Resisters: How Ordinary Jews Fought Persecution in Hitler’s Germany

2025 J. B. and Maurice C. Shapiro Annual Lecture

Jewish resistance during the Holocaust is still mostly understood as rare armed-group opposition in the Nazi-occupied east. New research based on a broader definition of resistance, including individual acts, draws from sources ranging from police and court records to survivor testimonies. Hundreds of Jews—women and men of all ages, education levels, and professions—resisted persecution in a wide variety of ways from 1933–1945 in Nazi Germany and annexed Austria. Join us to learn about the surprisingly widespread individual resistance that obliterates the common view of Jewish passivity under Nazi persecution.

Opening remarks
Dr. Lisa Leff, Director, Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Speaker
Dr. Wolf Gruner, J. B. and Maurice C. Shapiro Senior Scholar-In-Residence, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum; Shapell-Guerin Chair in Jewish Studies and Professor of History, University of Southern California, Los Angeles; Founding Director, USC Center for Advanced Genocide Research

Moderator
Dr. Elizabeth Anthony, Visiting Scholars Director, Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

This program is free and open to the public, but registration is required. For more information, please contact vscholars@ushmm.org.

_{The J. B. and Maurice C. Shapiro Senior Scholar-in-Residence Fellowship, endowed by the J. B. and Maurice C. Shapiro Charitable Trust, enables the Mandel Center to bring a distinguished scholar to the Museum each year to conduct innovative research about the Holocaust and disseminate this work to the public. The scholar in residence also leads seminars, lectures at universities in the United States, and serves as a resource for the Museum, educators, students, and the general public.}

_{The Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center’s mission is to ensure the long-term growth and vitality of Holocaust studies. To do that, it is essential to provide opportunities for new generations of scholars. The vitality and the integrity of Holocaust studies require openness, independence, and free inquiry, so that new ideas are generated and tested through peer review and public debate. The opinions of scholars expressed before, during the course of, or after their activities with the Mandel Center do not represent and are not endorsed by the Museum or its Mandel Center.}