I've read several books about this. Most recently, Treblinka. The scholars pointed out that the Germans incredibly masterfully developed programs that played on group mentality, and Jewish culture.

Many young people in the ghettos advocated uprisings, but were held back by their elders. If they rose up, they'd all be killed. But if they waited, well, they weren't dead yet, they were still alive, maybe they'd be able to appease the Germans, maybe they'd survive.

You try to grab a guard's gun and shoot him with it. You make a fuss. Would it have made a difference? I don't know for sure, but I don't see how it could have made things any worse.

When your action kills 10-20 others.. its harder to act.. But it was hard to revolt, since the Germans were very well armed, and the Jews weren't.

Even so, the Warsaw Jews managed to steal 6? pistols, start a firefight, and held off the Germans for weeks - diverting men from the Eastern front (I think they ended up going in with 20k men).

For their efforts the survivors were savaged, and those survivors immediately "liquidated".

Note the did have the escape from Sobibor... But that was largely only successful becaue of the Russian Army prisoners that had been imprisoned there. (of the people who escaped, 6? survived the war?)

Addison