Why did Gandhi say this? What does it mean?

Question

"The Jews should have offered themselves to the butcher's knife. They should have thrown themselves into the sea from cliffs."

I can pretty much see he's saying the Jews should have just given themselves to Hitler's army and let themselves be killed, is that right? If so why would he say that? If not what does it mean?

Answer 1

I dont know what it "REALLY" means but if I would have said this then it would mean 'you are going to do die anyway and get killed by SS and gestapos, so why not fight them, even if they fire their guns at you dont hold back cos its better to "Fight and Die" then "Do nothing and Die". As Gandhi once said "Do or Die"

Answer 2

"The Jews should have offered themselves to the butcher's knife. They should have thrown themselves into the sea from cliffs."

Ghandi believed in ahimsa, or non-violence, as well as non-resistance in the face of violence. It is an extension of his total philosophy of life. His was an extreme ideology, he believed in total pacifism regardless of circumstances.  He discussed this further in an article entitled "The Jews":

"No person who has faith in a living God need feel helpless or forlorn. Jehovah of the Jews is a God more personal than the God of the Christians, the Mussalmans or the Hindus, though as a matter of fact in essence, He is common to all and one without a second and beyond description. But as the Jews attribute personality to God and believe that He rules every action of theirs, they ought not to feel helpless....suffering voluntarily undergone will bring [the Jews] an inner strength and joy [...] the calculated violence of Hitler may even result in a general massacre of the Jews by way of his first answer to the declaration of such hostilities. But if the Jewish mind could be prepared for voluntary suffering, even the massacre I have imagined could be turned into a day of thanksgiving and joy that Jehovah had wrought deliverance of the race even at the hands of the tyrant. For to the God-fearing, death has no terror. It is a joyful sleep to be followed by a waking that would be all the more refreshing for the long sleep."

Answer 3

either he means they should have fought back because they could have done a whole lot more than they did.

or they deserved what they got because they are the scum of the eart. It makes more sense than the first, but I doubt Ghandi would mean that.