Polémique sur la résistance juive pendant la Shoah
Type de matériel :
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Throughout the first decade of the State of Israel, the national institution and the Left Zionist movements for the commemoration of the Holocaust produced diaries and journals, and primary research papers which shed light on the various aspects of Jewish resistance during the period of the Holocaust ; it gave a form of expression to the great dilemmas that stood before the Jewish communities and their leaders. Studying these books underlines the principal differences between the main bodies for the commemoration in regard to the special emphasis and importance of the armed struggle, in relation to the nature of the other characteristics of Jewish reactions to the Holocaust.From the very beginning, Yad Vashem stood before the dilemma of how to associate the national objectives of commemoration with the scientific research. According to the Yad Vashem law, the Institution had to set educational and national objectives dealing with the “awareness oh the Holocaust”. These did not only affect Israeli society, as from the very beginning, Yad Vashem aspired to become the centre of perpetuation for the entire Jewish people, in Israel and the Diaspora. Yad Vashem not only aimed at dealing with the issue of the intended destruction of the Jewish people, but also with the ideology that stood behind the “Final Solution”, and with the lives of the Jews during the Holocaust who stood in the face of death. The issue of an active opposition did not appear to be the focus, as most of the Jews during the Holocaust did not participate in an armed struggle. However, the Institution tried to emphasize the uprisings of Jews in the ghettos and camps, and expanded the concept of Jewish resistance in their daily life. This is in contradiction with the image of a passive people who were brought like lambs to the slaughter, a popular description widely accepted amongst Israeli society, and found to be expressed in Hilberg’s books. In relation to this issue, the Left came off with the first two books published by Yad Vashem, written by authors who had connections with the Jewish councils – the Judenräte of their respective communities, and had fulfilled central roles within them. At that time, Yad Vashem published no other books or diaries written by members who took part or organized any of the armed uprisings in the ghettos and camps ; these were published by the Kibbutz Movement, which strongly identifies with the Left Zionist Movement – “Ha’kibbutz Ha’meuhad” and the “Kibbutz Artzi” movements. Yad Vashem adopts the concept of “courage” as described by Ben-Zion Dinur ; this expression incorporates the idea of Jewish resistance to a physical opposition as well as a fight for survival.Nevertheless, the book of the resistance in the ghettos and the book of the Jewish partisans played an important part in the community conducted by the former leaders of the rebellions, members of the Left Zionist camp, who placed the armed uprising as a focus to the perpetuation of the memory of the Holocaust, turning it into educational value in Israeli society. Throughout the first half of the 1950’s, the challenge of turning this into widely spread educational value received community and political support from the Left Zionist Parties such as the “Mapam” and the Kibbutz Movements – “Ha’kibbutz Ha’meuhad” and the “Kibbutz Artzi”. The success of the pioneer education is considered to be due to the education of the conduct of the Jews during the ghetto uprisings ; and is therefore viewed as a wonderful example for Israeli youth and a vital component in the education for the future of the Israeli society ; that placed pioneer values and the concept of kibbutz as a basis for their ideology.Placing the revolt as a central part of commemorating the Holocaust was supported by the “Mapam” movement and was significantly expressed by all the discussions that were held in the Knesset, as to the question of an appropriate Holocaust memorial day, and the role of Yad Vashem in the memorial day ceremonies that took place in the early days in Kibbutz “Lochamei Ha’Gettaot” and Kibbutz “Yad Mordechai”, belonging to the “Hashomer Hatzair” movement. As opposed to Yad Vashem, that did not express a stance regarding the disagreement on the issue with the different characteristics of the Jewish reactions in the Holocaust, the leaders of “Ha’kibbutz Ha’meuhad” and the “Kibbutz Artzi” movements placed a great emphasis on the values between those who fought an armed resistance and other Jewish resistance in the Holocaust. And so, the Left Zionist movement managed to combine the commemoration of the Holocaust, the political struggle and the literary undertaking, in the struggle for the shaping of the memory of the events of the Holocaust – placing the armed uprising as a focal point and value for the education of the future generations.
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