No CrossRef data available.
Article contents
Allies of the Weak: La Résistance and Jews in the Holocaust
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 March 2025
Abstract
Do insurgents help or hinder survival of the targets of genocide? A common view in political science holds that insurgents’ presence attracts state violence against civilians. In contrast to this, I use multiple archival collections on WWI and WWII military personnel, Holocaust victims’ records, and testimonies of survivors and rescuers to show that insurgent presence in fact decreased local numbers of Holocaust victims. To ensure that the relationship is causal, I use an instrumental variable exploiting the exogenous number of WWI military deaths, which increased insurgent enlistment in WWII. Case studies of mechanisms reveal that individual insurgents helped the Jews mainly out of “moral” motivations, by using tactics they had developed to fight the incumbent. By zooming out of times of increased counterinsurgency and studying the specific needs of genocide targets, this article nuances existing literature and points to an overlooked source of variation in genocide survival.
- Type
- Research Article
- Information
- Copyright
- © The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of American Political Science Association
References
REFERENCES
AERI. 2004. “Association pour des études sur la résistance intérieure: Régions militaires de la résistance.” https://museedelaresistanceenligne.org/media935-Rgions-militaires-de-la-Rsistance-en-1943. Accessed on 09.10.2023.Google Scholar
Ainsztein, Reuben. 1974. Jewish Resistance in Nazi-Occupied Eastern Europe. London: Paul Elek.Google Scholar
Baines, Erin, and Paddon, Emily. 2012. “‘This is How We Survived:’ Civilian Agency and Humanitarian Protection.” Security Dialogue 43 (3): 231–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Balcells, Laia. 2017. Rivalry and Revenge. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Balcells, Laia, and Kalyvas, Stathis N.. 2014. “Does Warfare Matter? Severity, Duration, and Outcomes of Civil Wars.” Journal of Conflict Resolution 58 (8): 1390–418.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Balcells, Laia, and Solomon, Daniel. 2020. “Violence, Resistance, and Rescue During the Holocaust.” Comparative Politics 53 (1): 161–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bańkowska, Aleksandra. 2005. “Partyzantka Polska lat 1942–1944 w relacjach żydowskich.” Zagłada Żydów. Studia i Materiały 1: 148–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Becker, Jean-Jacques, and Wieviorka, Annette. 1998. Les Juifs de France: De la révolution française à nos jours. Paris: Liana Levi.Google Scholar
Bennett, Andrew, and Checkel, Jeffrey T.. 2012. Process Tracing in the Social Sciences. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Braun, Robert. 2016. “Religious Minorities and Resistance to Genocide: The Collective Rescue of Jews in the Netherlands During the Holocaust.” American Political Science Review 110 (1): 127–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Braun, Robert. 2019. Protectors of Pluralism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brethour, Miranda. 2019. “At the Confluence of Rescuer and Perpetrator: Jewish-Polish Relations in Hiding and Portraits of Polish Aid-Providers During the Holocaust in Poland as Detailed in the Testimonies of Jews, 1942–1945.” PhD diss. University of Ottawa.Google Scholar
Bruttmann, Tal. 2003. La Logique des bourreaux (1943–1944). Paris: Hachette littératures.Google Scholar
Cagé, Julia, Dagorret, Anna, Grosjean, Pauline, and Jha, Saumitra. 2023. “Heroes and Villains: The Effects of Heroism on Autocratic Values and Nazi Collaboration in France.” American Economic Review 113 (7): 1888–932.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cagé, Julia, and Piketty, Thomas. 2023. Une Histoire du conflit politique: Élections et inégalités sociales en France, 1789–2022. Paris: Éditions du Seuil.Google Scholar
Cartwright, Dorwin, and Harary, Frank. 1956. “Structural Balance: A Generalization of Heider’s Theory.” Psychological Review 63 (5): 277.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Charnysh, Volha. 2015. “Historical Legacies of Interethnic Competition: Anti-Semitism and the EU Referendum in Poland.” Comparative Political Studies 48 (13): 1711–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Charnysh, Volha, and Finkel, Evgeny. 2017. “The Death Camp Eldorado: Political and Economic Effects of Mass Violence.” American Political Science Review 111 (4): 801–18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Juan, De, Alexander, Felix Haass, Koos, Carlo, Riaz, Sascha, and Tichelbaecker, Thomas. 2024. “War and Nationalism: How WWI Battle Deaths Fueled Civilians’ Support for the Nazi Party.” American Political Science Review 118 (1): 144–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Département de la Dordogne. 2009. “Souvenirs de l’occupation: occupation, vie quotidienne et naissance de la Résistance.” https://memoires-resistances.dordogne.fr/temoignages-audio/1008-temoignages-integraux/38-occupation-et-resistance-a-vergt-fernand-sabouret.html. Accessed on 01.08.2023.Google Scholar
Deutsches Historisches Institut. 2021. “La France sous l’occupation 1940–1945—Les administrations allemandes et françaises.” http://www.adresses-france-occupee.fr/. Accessed on 01.08.2023.Google Scholar
Dunning, Thad. 2012. Natural Experiments in the Social Sciences: A Design-Based Approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Düring, Marten. 2016. “The Dynamics of Helping Behaviour for Jewish Fugitives During the Second World War: The Importance of Brokerage. The Segal Family’s Case.” Online Encyclopedia of Mass Violence. https://www.sciencespo.fr/mass-violence-war-massacre-resistance/fr/document/les-dynamiques-d-aide-aux-juifs-clandestins-pendant-la-seconde-guerre-mondiale-le-cas-de-la.html. Accessed on 14.02.2025.Google Scholar
Eck, Kristine, and Hultman, Lisa. 2007. “One-Sided Violence Against Civilians in War: Insights From New Fatality Data.” Journal of Peace Research 44 (2): 233–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fein, Helen. 1979. Accounting for Genocide: National Responses and Jewish Victimization During the Holocaust. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Finkel, Evgeny. 2015. “The Phoenix Effect of State Repression: Jewish Resistance During the Holocaust.” American Political Science Review 109 (2): 339–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Finkel, Evgeny. 2017. Ordinary Jews: Choice and Survival During the Holocaust. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Finkel, Evgeny, and Straus, Scott. 2012. “Macro, Meso, and Micro Research on Genocide: Gains, Shortcomings, and Future Areas of Inquiry.” Genocide Studies and Prevention 7 (1): 56–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fjelde, Hanne, and Hultman, Lisa. 2014. “Weakening the Enemy: A Disaggregated Study of Violence Against Civilians in Africa.” Journal of Conflict Resolution 58 (7): 1230–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
FJH. 2010. “Foundation for Jewish Heritage and The Center for Jewish Art. Historic Synagogues of Europe.” https://historicsynagogueseurope.org/synagogue-home. Accessed on 01.08.2023.Google Scholar
Fogelman, Eva. 2011. Conscience and Courage: Rescuers of Jews During the Holocaust. New York: Anchor Books.Google Scholar
Fujii, Lee Ann. 2017. Killing Neighbors: Webs of Violence in Rwanda. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Gambetta, Diego. 2011. Codes of the Underworld. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Gambetta, Diego, and Przepiorka, Wojtek. 2019. “Sharing Compromising Information as a Cooperative Strategy.” Sociological Science 6 (14): 352–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Garel, Georges. 2012. Le Sauvetage des enfants juifs par l’OSE. Paris: Éditions Le Manuscrit.Google Scholar
Gay, Victor. 2021. “Mapping the Third Republic: A Geographic Information System of France (1870–1940).” Historical Methods: A Journal of Quantitative and Interdisciplinary History 54 (4): 189–207.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gay, Victor, and Grosjean, Pauline. 2023. “Morts Pour la France: A Database of French Fatalities of the Great War.” Explorations in Economic History 90: 1015–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gilbert, Bentley B., and Bernard, Paul P.. 1959. “The French Army Mutinies of 1917.” The Historian 22 (1): 24–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grabowski, Jan. 2008. Rescue for Money: Paid Helpers in Poland, 1939–1945. Jerusalem, Israel: Yad Vashem.Google Scholar
Gutman, Israel, Bender, Sara, Lazare, Lucien, Michman, Jozeph, Flim, Bert-Jan, Krakowski, Shmuel, and Mikhman, Dan. 2005. The Encyclopedia of the Righteous Among the Nations: Rescuers of Jews During the Holocaust, 1–10 vols., Jerusalem, Israel: Yad Vashem.Google Scholar
Harff, Barbara. 1987. “The Etiology of Genocides.” In Genocide and the Modern Age: Etiology and Case Studies of Mass Death, eds. Isidor Wallimann and Michael Dobkowski, 41–59. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.Google Scholar
Heider, Fritz. 1946. “Attitudes and Cognitive Organization.” The Journal of Psychology 21 (1): 107–12.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hoffman, Martin L. 2001. Empathy and Moral Development: Implications for Caring and Justice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Humphreys, Macartan, and Weinstein, Jeremy M.. 2008. “Who Fights? The Determinants of Participation in Civil War.” American Journal of Political Science 52 (2): 436–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kalyvas, Stathis N. 2006. The Logic of Violence in Civil War. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kalyvas, Stathis N. 2019. “The Landscape of Political Violence.” In The Oxford Handbook of Terrorism, eds. Erica Chenoweth, Richard English, Andreas Gofas, and Stathis N. Kalyvas, 11–33. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Kerenji, Emil. 2016. “‘Your Salvation is the Struggle Against Fascism’: Yugoslav Communists and the Rescue of Jews, 1941–1945.” Contemporary European History 25 (1): 57–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kermish, Joseph. 2011. “The Activities of the Council for Aid to Jews (“Żegota”) in Occupied Poland.” In Rescue Attempts During the Holocaust: Proceedings of the Second Yad Vashem Conference, 367–98. Jerusalem, Israel: Yad Vashem.Google Scholar
Kitson, Simon. 2019. The Hunt for Nazi Spies: Fighting Espionage in Vichy France. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Klarsfeld, Serge. 1983. Vichy-Auschwitz. Le rôle de Vichy dans la solution finale de la question juive. Paris: Fayard.Google Scholar
Klarsfeld, Serge. 2012. Le Mémorial de la déportation des Juifs de France. New York: Klarsfeld Foundation.Google Scholar
Kopstein, Jeffrey S., Subotić, Jelena, and Welch, Susan. 2022. Politics, Violence, Memory: The New Social Science of the Holocaust. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Kopstein, Jeffrey S., and Wittenberg, Jason. 2018. Intimate Violence: Anti-Jewish Pogroms on the Eve of the Holocaust. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Krain, Matthew. 1997. “State-Sponsored Mass Murder: The Onset and Severity of Genocides and Politicides.” Journal of Conflict Resolution 41 (3): 331–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lerner, Alexis. 2021. “Analyzing Holocaust Archives through a Quantitative Lens.” In The Routledge Handbook of Religion, Mass Atrocity, and Genocide, eds. Sara E. Brown and Stephen D. Smith, 443–59. Abingdon, UK: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lupu, Noam, and Peisakhin, Leonid. 2017. “The Legacy of Political Violence Across Generations.” American Journal of Political Science 61 (4): 836–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lyall, Jason. 2009. “Does Indiscriminate Violence Incite Insurgent Attacks? Evidence from Chechnya.” Journal of Conflict Resolution 53 (3): 331–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lyall, Jason. 2015. “Process Tracing, Causal Inference, and Civil War.” In Process Tracing: From Metaphor to Analytic Tool, eds. Andrew Bennett and Jeffrey T. Checkel, 186–207. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Mariot, Nicolas, and Zalc, Claire. 2017. “Reconstructing Trajectories of Persecution: Reflections on a Prosopography of Holocaust Victims." In Microhistories of the Holocaust, eds. Zalc, Claire and Bruttmann, Tal, 85–112. New York: Berghahn.Google Scholar
Marrus, Michael Robert, and Paxton, Robert Owen. 2019. Vichy France and the Jews, Second Edition. Redwood City, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Melson, Robert. 1992. Revolution and Genocide: On the Origins of the Armenian Genocide and the Holocaust. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Mémoire des hommes. 2014. “Morts pour la France de la Premiére guerre mondiale.” https://www.memoiredeshommes.sga.defense.gouv.fr/fr/article.php?larub=24&titre=morts-pour-la-france-de-la-premiere-guerre-mondiale. Accessed on 01.08.2023.Google Scholar
Mémoire des hommes. 2018. “Titres, homologations et services pour faits de Résistance.” https://www.memoiredeshommes.sga.defense.gouv.fr/fr/article.php?larub=265&titre=titres-homologations-et-services-pour-faits-de-resistance. Accessed on 01.08.2023.Google Scholar
Monroe, Kristen Renwick. 2013. The Hand of Compassion: Portraits of Moral Choice During the Holocaust. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Musée de la Résistance. 2022. “Les Réseaux de la France combattante: Organisations et missions.” http://www.museedelaresistanceenligne.org/expo.php?expo=119&theme=246. Accessed on 08.07.2022.Google Scholar
Nalewajko, Kasia. 2025. “Replication Data for: Allies of the Weak: La Résistance and Jews in the Holocaust.” Harvard Dataverse. Dataset. https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/UBKN7E.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oliner, Samuel P., and Oliner, Pearl. 1992. Altruistic Personality: Rescuers of Jews in Nazi Europe. New York: Touchstone.Google Scholar
OSM. 2024. “Open Street Map: Lieux de culte en France.” https://data.opendatasoft.com/explore/dataset/osm-fr-lieux-de-culte%40babel/information/. Accessed on 01.08.2024.Google Scholar
Paldiel, Mordecai. 1993. The Path of the Righteous: Gentile Rescuers of Jews During the Holocaust. New York: KTAV Publishing House.Google Scholar
Paulsson, Gunnar S. 2002. Secret City: The Hidden Jews of Warsaw, 1940–1945. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Paxton, Robert Owen. 2001. Vichy France: Old Guard and New Order 1940–1944. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Pennetier, Claude, Ponnavoy, Jean-Louis, Marquer, Jean-Luc, Pennetier, Anne-Marie, and Jondeau, Marie-Claude. 2015. “Le Maitron dictionnaire biographique: Civils massacrés.” https://fusilles-40-44.maitron.fr/spip.php?mot9464. Accessed on 01.08.2023.Google Scholar
Petersen, Roger Dale. 2001. Resistance and Rebellion: Lessons from Eastern Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Philpott, William. 2015. War of Attrition: Fighting the First World War. New York: Abrams Press.Google Scholar
Poznanski, Renée. 1995. “Reflections on Jewish Resistance and Jewish Resistants in France.” Jewish Social Studies 2 (1): 124–58.Google Scholar
Poznanski, Renée. 2008. Propagandes et persecutions. La Résistance et le “Problème Juif.” Paris: Fayard.Google Scholar
Poznanski, Renée. 2018. Les Juifs en France pendants la Seconde guerre mondiale. Paris: CNRS Éditions.Google Scholar
Reviriego, Bernard. 2003. Les juifs en Dordogne, 1939–1944: De l’accueil à la pérsecution. Périgueux, France: Archives départementales de la Dordogne.Google Scholar
Ringelblum, Emanuel. 1992. Polish-Jewish Relations During the Second World War. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press.Google Scholar
Rozenas, Arturas, and Zhukov, Yuri M.. 2019. “Mass Repression and Political Loyalty: Evidence from Stalin’s ‘Terror by Hunger.’” American Political Science Review 113 (2): 569–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schwartz, Rachel A., and Straus, Scott. 2018. “What Drives Violence Against Civilians in Civil War? Evidence from Guatemala’s Conflict Archives.” Journal of Peace Research 55 (2): 222–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schwartz, Shalom H. 1992. “Universals in the Content and Structure of Values: Theoretical Advances and Empirical Tests in 20 Countries.” In Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, ed. Zanna, Mark P., 1–65. London: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Seawright, Jason. 2016. Multi-Method Social Science: Combining Qualitative and Quantitative Tools. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sewell, William Hamilton. 2005. Logics of History: Social Theory and Social Transformation. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shaw, Martin. 2003. War and Genocide: Organised Killing in Modern Society. Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Simmel, George. [1922] 1964. Conflict and the Web of Group Affiliations. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Staniland, Paul. 2018. Networks of Rebellion: Explaining Insurgent Cohesion and Collapse. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Steele, Abbey. 2009. “Seeking Safety: Avoiding Displacement and Choosing Destinations in Civil Wars.” Journal of Peace Research 46 (3): 419–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Straus, Scott. 2015. Making and Unmaking Nations. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Subotić, Jelena. 2019. Yellow Star, Red Star: Holocaust Remembrance After Communism. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Suedfeld, Peter, and de Best, Stefanie. 2008. “Value Hierarchies of Holocaust Rescuers and Resistance Fighters.” Genocide Studies and Prevention 3 (1): 31–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sullivan, Christopher Michael. 2012. “Blood in the Village: A Local-Level Investigation of State Massacres.” Conflict Management and Peace Science 29 (4): 373–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tec, Nechama. 2013. “Who Dared to Rescue Jews and Why?” In Resisting Genocide: The Multiple Forms of Rescue, eds. Jacques Sémelin, Claire Andrieu, and Sarah Gensburger, 101–12. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Valentino, Benjamin A., Huth, Paul, and Balch-Lindsay, Dylan. 2004. “‘Draining the Sea’: Draining the sea: Mass Killing and Guerrilla Warfare.” International Organization 58 (2): 375–407.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Varese, Federico, and Yaish, Meir. 2000. “The Importance of Being Asked: The Rescue of Jews in Nazi Europe.” Rationality and Society 12 (3): 307–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vargas, Juan Fernando, Anderton, Charles H., and Brauer, Jurgen. 2016. “Strategic Atrocities: Civilians Under Crossfire—Theory and Evidence From Colombia.” In Economic Aspects of Genocides, Other Mass Atrocities, and their Prevention, eds. Charles H. Anderton and Jurgen Brauer, 425–51. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wieviorka, Olivier. 2016. The French Resistance. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Wieviorka, Olivier. 2019. The Resistance in Western Europe, 1940–1945. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Wood, Elisabeth Jean. 2003. Insurgent Collective Action and Civil War in El Salvador. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yad Vashem. 2021. “The Righteous Among the Nations Database: Virtual Wall of Honor.” https://righteous.yadvashem.org/. Accessed on 01.08.2023.Google Scholar
Yagil, Limore. 2010. “La France terre de refuge et de désobéissance civile” (1936–1944). Paris: Les Éditions du Cerf.Google Scholar
Nalewajko supplementary material
Nalewajko supplementary material
File
3.6 MB
Comments
No Comments have been published for this article.