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On View

April 16, 2007 – September 14, 2008

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During the Holocaust, Jews throughout Europe sought to undermine the Nazis through an individual and collective acts of resistance. They engaged in a wide range of activities – praying clandestinely, documenting conditions in the ghettos, and taking up arms to fight – each one a courageous act of resistance that refutes the notion that Jews were passive victims. Rather, as their circumstances changed and the extent of the assault against them was revealed, Jews defied the Nazis in diverse ways in the attempt to preserve their spirit, humanity, dignity, faith, and lives.

Honored in the 2008 Excellence in Exhibitions competition of the American Association of Museums, Daring to Resist: Jewish Defiance in the Holocaust showed the dilemmas Jews faced under impossible circumstances. Artifact highlights included the shirt of Tuvia Bielski (partisan commander played by Daniel Craig on the film Defiance); the bag used by Kalman Farber to smuggle food into the Vilna Ghetto; and a Passover haggadah written from memory in the the Unterlüss labor camp for a secret seder.

This exhibition was made possible through major funding from: Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, the Elizabeth Meyer Lorentz Fund of The New York Community Trust, the Edmond J. Safra Philanthropic Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Humanities*.

Generous leadership gifts were made by: Frank and Cesia Blaichman, Patti Askwith Kenner and Family, George and Adele Klein, Ingeborg and Ira Leon Rennert, and Shalom and Varda Yoran.

Additional support was provided by: The David Berg Foundation, Nancy Fisher, Robert I. Goldman Foundation, The Blanche and Irving Laurie Foundation, L’Oréal USA, Righteous Persons Foundation, and Gil and Claire (Israelit) Zweig.

Media sponsorship provided by The Jewish Week.

*Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this exhibition do not necessarily reflect those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

This white muslin shirt belonged to Tuvia Bielsky, once Commander of the Bielsky Brigade, the largest Jewish Partisan group in Europe. He brought three shirts like this one into the forest with him as he escaped the Nazis, and later asked his wife to save the shirts as mementos from his time in the Holocaust. Tuvia’s story was depicted in the Academy Award winning movie Defiance. Gift of Lillian Bielsky-Bell.
Kalman Farber used this long fabric bag to smuggle food into the Vilna Ghetto by stuffing the bag down a pants leg and filling it with food. He ultimately survived the Holocaust by hiding in bunkers in Vilna after spending time in a forced labor camp. Yaffa Eliach Collection donated by the Center for Holocaust Studies.
Dina Kraus wrote this Haggadah in pencil from memory while imprisoned at Unterluss labor camp, where she was transferred from Auschwitz. A group of girls who knew she was a Hebrew teacher asked her to conduct a secret seder. To prepare, Kraus wrote down a substantial portion of the Haggadah from memory. The handwritten document was hidden in Czechoslovakia and returned to Kraus’ father after liberation. This handwritten document was hidden in Czechoslovakia and returned to Kraus’ father after liberation. Gift of Ludwig Ehrenreich, Zachary Ehrenreich and Margaret E. Heching.
Daring to Resist: Jewish Defiance in the Holocaust explored the ways Jews resisted the Nazi rise to power, including, in some cases, whether to stay or to go. Some parents made the agonizing choice to send their children abroad on a Kindertransport, taking along nothing but small suitcases like the one shown here.
Daring to Resist was organized in four primary categories: resisting the Nazi rise to power, resisting occupation, resisting deportation, and resisting mass murder.
This gallery in Daring to Resist introduced visitors to ways in which Jews sought to sabotage their enemies in wartime.