Many Jewish partisans in Eastern Europe lived in underground bunkers called zemlyankas (Russian for "dugout"): small, primitive shelters that provided a living and hiding space, sometimes for dozens of people, even through freezing winters.
Click and drag in the window below to explore a virtual model of Shalom Yoran's zemlyanka that he built and lived in with four other men in the winter of 1942.
1937 borders. Approximate areas of Jewish partisan activity marked in yellow.
Approximately 30,000 Jews throughout Eastern and Western Europe -- many of them teens -- fought back during the Holocaust as Jewish partisans.
During World War II, approximately 30,000 Jews throughout Eastern and Western Europe -- many of them teens -- fought back against the Germans and their collaborators as Jewish partisans. They were men and women from a variety of backgrounds.
Leon Senders was born in Vilna, Poland, on March 19, 1923, to a secular Jewish family with strong Socialist sympathies. As a high school student, he attended technical school, gaining mechanical experience that would prove invaluable during the war. Living in an area annexed by the Soviet Union, Leon was shielded from most of the violence until 1941, when the Germans broke the Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact. Leon was returning from a factory picnic in the countryside when he found Vilna smoldering in the wake of a German bomb attack. Later in the day, a group of local boys invited him to escape with them into Russia. He remembers how his father urged him to go: "[He] said, 'Go, you are a youngster. You are eighteen years old. If anything will happen, people like you and your boys will go first.'"
Approximate area of partisan activity for
In 1943, armed with an automatic rifle and a short-wave radio, Leon parachuted into the Lithuanian forest, near a German-controlled railway junction, to conduct espionage operations. He concealed his Jewish identity, bleaching his hair blond and relying on his command of Polish, Russian, German, and Lithuanian to gather information. Working as the 'ears and mouth' of the partisans, he became their liaison to the regular army. He used a network of local informants to monitor German movements, and he telegraphed his findings to the Soviet military through a series of coded messages. The information he provided was crucial in carrying out bombings on German supply shipments. "I would like the partisans to be remembered as a part of victory," Leon said. "Without them, victory would be smaller than the victory that we brought to the world."
Brenda and Leon had three children and seven grandchildren. Both Brenda and Leon passed away in 2013.
Engage and inspire your youth with these free, ready-to use materials for teaching History, Leadership, Ethics and Jewish Values through the life lessons of Jews who fought back during the Holocaust. Designed for 6th-12th grade History, English, Social Studies, Holocaust/Genocide and Jewish Studies classrooms and informal settings (youth groups, summer camps, etc.). Most materials can be completed in 45-60 minutes.
Watch short documentary films narrated by Ed Asner, Tova Feldshuh, Larry King, and Liev Schreiber made from from a collection of 50 original interviews with surviving Jewish partisans shot all over the world.
JPEF's Defiance Multimedia Curriculum, developed in cooperation with the film makers. Engage your students in critical thinking about History, Leadership, Ethics, and Jewish Values with JPEF's multimedia curriculum on teaching with the film.
Born in Poland in 1924, Faye Schulman received her first camera from her brother when she was 13. That camera ultimately saved her life and allowed her to document Jewish partisan activity later. As a result, she is one of the only known Jewish partisan photographers.
Schulman's rare collection of images captures the camaraderie, horror, loss, bravery, and triumph of the rag-tag, resilient partisans—some Jewish, some not—who fought the Germans and their collaborators.
During World War II approximately thirty thousand Jews escaped ghettos and work camps and formed organized armed resistance groups to fight the Nazis. These groups were known as partisans. Despite the odds, women were able to join the partisans. Their work in the partisan camps ranged from domestic duties such as cleaning cooking and nursing, to reconnaissance, weapons transport, as well as armed combat. Women made up approximately 10% of the partisans.
