Bibliography

1.  The Black Book - 1946 World Jewish congress – Ilya Ehrenburg + Vasilly Grossman

2.  HaKofer (Bulgarian) (H) – Nir Akiva

3.  Mul HaOyev HaNazi (H) 1986 – Introduction – Dr. Shmuel Specter

4.  BeMivchan HaAnut VeHapdut (H) 1997 – Levi Arie Sarid

5. Atlas of the Holocaust (E) 1982 –Sir Martin Gilbert

6. The Litvaks (E) 1990 –Prof. Dov Levin

7. Al Naharot HaNiemam VehaDniepr (H) –Dr. Shalom Cholavski

8. Shoat Yehudey Vholyn (H) – De. Shmuel Specter

9. Jewish Resistance in the Holocaust (E) 1971- Yad Vashem

10. Kniga Pamietzi Voinov Yevrieyov v bojach s Naziznom 1941-1945 (R)

11. Gods Playground. A history of Poland. Volume 2. (E) –Norman Davis

12. Maavak BeNetiv HaYisurim (H) Prof. Israel Guttman

13. Vilna HaYehudit BeMa`avak U`Vechilayon (H) 1976 - Dr. Izchak Arad

14. Encyclopedia Shel Hashoa (H) 1990 –Yad Vashem

The total number of underground members and fighters is approximately 93,000.

An additional approximate 45,000 hid in the forests, swamps and hills of Eastern Europe, mostly with their children and elders. Those are the "escapees” that chose the almost impossible existence, adamantly refusing to be slaughtered.

Those are not definitive, conclusive figures. They have been carefully quoted from various research books and papers which sometimes vary substantially from one research to another. Another problem with the numbers is that many Jews decided not to reveal their nationality, mainly to protect their relatives and friends left behind in the ghettos.

And finally, Jews, mostly with the Soviet partisans, were listed as nationals of the republic they belonged.

The result: a Jew fighting in Belarus was listed as a Belarussian.

The fate of the "escapees” with families was worse than that of the partisans. Although most of them had some arms for self–defense, their mobility was restricted, and any attack by enemy forces left them completely defenseless.

It is estimated that approximately 40% of the Jewish partisans and 70% of the escapees fell in battle or were killed by German army and their various S.S. units, local collaborators and police, or Polish, Ukrainian, Lithuanian and other anti-Jewish groups. We are unable to cite numbers of "escapees” in Southern and Western Europe due to lack of data.

At the end of the war, approximately 56,000 Jewish fighters and underground members in Europe and 13,000 "escapees” in the East remained alive.