- published: 14 Nov 2011
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Jewish partisans were fighters in irregular military groups participating in the Jewish resistance movement against Nazi Germany and its collaborators during World War II.
A large number of Jewish partisan groups operated across Nazi-occupied Europe, made up of existing criminal Jewish organized crime syndicates, Jewish led Communist networks, and the large resistance which grew up in the Jewish ghettos or concentration camps. The largest number of these resistors were found in the Soviet Partisans which operated regiment to division sized elements. Other Jewish partisan groups were small elements of under-cover spies, intelligence networks, or escapees who blended into their surroundings and slowly coelesced with other anti-Nazi groups. Lastly, there existed groups such as the Bielski partisans, which consisted of entire communities existing in the wilderness or in the open as disguised villages, and these numbered in the hundreds even the thousands and included women and children. Most Jewish Partisans were located in Eastern Europe, especially the largest Partisan groups, but smaller elements, especially the clandestine intelligence types also existed in occupied France and Belgium, where they worked with the local resistance. Lastly, many individual Jewish fighters also took part in the other partisan movements in other occupied countries. In all, the Soviet Jewish partisans numbered between 200,000 and 300,000, not including women and children or those large scale groups which arose in the ghettos, while in the West they numbered tens of thousands at most.