How did the Jews cope during the Holocaust?

Answer 1

Jews survived the Holocaust in numerous ways.

Gentile: A non-Jew

Righteous Among the NationsThe Righteous Among the Nations are courageous Gentiles who risked everything to protect Jews. This title was given to them from Yad Vashem; the second most visited site in Israel.

To be noted as Righteous Among the Nations, the following needed to be met;

• Helping a family member or Jewish convert to Christianity does not count
• The assistance must be repeated and/or substantial
• The assistance must be given without financial gain (excluding food and rent)
• Only a Jewish party can nominate a Gentile

The Righteous were awarded a medal in their name, a certificate of honor, and had their name added on the Wall of Honor in the Garden of the Righteous at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem. (Because they ran out of room, the names on the wall were discontinued)

The awards were given to the person or their descendants, and the ceremonies were world-wide.

In 45 countries, 23,778 men and women were known as Righteous (as of 1-1-2011). If it weren't for these heroes; then a lot of Jews would not live as long as they had.

Here are a few of the notable or more famous ones and their nationality.

ROBERT "BOB" COLLIS - IRISH

The first Irish person to be named "Righteous Among the Nations", Bob Collis was part of the Red Cross team at the liberation of Bergen-Belsen. In 1947 he took five orphans to his Irish home and adopted two of them.

MARIA EDWARDS - CHILEAN

Maria was not only a hero to many French-Jewish children, but was also active in the French Resistance. When her husband commited suicide in 1922, she remained in France and became a nurse; where she joined the French Resistance. In November 2005, she became a Righteous Among the Nations.

IRENE HARAND - AUSTRIA

Irene Harand was born in Vienna to a Roman Catholic family. She started the Harand movement, and fought against anti-semitism. In 1969, she became part of the Righteous Among the Nations for being against the Nazis.

WILHELM HOSENFELD - GERMAN

Wilhelm Adalbert Hosenfeld was a German officer who saved helped save Polish lives; including some Jews. Most notably, he saved the life of Wladyslaw Szpilman, a famous Polish-Jewish pianist and composer.

CONSTANIN KARADJ - ROMANIAN

Constanin Karadj saved 51,000 Jews from deportation and execution and was awarded for his efforts in September 2005 by the Yad Vashem in Israel.

MIEP GIES - DUTCH

Roman-Catholic Miep Gies is notable for hiding the Frank family; including Anne Frank. Miep gave Otto Frank (Anne's father) the diary after the war. Miep has been awarded numerous awards besides the Righteous Among the Nations. She has been awarded the Order of Merid of the Deferal Republic of Germany, the Wallenberg Medal by the University of Michigan and was knighted by Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands.

OSKAR SCHINDLER - GERMAN

Oskar Schindler was a Catholic Nazi who saved over 1,100 Jewish men, women, and children by employing them in his forced-labor factory. His first intentions were to become rich, but he later decides to help the Jews and ended up saving them from the gas chambers.

IRENA SENDLER - POLISH

Irena Sendler saved 2,500 Polish-Jewish children by smuggling them out of the Warsaw ghetto and providing them with fake visas. All of them survived the war. She kept each child's real name in a jar, in case the birth parents came home. Although she attempted to find the children's parents, she subsequently found out most were gassed.

A famous quote said by her is, "I was brought up to believe a person must be rescued when drowning; regardless of religion or nationality."

ARISTIDES DE SOUSA MENDES - PORTUGUESE

Born July 19, 1885, Sousa Mendes and his family freely gave Portuguese visas to over 30,000 people, including 12,000 Jews during June 1940. One notable person was pianist Norbert Gingold. In 1996, he was awarded Righteous Among the Nations.

A proud Christian, he has been noted to say, "I would rather stand with God against man, than with man against God." and "If thousands of Jews suffer because of a non-Jewish demon [Hitler], then surely a Christian can suffer with so many Jews."

CORRIE TEN BOOM - DUTCH

Corrie Ten Boom and her family are remembered for helping Jews. Being strong Protestant Christians, she and her family believed Jews were "God's Chosen People" and promised they would help, because anyone of the Lord's was welcome. In 1944, Nazis raided their house and the Jews escaped capture. She died April 15, 1983.

RAOUL WALLENBERG - SWEDISH

Raoul Wallenberg is credited for saving Jews by providing visas. From July and December 1944, he gave countless Jews visas. In 1986 he gained citizenship in Israel and was named Righteous Among the Nations.

ARMIN T. WEGNER - GERMAN

A German soldier in WWI and the only German writer to speak out against Nazism, Wegner sent an open letter to Hitler, and was tortured for it. Through it all, he also divorced his wife. In 1967, he was labeled Righteous Among the Nations. His gravestone bears the words, "I loved justice and hated iniquity. Therefore I die in exile."

NICHOLAS WINTON - BRITISH

Nicholas Winton organized the Kindertransport; the rescue of 669 Jews (mostly children) and sending them to families. He is known as the "British Schindler". In 1988, his wife found a detailed scrapbook of the children, their parents, (most whom were gassed at Auschwitz) and their addresses. 80 of the children were later found in Britain.

How Some Jews Escaped the Concentration CampsPOLISH JEWS

Some blond, blue-eyed Polish Jews went to Germany. With new visas and their non-Jewish look, these brave Jews worked in German households and posed as Polish Christians. Although their disguise sometimes worked, those who chose to share the secret with friends, girlfriends, boyfriends, etc. were often shot.

DANISH JEWS

Denmark and Norway were invaded by the Nazis on April 9, 1940. Since the Denmark promised cooperation, they were treated mildly. The King of Denmark (Christian X) remained on the throne, and the Danish government remained the same. The officials of Denmark also told Germany there was "No Jewish problem".

On October 1, 1943, Hitler ordered all the Jews to be shipped to concentration camps (Theresienstadt). During the early services on September 29, the day prior to Rosh Hashanah, Jews were warned to go into hiding, and to warn friends and relatives. A few scrolled through phone books and warned everyone with Jewish-sounding names.

During the first days of the rescue, the fishing habours by the Danish coast became a place of safety; until the Gestapo ever-so-slowly grew suspicious. Successfully, 8,000 Jews rode on a boat to Sweden.

Honored by the Yad Vashem in Israel as a collective group instead of individually, The Danish Resistance Movement helped 99% of Danish Jews survived the Holocaust. Danes who weren't "official members" of the resistance were also rewarded.

Fun Fact: Danish Jews never had to wear the Star of David.

PASSING AS CHRISTIANS

Besides Polish Jews, a lot of Jewish children (and adults) passed as Christian Gentiles; getting papers from a kind Gentile and being separated from their families. (Actually, all Jews who avoided the concentration camps were helped by a Gentile; or they surely would have perished) Now "Christians" or "Catholics", Jews learned Catholic prayers and rituals, and some were even baptized, constantly wore a cross, and read the Bible frequently. The Jewish children who posed as Christians/Catholics often knew more about Catholicism and Christianity then Judaism!

Sonderkommandos: A Little Chance At LifeSonderkommandos (English: Special Command) were Jews who were forced to assist the Nazis in the gassings. Although never directly gassed the Jews, they helped clear the corpses in exchange for slightly better living and a few more months of life. At Auschwitz, the Nazis had a regular schedule. Regularly, they would force new inmates to become sonderkommandos; their first job being to dispose of the old sonderkommandos corpses. The schedule later grew out of hand, so Jews tended to live longer although few survived the war. Liberations, Uprisings, and the Allies

3 sonderkommando uprisings happened. They were at Auschwitz (October 7, 1944), Treblinka (August 2, 1943), and the most successful; Sobibor.

Sobibor, a place for Polish, Dutch, French, German and Czech Jews, along with Soviet POWs. A place where over 200,000 Jews died. A place where the biggest revolt in a Nazi death camp took place.

The revolt was lead by Polish-Jewish Leon Feldhender and Soviet-Jewish Alexander "Sasha" Pechersky on October 14, 1943. 300-600 prisoners escaped and 11 German SS officers were killed, along with some camp guards. The original plan was to kill all of the guards, but the guards found out a little sooner then they would have liked and it ended in the entire camp fleeing in the woods, while being chased by fire.

Ravensbrueck, Sachsenhausen, Auschwitz, Majdanek, and Stutthof are concentration camps liberated by the Soviet Union (Russia)

Buchenwald, Dora-Mittelbau, Flossenbürg, Dachau, (Kaufering IV, sub-camp of Dachau, was liberated by Easy Company; otherwise known as the Band of Brothers) and Mauthausen were all camps liberated by America.

Bergen-Belson and Neuengamme were liberated by the British.

After the liberations, it was obvious the concentration camp inmates/Jews were starving and hadn't eaten in days, therefore, if they ate too much; they'd die. After liberations, a lot of the inmates did die, thou.

After the liberation of Bergen-Belsen, nearly 14,000 prisoners died of various things. Not being fed properly, typhus, etc.

Jews Who Were in the Concentration CampsAt Auschwitz or other death camp, the disabled or children (under 14 or so) were gassed upon arrival. Woman with babies were also immediately sent to the gas chambers. Occasionally, the SS would trick Jewish woman into telling them they were pregnant by offering more/better food to pregnant woman, really going to be gassed. Some smart woman denied pregnancy, and lived until the child was born.

Some worked in the kitchen, therefore sometimes gained leftovers. Although it was dangerous to bring food into the camp, some did and gave it to friends or family.

In the camp, most inmates died from fever, starvation, gasoline, Zyklon B, (gas chambers) beatings, or gun shots.

The ones who miraculously survived, endured death marches, death from arbitrary, hard labor, and hatred. Most survivors were the only one in their family who survived. The survivors shared one thing on common; they all had a will to live.

Escapes at concentration camps mostly went haywire, but a few actually succeeded.

PartisansThe Jewish partisans were the ones who hid in the forests and cut German telephone wires and stopped trains. The most famous ones were the Bielski brothers; Tuvia, Alexander "Zus", Asael, and Aron. Their parents were killed in the ghetto in 1941. They saved the lives of 1,236 and lived in the Naliboki forest for two years. After the WarAfter the war, survivors often traveled to America, Canada, Israel, or stayed in Europe. Some wrote autobiographies, and share their story. Nearly all Holocaust survivor suffer from PTSD. (also called 'survivors syndrome' or 'concentration camp syndrome')

Every Holocaust survivor is a living miracle. For more information on any of the above topics, there are websites you may find accurate information. On the Wikipedia links, you can go to "external links" and "references" for even more information.

Below, I included links of some notable survivors, heroes, and some references. Of course, the ones I did not include may be searched.

Answer 2

The majority of Jews were very familiar with the scriptures and I assume that they kept faith in God that He would deliver them from their persecutors as He has so many times in the past, espeacially in the Exodus from Egypt in which God used Moses to lead the Jews into their "promised land". For more information read Exodus in The Holy Bible.

Answer 3

The Jews did as they were told by the Nazis if they did not do as they asked they would have been killed.

Answer 4

they would secretly pray when guards weren't watching or else they would be killed

Answer 5

Jews survived the Holocaust by being lucky to be in the camps at the end just before they camps were liberated or the had a iron will and fought to the end

Answer 6

how did some jews survive the Holocaust?