Tosia Altman
Death
Tosia travelled in and out of various ghettos on false papers, passing information and raising awareness. She was a member of Hashomer Hatzair, who were instrumental in organising the Warsaw ghetto uprising; she smuggled weapons in preparation for the uprising, but got captured and died of injuries.
The Baum Group
Death
Herbert Baum, his wife and their friends formed an anti-Nazi resistance group in Berlin in the 1930s. They distributed leaflets publicising the brutality of the invasion, and carried out an arson attack on an anti-communist and antisemitic Nazi exhibition. Herbert Baum was probably murdered in Moabit Prison.
Philipp Manes
Death
Philipp was a German Jew and a prolific writer with a lifelong habit of keeping records of his experiences. In the Theresienstadt ghetto, he organised a cultural programme as head of the Orientation Service. Philipp Manes and his wife were murdered in Auschwitz in 1944.
Rudolf Vrba and Alfred Wetzler
Survival & Saving lives
Rudolf and Alfred escaped from Aushwitz, and when they reached Slovakia, they produced a report about the conditions there. Around 250,000 Hungarian Jews survived the war, partly because of the impact of their report, as Miklós Horthy soon halted deportations to Aushwitz.
Róza Robota
Death
Róza, who worked sorting the clothes of those murdered in the gas chambers, passed gunpowder from Jewish women working in a factory to the Sonerkommando, with plans to destroy the gas chambers. The rebellion was crushed with 450 prisoners killed, and Robota executed.
Marc Bloch
Death
Marc Bloch, who was a historian, volunteered as an active fighter in the Francs-Tireurs et Partisans, but was considered too old and worked for the group mainly as a courier and translator. Bloch was arrested and murdered in March 1944.
The Avengers leaders
Survival & Saving lives
After escaping into forests, Abba Kovner, Rozka Korczak and Vitka Kempner formed a Jewish partisan group nicknamed The Avengers, which was affiliated with the Soviet partisan movement. They launched guerrilla attacks and sabotage missions against the Germans and collaborators.
Alberto Errera
Death
Alberto Errera, a Greek Jew, photographer and naval captain, managed to take four inside of Aushwitz. The film was passed to the Polish resistance in the camp who smuggled it out. Errera was shot shortly afterwards in an attempt to escape.
The Manouchian Group
Death
An FTP-MOI section in Paris, known as the Manouchian group, carried out a series of armed sabotage attacks in Paris in 1943 before they were arrested in early 1944. Twelve of the 23 members of the group who were apprehended were Jewish. All were executed.
The Bielski Brothers
Survival & Saving lives
The Bielski brothers fled into the Belorussian forests to escape German invasion. In 1942, they formed a partisan group of 30. The group launched reprisals against local collaborators, but they mainly focussed upon saving Jews. By the end of the end of the war, 1,200 Jews lived with the Bielski group.
Mendel Grossman
Death
Mendel Grossman was a photographer who took identity card photographs in the Łódź ghetto. He also covertly made other images of life in the ghetto as a form of record and resistance. He was shot on a death march at the end of the war.
Michail Gebelev
Death
Michail Gebelev organised mass escapes in 1942 but insisted that he would not escape himself. He was betrayed and murdered by German authorities in August 1942, aged 36.