The Routledge History of the Holocaust, Routledge, London, 2011.
Korpa Tamás: Tibori Szabó Zoltán: Az erdélyi magyarság nehezen tűri el a vitát, In: Transtelex.ro, 2023.
Yad Vashem: The report of the International Commission on the Holocaust in Romania, Solidaritate şi salvare – Români printre „Cei Drepţi Între Popoare”, 2004.
https://www.yadvashem.org/docs/international-commission-on-romania-holocaust.html
Yad Vashem: The Zionist’ Youth Moevements’ Underground in Hungary
