This topic touches on an emotional topic for us. My DW's mother fought with the partisians in (what is now) Belarus, and her father was in the Soviet Army. Both survived the war. Her grandfather and sister (then 1 1/2 years old) died in the Minsk Jewish Ghetto.

There was also a large Jewish Ghetto in Vilnus, (now Lithuania) that managed to form two battalions of self-defense forces, one located in the Ghetto, one of partisians in the forest. A major problem was obtaining weapons under the eyes of the German army. There was an excellent documentary a few years ago called "Partisians of Vilna" the told this story through the testimony on the surviving participants. It was on VHS; don't know if it is still available. Very instructive, especially the need to obtain weapons. Those who remained in the Ghetto mostly died. A lot of those who escaped to the forest and fought lived to tell about it.

There were also a pair of brothers, the Bielski brothers, who organized a Jewish Partisan Brigade in the forests of Belarus. There was a history channel documentary on this, and occasional rumors of a motion picture.

It seems that, despite the hardships and risks, those who fled and fought back had a better chance to survive than those who stayed behind. I think this is the lesson and response to Wildman's query.

+1 on the comments about the attitude of the folks in Israel; they simply do not take any threat as "empty rhetoric." IMO, they tend to look at is as a promise.

Am_Fear_Liath_Mor; thanks for the pointer and link to the Ray Mears video; I will watch it this weekend as soon as I can get done with my pesky earning a living.

If you ever visit Minsk, I suggest a visit to the "Museum of the Great War" that has an extensive area devoted to the Partisans and how they lived in the forests Remember, Russian winters are not to be underestimated. They lived and fought in them.