Just like the early teen years in the life of an individual, those living through the Holocaust were confronted with new chances, new choices, new challenges. The evil of Nazism led many to defy the regime in ways that varied according to their situation, to the possibility of effective action and to their own values. The resisters and the righteous included men, women and children; religious and secular; Jewish and Gentile. Their actions took the form of attacks, escapes, uprisings, fraud, theft, hiding and being hidden, keeping chronicles, teaching and learning, leaving a legacy of knowledge and ideas, and even praying.
All these actions raise big moral issues connected to personal and communal risk and ask the ultimate question: can we do a bad thing for a good reason?
But the boisterousness and the bravado are undeniable, as are the intuition and the ingenuity involved. It was chutzpah at its most creative, its most courageous.
Angela Gluck has worked as a teacher, trainer and consultant to schools and local authorities. She has written over 40 books on aspects of religion and history, and broadcasted on these subjects. She devotes part of her work to teaching children, young people and adults in cross-communal settings. She is an active trustee of The Separated Child Foundation.