The Sonderkommando Uprising with Dr. Gideon Greif

The stories of the heroism, rebellion, resistance and revolt of the Jews in the Holocaust are not marginal and are not limited at all. Contrary to popular belief for many years, the Jews took up arms near them and organized uprisings against the Germans and their aides wherever circumstances allowed.(Image: Anniversary of the Sonderkommando revolt in Auschwitz Brama główna i wartownia obozu Auschwitz II – zdjęcie archiwalne, czarno-białe)

During the Holocaust, three armed uprisings of Jews in the extermination camps were recorded, a very impressive statistic:

in half of the extermination camps, the Jewish prisoners performed the miracle of the revolt against their German tormentors.
This is in addition to the hundreds of revolts of Jews in the ghettos, revolts for the most part of which we have only limited knowledge.
The first revolt in the extermination camps took place in the Treblinka extermination camp on August 2, 1943, the second – in the Sobibor extermination camp on October 14, 1943 and the third and final – in the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp, on October 7, 1944, 77 years ago.
This revolt, which was planned and carried out by the Sonderkommando men – a group of Jewish prisoners forcibly employed in the industrial-factory murder facilities of the Auschwitz camp – was different from its predecessors. The two uprisings that preceded it, in Treblinka and Sobibor, were primarily intended to bring an end to the mass murder of Jews, to sabotage the murder facilities and to bring the mass murder of Jews to the attention of the world.

At the time these revolts took place, the “Final Solution” process was at its peak. When the revolt broke out in Auschwitz, this factor was no longer relevant: most European Jews were no longer alive, so the rescue motif was not the main cause of the revolt. Among the factors that motivated the revolt were these points: Revenge on the Germans for their monstrous crimes in Auschwitz, the desire of the Sonderkommando men to save themselves so they could report to the world what they saw in Auschwitz, a desire to be engraved on the pages of history that the Jews in Auschwitz were not only victims of cruel, vicious and heinous murder but were anxious to fight with weapons in hand against their persecutors, and the primary and immediate factor was the desire to sabotage the planned mass murder against the masses of Hungarian Jews, an action for which the Sonderkommando were well aware.

Prof. Gideon Greif

Prof. Gideon Greif is an Israeli historian, educator and pedagogue. He is Chief Historian and Researcher at the “Shem Olam” Institute for Education, Documentation and Research on Faith and the Holocaust, Israel, Chief Historian and Researcher at the Foundation for Holocaust Education Projects in Miami, Florida and a senior Researcher and Historian at the Ono Academic College in Israel.

Prof. Gideon Greif was recently nominated Director of the Center for Hebrew Language, Culture and Civilization at the Philological Faculty, the University of Belgrade, The Republic of Serbia, and Director of the Center for History, Culture and Civilization of the Serbian Jews and the Serbian People, at the Ono Academic College in Israel.

Prof. Gideon Greif is considered one of the world renowned historian-experts on the history of Concentration and Extermination Camp Auschwitz-Birkenau. His most famous contribution to the history of Auschwitz is his pioneer, groundbreaking research “We Wept without Tears”, on the history of the “Sonderkommando”, a special Jewish prisoner squad in Auschwitz-Birkenau, compelled to work at the mass killing installations. The research, first published at Yad Vashem, has become an international best seller. The book has been translated until now into 14 languages.

The book “We Wept without Tears” inspired the Hungarian movie “Son of Saul”, which won an Oscar in 2016. Gideon Greif worked as a historical advisor for the film.

With Itamar Levin Greif wrote the book Uprising in Auschwitz”, which is the first book in the world dedicated exclusively to the Jewish ‘Sonderkommando” uprising in Auschwitz, on October 7, 1944.

Prof. Greif published recently the book “Jasenovac – Auschwitz of the Balkans”, which won the first prize at the Belgrade International Book Fair on November 2018.

It is one volume of a Trilogy by Prof. Greif, dedicated to the crimes of the Croat-Ustasha Regime against the Serbian People and against the Jewish People during World War two. The three Volumes of the Trilogy, to be published soon, contain more than 2500 pages.

Prof. Gideon Greif has won five of the highest Official State Decorations by the Republic of Serbia.

Prof. Dr. Gideon Greif is well known for his lecture technique and he speaks on the Holocaust across the world in three languages (Hebrew, English and German). His lecture program contains more than 30 topics. He especially loves to speak in front of a young audience to share his knowledge on the Holocaust and its consequences to ensure that the Shoah will never be forgotten and stays a warning signal to mankind.

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