What lengths were they willing to go for their ideals? How much suffering and pain did they have to endure for their beliefs, ideals and convictions? True tzadikkim. May their memory forever be for a blessing and may their example forever empower us!

How could they go without fighting back? I heard the claim that Nazis were "too strong," which is an argument of cowards. Look at Anielewicz's fighters in the Warsaw ghetto, they fought back and killed some Nazis. Sukkot and nonsense like that didn't figure for the Warsaw Ghetto fighters. They knew religion is not a wall through which bullets will not pass. Warsaw Ghetto resistance is our symbol, not the praying Jews who were cowards.

brought the US military to Europe to deliver the Jews from the ghettos and concentration camps. Do you think HaShem is deaf and blind? He saw the Jews fighting and He saw the Jews praying and He delivered the Jews and gave them back their homeland. That's a lot of prayer power, not just armed resistance. Praying Jews are heroes just as the fighting Jews are and both are needed, then and now. King David was a warrior king who prayed three times during the day and twice at night (midnight and 3AM since HaShem visits the earth around 3 AM Jerusalem time according to Jewish scholars as reported by evangelist Perry Stone on tv). Moses did not get the power of HaShem to deliver the Hebrews from slavery by killing a cruel Egyptian taskmaster as the Warsaw Jews were doing to the Nazis. Moses got the power from HaShem to deliver the Hebrews from bondage by getting circumcised along with his sons and obeying HaShem to go to Pharoah. Joshua did not conquer Canaan by armaments. He conquered it first by having all the males who were to fight for him, circumcised. Then he obeyed HaShem and marched around Jericho seven times just as a Jewish bride marches around her husband seven times to break down the walls of separation between them. How could the Jews of Warsaw defeat all of Europe, filled with Nazis? Hmmm? They needed the power of HaShem through prayer to get others to deliver the continent from a cruel dictator who was worse the Pharoah of Egypt anciently. Even now the religious who pray are mocked in Israel, but the IDF could not win battles that are not even taught at the US Military Academy at West Point because the outcomes are so supernatural. Those supernatural outcomes in Israel's wars are from HaShem in response to prayer as well as military actions. Both are needed.

Michael. How dare you besmirch their memory. You don't know how you would have acted in the same situation. There were underground organizations in the Lodz ghetto. And besides, you are dealing in hindsight. Many of the people in the ghettos did not have the same information you had on what specifically awaited them, and if they did, the sheer horror of the information were often attributed to rumor. Add severe hunger and a lack of weapons, and you have a very different situation. I'm not sure if you are openly fighting against neo-nazi or other extremist groups in this country. If you are, let us know how your fight is going. Don't forget to leave your full name and address, as your courage will serve as an example.

It is amazing that just as they worked so diligently to find the Arba Minim [which were very rare even in free London] Jews in the Holocaust worked to make matza, Chanukah lights, to smuggle in Tefillin etc. The Germans wanted to dehumanise and deJudaise Jews but they didn't succeed. Today the Arabs talk about deJudaising Jerusalem, but thay also will not succeed.

In Sukot 1941 conditions were not the same as they later became. 31st July 1941 was the Wansee Conference at which the Final Solution was discussed. Even then it was couched in terms that were deceptive giving the impression that Jews would be resettled in the 'East'. The Warsaw Uprising was in Spring 1943 when the details of Auschwitz had been made known. The Jews of the Warsaw Ghetto knew they would die either way.

There was no fighting done by Jews in the Lodz Ghetto. Had Jews thought in terms of resistance, they would have fought back, like in Warsaw in 1943. Preparation for rebellion in the Warsaw Ghetto started much earlier, probably by 1941 already. With what we know from thousands of years of history, it is obvious that prayer is not a method of resistance against murderers. Recognizing this fact would have made resistance fighters out of many Jews in the ghettos during WW2.

If I had a penny in the bank for every piece of nonsense you write, I would be super rich today. Why don't you go back to Arizona to preach your blah blah?

Who gave the rebbes the right to request to risk other people life to deliver some fairy tales 'species'. The wood used for sukkah could save some kids life that died from cold during the holiday.

here we go again, the same moronic hate fests and accusations. god, don't you just get bored listening to the same mantra over and over again? is this how you entertain yourself? because you are a certain entertainment for us all. we just shake our head and laugh at your zeal and idiotic remarks. now go play in your polish sandlot and leave the intellectual discussions and opinions to the big boys who have at least a clue what they are talking about on any subject matter. remember, no one is listening to conspiracy theories pulled by you from crazy journals written by some of the "elements" you consider "experts". peer review, dear. peer review. this is what counts.

Dear Rivkah, I am always amazed at all of your posts. You bring refreshing insight to the articles you comment on. Please keep commenting and keep on sharing, I learn every time I read what you post.

Try to memorise, Warsaw Uprising and Warsaw Ghetto Uprising are two different events ,...

Only 600 out of 460 000 that knew they will be exterminated anyway choose to fignt, nothing to brag about ,...

so anxious to turn in their Jewish neighbors and friends for an extra piece of hog fat and possibly a roll in the hay with a nazi soldier, Jewish children may have been able to celebrate the Sukkoth holiday instead of dying of hunger and cold in the ghettoes. Instead, we get the likes of you.

1. The Wannsee Conference took place on January 20, 1942 and not on July 31, 1941. 2. The Warsaw Uprising took place on 1 August 1944, not 1943. 1943 was the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.

31st July 1941 is the date Goering gave Heydrich authorisation for the Final Solution which was then discused at the wansee Conference in January 1942. Regarding the Warsaw uprising it's obvious from the context that the writer is talking about ghettoes, Lods and Warsaw.

You judge the victims of the holocaust and deem them cowards but you live in California instead of serving in Gaza. You seem ashamed of your murdered relatives for getting murdered. I guess the Israelis who die fighting terrorists please you in cozy California for dying the right way. Because the Jewish experience is all about you and making you happy. Do you know the horror of the death camps and the mental trauma these people experienced besides the physical? You would have them feel shame in their eternal rest to keep them company with the memories of seeing their loved ones murdered. Whether you are ultimately right about the need for Jews to know how to fight YOU shame the Jews in your astonishing lack of respect for the dead.

Thank you very much, Jon, for replying to Michael, as you did here. Your post is spot on. Michael is a mam devoid of emotions.

How dare you criticise those tehorot for their Jewish observance? Who do you think you are to condemn these innocents a second time? You pass judgement when you have not experienced first-hand the suffering - hunger, cold and sickness - they did. To smuggle in these things was the ultimate in resistance, albeit of a spiritual kind, in the same way as our ancestors ignored the Greek and Roman rulings against circumcision. I bet you write your poison from an air-conditioned room with a cold beer. You are lower than the lowest of earth crawling creatures. "Jews" such as yourself with rocks for a heart we do not need.

My father is a survivor of the Lodz ghetto . I asked him many times why the Jews did not ruse up against the Nazis . He explained that the Jews of Łódź had almost no knowledge of what was occurring in the world outside the ghetto . His sister ‘ volunteered’ to leave the ghetto to work in a camp outside . She was told that her family would receive additional rations if she cooperated . For several months the family received doctored letters where she described that she was being treated well . The Jews were told by their leaders that the oppression and suffering would not last very long . The situation was compared to a progrom ... very painful to endure but short lived . My father lived through years of oppression but remained hopeful . The survivors of Łódź endured years of terrible living conditions . I say that I have PTSD by proxy . We have no possible way of comprehending the ghetto experience . I would not dare criticize this generation .