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Widespread Acts of Resistance to the Nazis by Jewish Individuals

(Times of Israel) Matt Lebovic - In his new book, Resisters: How Ordinary Jews Fought Persecution in Hitler's Germany, German historian Wolf Gruner illustrates how Jews fought back during Hitler's first six years of power and paid for it with prison sentences, fines and public humiliation. "My research demonstrates with many examples that women and men of all ages, from 16-year-olds to over 70-year-olds, resisted the Nazi regime and their anti-Jewish persecution in different ways." The day after the "Night of Broken Glass" pogrom in Germany and Austria in 1938, teenager Daisy Gronowski was ordered to run through a gauntlet of German teens while they beat her friends with clubs. Instead, Gronowski, 16, chose to walk. For her impudence, she was taken aside by a young Nazi armed with a rusty pocket knife. As the German attempted to cut into her arm, she recalled a "little trick" from training she'd undergone with the Hashomer Hatzair youth movement in Berlin. Daisy moved forward and pushed her head hard into his stomach. Taking advantage of the assailant's surprise, she twisted the knife out of his hand and stabbed him, then fled the scene.
2024-01-30 00:00:00
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