For centuries, many Jews responded to religious persecution with acts of martyrdom, choosing death rather than renouncing their faith through forced conversion. For centuries, Jews sacrificed their lives for their religion in an act of devotion know as Kiddush ha-Shem (Sanctification of the Name of God).

Although some Jews continued this ritualistic acceptance of fate during the Holocaust, there also emerged a new phenomenon, known as Kiddush ha-Hayyim (Sanctification of Life). As a response to the Nazis' genocidal programs, some Jewish religious leaders urged Jews to cling to life instead of willingly going to their deaths. Writing in the early months of the Warsaw Ghetto, Rabbi Yitzhak Nissenbaum declared: "This is the hour of Kiddush ha-Hayyim and not of Kiddush ha-Shem by death. Formerly, our enemies demanded our soul, and the Jew sacrificed his body in sanctifying God's Name. Now the enemy demands the body of the Jew. This makes it imperative for the Jew to defend it and protect it."

Kiddush ha-Hayyim was characterized by many different acts, from prayer to the covert publishing of newspapers to maintaining solidarity within the ghetto. In whatever ways they could, many Jews struggled to preserve their spiritual life and religious community. Rabbi Avraham Shalom Goldberg proclaimed, "Every Jew who remains alive sanctifies the Name of God among many."