Die Angst kam erst danach

Discusses the role of Jewish women in resistance activities in Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Hungary, and Poland during World War II, based on archival material, private documents, letters, and diaries, as well as interviews with 43 former resistance fighters. Most of the interviewees had an academic or professional education; 90% were immigrants or children of immigrants. Their activities focused on rescue, especially of children, and on armed resistance, for both of which the falsification of documents was a very important function. In France, Belgium, and the Netherlands, armed resistance was organized primarily by communist groups. The Jewish resistance in Western Europe, apart from the Armée Juive in France, arose from the youth movements, which were active especially in organizing soup kitchens and homes for children. In Hungary, the development of events after the German occupation was so rapid that organization of an armed resistance was not possible; resistance dealt with rescue. In all of these groups, women held leading positions, but especially in the left-wing youth movements in Poland, and in social and educational institutions in France. (From the Bibliography of the Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism - The Hebrew University of Jerusalem)