“RESISTANCE: THEY FOUGHT BACK” Staggering

RESISTANCE: THEY FOUGHT BACK Vilna Resistance Photo credit: Ghetto Fighters' House Museum Description: Abba Kovner and the Vilna resistance

If you are looking for answers there’s nothing better than visual and first person proof. That’s the case for the film Resistance: They Fought Back. It’s courageous and staggering, Keep your eyes wide open as you watch! From the rebellions in the ghettos, in the concentration camps and to the forests, the film depicts how the Jews resisted. The documentary is in the words of the survivors and witnesses to the tragedy of the Holocaust. “Life in the ghettos was meticulously documented to endure the truth would survive.” –words of Emanuel Ringelblum leader of Oyneg Shabes Archive.

Using film, photos and interviews we are brought into the ghettos, crematoriums, concentration camps, schools, and homes of the Jews that were being denigrated by the Nazis. Sure there are many films that feature the totalitarian obliteration of the Jewish race under Hitler’s Nazi regime, but a myth was also perpetrated or at least brought doubt by those who would call the Holocaust a sheep to the slaughter happening. Listen to the people who witnessed it, those that carried forward the truth of their heroism.

RESISTANCE: THEY FOUGHT BACK Lodz Ghetto
Photo credit: Getty
Description: Jews from the Lodz Ghetto

I am not a huge fan of documentaries, but those that show proof through the eye of the camera, lived to tell about it and still stand tall as witnesses, make a difference. Listed in the credits are many of the children of the survivors, those that were saved and educated, and found the will to carry on their beliefs. Witness the degradation put on the innocent lives and those that resisted and fought back to save their own.

The film cries out that they were not sheep to a slaughter in many ways unknown to the rest of the world. In the words of those that lived it “You’ll have a contradiction between what people thought and what actually happened.” “People have this myth stuck in their heads that the Jews went to their deaths like sheep to the slaughter.” Messages from this documentary should put naysayer’s comments to rest.

RESISTANCE: THEY FOUGHT BACK Prof Richard Freund-RingelblumArchive
Photo credit: Ezra Wolfinger. Professor Richard Freund at the Ringelblum Archive, Warsaw, Poland
5.

WE WERE NOT SOLDIERS, WE NEVER SHOT A GUN BEFORE, WE TOOK A PIPE AND ANOTHER GOT THE DYNAMITE. It was very primitive. 1:30 in the morning we planted the bomb. We took it and put it under the rail tracks. When the train passed over the tube it exploded. From far away we heard the explosion. “words of Vitka Kempner, Age 21 Vitna Resistance Fighter

There is a lot more I can tell you, but take the experience by watching Resistance: They Fought Back and see it for yourself. The film is not rated by the MPAA, but contains war violence, explicit atrocity visuals, and some nudity. I recommend the film highly.

RESISITANCE: THEY FOUGHT BACK Photo credit: Paula S Apsell
Description: Professor Richard Freund, pioneer in Holocaust archeology, in Ponar forest near
Vilnius, Lithuania where Germans and their Lithuanian collaborators murdered 70,000 Jews

Additional Film Information:
Narrated by: Cory Stoll, Diana Agron, Maggie Siff and many others
Directed and written by:
Genre: Documentary
MPAA Rating: Not rated, contains atrocity visuals,
Running Time: 1 hr. 40 min
Opening Date: Now Playing Select Theaters
Distributed by: Menes
Released in: Ultra-HD 4K, Blu-ray, DVD. Cinema, VOD

Writer, critic, film editor John Delia, Sr. has been on all sides of the movie business from publications to film making. He has worked as a film critic with ACED Magazine for more than 20 years and other publications for a total of 40 years. He earned a Bachelor’s degree in communications from the University of Florida. John is a member of the Southeastern Film Critics Association and Critics Association of Central Florida Send John a message at jdelia@acedmagazine.com