Resistance: They Fought Back

“People have this myth stuck in their heads that Jews went to their deaths like sheep to the slaughter. But this is where the real story begins…Jews did not go as sheep to the slaughter… They fought back.” – Professor Richard Freund

We’ve all heard of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, but most people have no idea how widespread and prevalent Jewish resistance to Nazi barbarism was. Instead, it’s widely believed “Jews went to their deaths like sheep to the slaughter.”

Filmed in Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Israel, and the U.S., Resistance – They Fought Back provides a much-needed corrective to this myth of Jewish passivity. There were uprisings in ghettos large and small, rebellions in death camps, and thousands of Jews fought Nazis in the forests. Everywhere in Eastern Europe, Jews waged campaigns of non-violent resistance against the Nazis.

Joining us after the film will be Kingston resident, artist and survivor, Tibor Spitz, who will discuss his own experiences as a young boy with his family hiding from the Nazis. Tibor is also a celebrated fine artist and will be showing numerous pieces of original paintings and ceramics available for sale that are simultaneously heartbreaking and triumphant in their nature.