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The Ruthlessness of the Holocaust and the Dignity of Jewish Resistance
(ABC-Australia) Alex Ryvchin - Nazism was unique. Nazism would not rest until it hunted and destroyed every single living Jew. The actual process of mass-killing, a quantum leap from the intense persecution that preceded it, occurred as a blitzkrieg. In March 1942, almost 80% of the eventual victims of the Holocaust were still alive. By February 1943, that number was reversed - 80% of the 6 million were already dead. When the Final Solution became policy, murder became industrialized. But acts of resistance great and small, organized and individual, can be found in every aspect and in every phase of the Holocaust. Armed groups resisted the Nazis in 110 ghettos and camps. The resistors knew they would die. They resisted to restore their dignity and that of their people, to assert their honor. This, to me, is the height of bravery and nobility. The dying words of the resistors speak to us now. They did not go quietly, they did not give up. They teach us what it means to have courage, to be strong even when faced with an unstoppable force. And we marvel at their greatness. The writer is Co-Chief Executive Officer of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry.