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Kayla Osborne
Professor Wertz-Orbaugh
UWRT 1103-009
24 November 2014
Courage and Bravery Despite Fear
For as long as I can remember, I have let my fear of doing things hold me back, be it the
high-ropes course at Upward Bound, sliding in softball, or, most recently, beginning my dream
of joining the United States Military. Unlike myself, however, the men and women who showed
opposition to Hitler and the Nazis during World War II, showed bravery and courage despite
their fears. People, such as the members of the Red Army, White Rose movement, children who
hid during the holocaust, and members of the various uprisings that occurred in the concentration
camps were all were forced to face their fears in order to survive.
For example, Hans Scholl, his sister Sophie, Christoph Probst, Willi Graf, and Alexander
Schmorell, who founded the White Rose movement, spoke out against the Nazis genocidal
policies. The group, composed of students, formed because they were outraged at the Nazi
tyranny and the apathy of the German citizens in regards to the abominable crimes of the Nazis
(White Rose). Members of the group risked their lives, transporting and mailing mimeographed
leaflets denouncing the Nazi regime. In their attempt to stop the war effort, they advocated for
the sabotage of the armaments industry, writing We will not be silenced to fellow students.
While they did make an effort to be the catalyst needed for change, the students were aware that
only military forces could end the Nazi domination and as such, limited their efforts to achieve a
renewal from within of the severely wounded German spirt (White Rose).

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Following the German Armys defeat at Stalingrad in January 1943, the Scholls
distributed pamphlets urging students in Munich to rebel. Within the next month, however, a
university janitor who witnessed the two passing out the information betrayed them to the
Gestapo. The two, along with Probst, were executed on February 22nd, 1943. Officials later
apprehended and executed Kurt Huber, who had guided the movement as well as the rest of the
White Rose members (White Rose). It was intriguing to me that the Nazis, a powerful military
force, found a group of young adults, barely out of high school, to be so threatening that they had
to execute them. However, at the same time, the members of the White Rose movement knew
what they were getting into and the consequences that could occur. Despite that knowledge, there
motivation outweighed the risks.
However, it was not just students and civilians creating radical political movements that
showed resistance to the Nazis. To my surprise, Jews served in all of the Allied forces that
fought against them. The most infamous of which is the Red Army where Jews served in all
positions and at all levels of command. A total of over 100,000 Jews from the Red Army were
captured by the Nazis, with only a few surviving to speak of their experience. Many Jews,
including those who managed to escape the Nazi menace in the 1930s, served in the armies of
the western Allies, especially in United States and British armed forces with around 300,000
Jews from Erez Israel enlisting in the British Army, 5,000 of whom were in a separate unit
known as the Jewish Brigade. Upon arriving at the concentration camps, their encounter with
survivors was, understandably, especially emotional (Fighters Against the Nazis: Jewish Soldiers
in the Allied Forces). Personally, I feel that the reason for this was almost related to survivors
guilt. While they had fought in the war, people living similar lives to theirs was sent off to a
concentration camp, demonstrating to them what could have happened.

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Jewish Brigade Soldiers during Infantry Training

In particular, one of these stories about Jews showing resistance by joining the Allied
forces stuck out to me. Wilfred Ofstein, served in the British Army, as a Jew, in 1942. In
testimonies with Yad Vashem, he talk of how there was only two subjects off limits during mess:
politics and religion. While it was a forbidden topic, Jews were able to obtain leave whenever
possible to celebrate Jewish holidays such as the hagim or the yam noriam. In exchange, the
Jewish soldiers offered to do orderly duty officers and guard duty so their Christian comrades
could celebrate holidays such as Christmas and Easter. In regards to anti-sematic problems,
Ofstein told of how his command officer, Colonel Hubert De Burgh, recommended him for
training as officer. As part of this recommendation, Ofstein was sent in front of English, British
general who happened to be Irish. Ofsteins Jewish heritage was never distinctly brought up,
instead being implied when the general stated I think you take this war very seriously, dont
you? to which he responded Indeed I do sir. As such the general agreed up the commission.
However, Ofstein was never able to complete the training due to being sent into action (From the
Testimony of Wilfred Ofstein on the British Army, 1942).

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It was not just older people who showed resistance. In their own way, the children and
teenagers who were forced into hiding during the Holocaust, and survived, did so because they
were willing to give up their freedom in order to live. The mortality rate among children was
especially high, with only 6-11% surviving the holocaust compared to 33% of adults (United
States Holocaust Museum). Of this, many survived because they were hidden, portraying fake
identities and often being hidden from the world. As such, the felt many emotions, ranging from
abandonment to, later on, survivors guilt (Shenitz). Many times, they were forced to hide
physical characteristics, learn new languages or customs, and adopt a new name, all why facing
the constant fear, dilemmas and danger.
Take for instance Shulamit Perlmutter, who spent 18 months hiding alone in a forest near
her hometown. In 1942, upon hearing rumors that they ghetto they were placed in was going to
be destroyed, Perlmutter, who later changed her name to Charlene Schiff, along with her mother
hid in the underbrush at a nearby rivers edge. There were screams from the ghetto, and fire, and
it never let down even at night, night and day. I don't know how many days we stayed in the
river, but it was several days, and I kept dozing off. And one time I woke up, or I thought I woke
up, and I looked around, and my mother wasn't there she described in her testimony to the
United State Holocaust Museum. Following the disappearance of her mother, Perlmutter
survived alone for 18 months until Soviet troops liberated her, eventually immigrating to the
United States (Life in the Shadows: Hidden Children in the Holocaust).
However, the resistance that occurred didnt only take place outside of the camps, inside
the prisoners resisted by initiating uprisings against the Nazis. Of the uprisings that took place,
one of the least known is the Treblinka uprising that occurred on August 2nd, 1943, essentially
destroying the horrible death camp. The men spent many afternoons prior planning the uprising,

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going so far as to trade for and store rifles, hand grenades, and gasoline. At approximately four
pm that afternoon, they began taking out the guards and setting the camp ablaze. By the time
[they reached] the other shore and [waded] out, in complete darkness, the sky behind [them was]
beginning to get lighter, and as [they crawled] up on the shore and [turned] around, [they saw] an
immense fire over Treblinka, larger and of a different color than on all those previous nights
when the flames had been fed by the large incineration grates. Stated Richard Glazar, who
escaped during the uprising, explained in his novel (Glazar 146). Of the 1,000 men who
participated, only around 200 managed to escape, only for the Germans to recapture and kill
about half of them (Jewish Uprisings in Camps).
While these examples are just a few of many, I can only imagine what was occurring in
their minds. Did Scholl regret his actions at the face of his executions? Did Ofstein fear
conditions being worse for him if he had been captured? Did members of the Red Army have
any hatred toward the Nazis or did they understand that maybe it wasnt their choice to enlist?
Beyond that, what was the motivation, the driving force, for all of the people who demonstrated
resistance? Because if there is one thing that I am fairly certain of, its that all of these people felt
some form of fear. Be it fear of the discovery, the fear of capture, the fear of death, or simply the
fear of the unknown, all of these people had some sort of fear that they faced and overcame. To
me, I feel that their passion and their motivation was really the key to facing their fears. Similar
to my motivation for things being the people I care about, their motivation, be it family, freedom,
or simply survival, was their driving force. If anything, I have learned that to overcome what
scares us the most, we have to look inside of ourselves and find our motivation. Otherwise, what
are we really fighting for?

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Works Cited
"Fighters Against the Nazis: Jewish Soldiers in the Allied Forces." Yad Vashem. Yad
Vashem, 2014. Web. 17 Nov. 2014.
<http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/holocaust/resource_center/item.asp?gate=2-40>.
"From the Testimony of Wilfred Ofstein on the British Army, 1942." Yad Vashem. Yad
Vashem. Web. 17 Nov. 2014. <http://www.yadvashem.org/odot_pdf/Microsoft Word 3917.pdf>.
"From the Testimony of Wilfred Ofstein on the P.O.W. Camps in 1944." Yad Vashem.
Yad Vashem. Web. 17 Nov. 2014. <http://www.yadvashem.org/odot_pdf/Microsoft Word 3916.pdf>.
"German Resistance to Hitler." United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. United
States Holocaust Memorial Council, 20 June 2014. Web. 17 Nov. 2014.
<http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005208>.
Glazar, Richard. Trap With A Green Fence: Survival in Treblinka. Evanston, Ill.:
Northwestern UP, 1995. Print.
"Hidden Children." United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. United States Holocaust
Memorial Council. Web. 17 Nov. 2014. <http://www.ushmm.org/research/research-incollections/search-the-collections/bibliography/hidden-children>.
"Jewish Brigade Soldiers during Infantry Training." Fighters Against the Nazis: Jewish
Soldiers Inthe Allied Forces - Photographs. Yad Vashem. Web. 17 Nov. 2014.

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<http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/holocaust/resource_center/item.asp?GATE=Z&list_type=240&type_id=2&total=N&title=Fighters Against the Nazis: Jewish Soldiers inthe Allied Forces Photographs>.
"Jewish Resistance." Yad Vashem. Yad Vashem, 2014. Web. 17 Nov. 2014.
<http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/holocaust/resource_center/item.asp?gate=1-7>.
"Jewish Uprisings in Camps." United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. United States
Holocaust Memorial Council, 20 June 2014. Web. 17 Nov. 2014.
<http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007027>.
"Life in the Shadows: Hidden Children in the Holocaust." United States Holocaust
Memorial Museum. United States Holocaust Memorial Council. Web. 17 Nov. 2014.
<http://www.ushmm.org/exhibition/hiddenchildren/stories_of_the_hidden/index.php?content=schiff>.
Shenitz, B. "Hidden Children Speak Out." Newsweek 117.15 (1991): 59. Academic
Search Complete. Web. 17 Nov. 2014.
"White Rose." United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. United States Holocaust
Memorial Council, 20 June 2014. Web. 17 Nov. 2014.
<http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007188>.