Resistance Groups and Movements
Members
Mordecai Anielewicz
Mordecai Anielelwicz was born in Warsaw, Poland, in 1919. After finishing secondary school, Mordecai joined the Zionist movement and became a full-time organizer for the movement. During World War II when the German Army invaded Poland, Mordecai Anielewicz escaped to Romania. German SS officers soon caught up with all of the Jews who had done this along with Anielewicz, and they were deported back to the small ghetto in Warsaw.
In Warsaw, the conditions in the ghetto were so horrid that between 1940 and 1942 an estimate of 100,000 Jews died of starvation and disease. Mordecai Anielewicz organized a resistance group in the ghetto of Warsaw called the Jewish Fighter Organization, and was elected the leader of this organization around early 1942. Many determined Jewish people fought against the Nazi and Soviet forces in the Warsaw ghetto. Yet, by the end of 1942 over 310,322 Jews had been deported from the Warsaw ghetto, and transferred annihilation camps.
Mordecai Anielewicz now was one of the top Jewish officials who organizing resistance movements throughout the Warsaw ghetto. On the 19th of April in 1943, Nazi SS guards had been ordered to liquidize the Warsaw ghetto. Entering the camp, the guards were fired upon by the Jewish members of the Jewish Fighters Organization. Although they only had two machine-guns, fifteen rifles, and 500 pistols, the Jews of the Warsaw ghetto opened fire on the incoming SS soldiers. The Warsaw ghetto civilians also attacked the officers with grenades and petrol bombs. The German officers took heavy casualties on the first day of the attack by the Jews. Not soon after this first day, more SS officers invaded the small ghetto and set all the buildings on fire.
As the Jews fled from the buildings, they were rounded up and deported to the extermination camp in Treblinka. The Jewish ghetto fighters continued to battle from the cellars and attics of Warsaw, but on the 8th of May, the Germans began using poisonous gas on the rebels. About a hundred men and women escaped into the sewers below the ghetto of Warsaw, but the rest were killed by the gas, including Mordecai Anielewicz
Spartacus Educational, Mordecai Anielewicz).
Lucie Aubrac
Lucie Aubrac was born in France on June 29, 1912. Lucie studied history at a small University in France and then, shortly after her graduation, began teaching history in Strasbourg. Being a member of the French Communist Party helped Lucie find her husband Raymond Samuel who she married in December on 1939, but after the defeat of France in 1940, Lucie and her new husband were forced to flee to Lyon in an attempt to hide their Jewish background. During the time they were traveling to Lyon, both Lucie and Raymond decided to make up and take the last name Aubrac.
A couple months after fleeing France, Lucie and Raymond decided to establish the left-wing Libération-sud resistance group. Along with creating this resistance group, both Lucie and Raymond were also involved in the publication of the Libération newspaper in Lyon. For the next two years during World War II, both Lucie and Raymond lived with two personalities and lives.
At the end of 1942, the German Army had invaded and took over all of France. Lyon had become the headquarters of the Gestapo chief, Klaus Barbie, and other German officers. In March of 1943, Raymond Aubrac was arrested and interviewed fro two moths. After the two months of being interviewed by the police in Lyon,Raymond Aubrac was released. The Gestapo eventually obtained enough information to arrest Raymond Aubrac again. Raymond Aubrac was then held and tortured in Montluc Prison in Lyon. Lucie Aubrac, who was pregnant with her second child, visited the prison often and claimed that she was an unmarried women and that Raymond was the father of her obviously soon expected child. She pleaded to the Gestopo that Raymond be allowed to marry her before his execution. The Gestapo believed her story and allowed the couple to get married. While being transferred back to prison after the fake marriage, armed members of the resistance movement attacked and were able to break both Lucie and Raymond out of the prison.
Lucie and Raymond then went into hiding in London until after France was liberated in 1944. A consultative assembly was established in which Lucie joined right away. The assembly helped the women of France get the right to vote. Lucie then became the first woman to sit in a French parliamentary assembly.
In retirement, Lucie visited many schools and told the stories of her experiences of World War II. Luice also wrote many books about the French Resistance Group she and he husband had formed. Lucie Aubrac then died on the 14th of March in 2007
(Spartacus Educational, Lucie Aubrac).
Mordecai Anielelwicz was born in Warsaw, Poland, in 1919. After finishing secondary school, Mordecai joined the Zionist movement and became a full-time organizer for the movement. During World War II when the German Army invaded Poland, Mordecai Anielewicz escaped to Romania. German SS officers soon caught up with all of the Jews who had done this along with Anielewicz, and they were deported back to the small ghetto in Warsaw.
In Warsaw, the conditions in the ghetto were so horrid that between 1940 and 1942 an estimate of 100,000 Jews died of starvation and disease. Mordecai Anielewicz organized a resistance group in the ghetto of Warsaw called the Jewish Fighter Organization, and was elected the leader of this organization around early 1942. Many determined Jewish people fought against the Nazi and Soviet forces in the Warsaw ghetto. Yet, by the end of 1942 over 310,322 Jews had been deported from the Warsaw ghetto, and transferred annihilation camps.
Mordecai Anielewicz now was one of the top Jewish officials who organizing resistance movements throughout the Warsaw ghetto. On the 19th of April in 1943, Nazi SS guards had been ordered to liquidize the Warsaw ghetto. Entering the camp, the guards were fired upon by the Jewish members of the Jewish Fighters Organization. Although they only had two machine-guns, fifteen rifles, and 500 pistols, the Jews of the Warsaw ghetto opened fire on the incoming SS soldiers. The Warsaw ghetto civilians also attacked the officers with grenades and petrol bombs. The German officers took heavy casualties on the first day of the attack by the Jews. Not soon after this first day, more SS officers invaded the small ghetto and set all the buildings on fire.
As the Jews fled from the buildings, they were rounded up and deported to the extermination camp in Treblinka. The Jewish ghetto fighters continued to battle from the cellars and attics of Warsaw, but on the 8th of May, the Germans began using poisonous gas on the rebels. About a hundred men and women escaped into the sewers below the ghetto of Warsaw, but the rest were killed by the gas, including Mordecai Anielewicz
Spartacus Educational, Mordecai Anielewicz).
Lucie Aubrac
Lucie Aubrac was born in France on June 29, 1912. Lucie studied history at a small University in France and then, shortly after her graduation, began teaching history in Strasbourg. Being a member of the French Communist Party helped Lucie find her husband Raymond Samuel who she married in December on 1939, but after the defeat of France in 1940, Lucie and her new husband were forced to flee to Lyon in an attempt to hide their Jewish background. During the time they were traveling to Lyon, both Lucie and Raymond decided to make up and take the last name Aubrac.
A couple months after fleeing France, Lucie and Raymond decided to establish the left-wing Libération-sud resistance group. Along with creating this resistance group, both Lucie and Raymond were also involved in the publication of the Libération newspaper in Lyon. For the next two years during World War II, both Lucie and Raymond lived with two personalities and lives.
At the end of 1942, the German Army had invaded and took over all of France. Lyon had become the headquarters of the Gestapo chief, Klaus Barbie, and other German officers. In March of 1943, Raymond Aubrac was arrested and interviewed fro two moths. After the two months of being interviewed by the police in Lyon,Raymond Aubrac was released. The Gestapo eventually obtained enough information to arrest Raymond Aubrac again. Raymond Aubrac was then held and tortured in Montluc Prison in Lyon. Lucie Aubrac, who was pregnant with her second child, visited the prison often and claimed that she was an unmarried women and that Raymond was the father of her obviously soon expected child. She pleaded to the Gestopo that Raymond be allowed to marry her before his execution. The Gestapo believed her story and allowed the couple to get married. While being transferred back to prison after the fake marriage, armed members of the resistance movement attacked and were able to break both Lucie and Raymond out of the prison.
Lucie and Raymond then went into hiding in London until after France was liberated in 1944. A consultative assembly was established in which Lucie joined right away. The assembly helped the women of France get the right to vote. Lucie then became the first woman to sit in a French parliamentary assembly.
In retirement, Lucie visited many schools and told the stories of her experiences of World War II. Luice also wrote many books about the French Resistance Group she and he husband had formed. Lucie Aubrac then died on the 14th of March in 2007
(Spartacus Educational, Lucie Aubrac).