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{{Short description|Jewish partisan unit during World War II}} | |||
'''The Bielski partisans''' were a group of ] who rescued Jews from extermination and fought against the ] occupiers and ] in the vicinity of ] (Navahrudak) and ] in ] ] (now ]). | |||
{{pp-protected|small=yes}} | |||
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2018}} | |||
{{Infobox organization | |||
Under their protection, 1,200 Jews survived the war, making it one of the most successful rescue missions of the ].<ref name=hol>{{cite web|title=THE BIELSKI PARTISANS|publisher=]|url=http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10007563|accessdate=2009-01-15}}</ref> The group spent more than two years living in the forests and were initially organized by members of the Bielski family. | |||
| name = Bielski Partisans | |||
| formation = Spring 1942 | |||
| image = Bielski partisans.jpg | |||
| founding_location = | |||
| type = Underground organization | |||
| region = ]<br><small>(today ])</small> | |||
| leader_name = Bielski brothers <small>(], ], ], ])</small> | |||
}} | |||
The '''Bielski partisans''' were a unit of Polish ] who rescued ] from extermination and fought the ] occupiers and ] around ] and ] in ] (now ]). The partisan unit was named after the Bielskis, a family of ] who organized and led the community. | |||
==History== | |||
The Bielski family were farmers in ] (Stankievichy) near ] (Navahrudak), an area that at the beginning of the Second World War belonged to the ], but in September 1939 was seized by the ] (see: ] and ]), which was then allied with Nazi Germany under the ]. | |||
The Bielski partisans spent more than two years living in the forest. By the end of the war they numbered as many as 1,236 members, most of whom were non-combatants, including children and the elderly. The Bielski partisans are seen by many Jews as heroes for having led as many refugees as they did away from the perils of war and the Holocaust.<ref name=hol>{{cite web |title=THE BIELSKI PARTISANS |publisher=] |url=http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10007563 |access-date=15 January 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090114215056/http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10007563 |archive-date=14 January 2009 |url-status=live}}</ref> However, as their relations with the non-Jewish population were strained and occasionally violent, their wartime record has been the subject of some controversy in Poland.<ref name="auto2">Kazimierz Krajewski – "Opór"? "Odwet"? Czy po prostu "polityka historyczna"? nr 3/2009 - Instytut Pamięci Narodowej page 105</ref> | |||
The Bielski family collaborated with the Soviets, which strained their relations with the local Poles, to whom the ].{{Fact|date=April 2009}} Following the Germans' ], the invasion of Soviet Union that began on ], ], Nowogródek became a ], as Nazis took over those lands and implemented their ] policies (see ] and ]). | |||
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==Background== | |||
Before ], the Bielski family had been ]s and ]s<ref>{{cite book |title=Defiance: The Bielski Partisans |author=Tec, Nechama |year=1993 |publisher=Oxford University Press US |isbn=0-19-509390-9}}</ref> in ] (Stankievichy), near ], an area that at the outbreak of the war belonged to ] and in September 1939 was occupied by the ] (cf. ] and ]) in accord with the ] between ] and the Soviet Union. | |||
Before the war, Tuvia Bielski had received training in the ]. After performing reserve duty, he engaged in trade, eventually becoming a smuggler.<ref name="ReferenceA">Gazeta Wyborcza - 12 January 2009 Piotr Gluchowski, Marcin Kowalski< PIOTR GŁUCHOWSKI, MARCIN KOWALSKI Wojna polsko-ruska pod bokiem niemieckim</ref> | |||
Under the Soviet occupation of eastern Poland, the remainder of the Bielski family served as low-level administrators for the Soviets, with Tuvia Bielski becoming a ].<ref name="ReferenceA"/><ref>Snyder, Timothy, "Caught Between Hitler & Stalin", '']'', vol. 56, no. 7 (30 April 2009), (restricted)</ref> This strained the Bielskis' relations with their neighbours, many of whom ]. | |||
During ], the German invasion of the Soviet Union beginning 22 June 1941, a Jewish ghetto was established within Novogrudok, as the Germans took over the area and implemented their ] policies (see ] and ]). | |||
==Partisans== | |||
===Formation=== | ===Formation=== | ||
The four Bielski brothers, ], Alexander Bielski ( |
The four Bielski brothers, ], ] (also known as "Zus"), ], and ], fled into the nearby forests after their parents and other family members had been killed in the ghetto on 8 December 1941. In the spring of 1942, together with 13 ghetto neighbors, they formed the nucleus of a partisan combat unit. The unit originally numbered some 40 people, but quickly grew. | ||
The |
The unit's commander was the oldest brother, Tuvia, who had served in the ] from 1927 to 1929, rising to the rank of ]. He had been interested in the ]. He sent emissaries to infiltrate the area's ghettos, recruiting new members to the unit, which was sheltering in the ]. Hundreds of men, women, and children eventually found their way to the Bielski encampment; at its peak, the unit hosted 1,236 people, 70 per cent of them women, children and elderly; no one was turned away.<ref name=hol/> About 150 people engaged in armed operations.<ref name=hol/> | ||
===Organization=== | ===Organization=== | ||
The partisans lived in underground dugouts (]s) or |
The partisans lived in underground dugouts (]s) or ]s. In addition, several utility structures were built: a kitchen, a mill, a bakery, a bathhouse, a medical clinic for the sick and wounded and a ] hut for those who suffered from infectious diseases such as ]. Herds of cows supplied milk. Artisans made goods and carried out repairs, providing the combatants with logistical support that later served the ] units in the vicinity as well. More than 125 workers toiled in the workshops, which became famous among partisans far beyond the Bielski base. Tailors patched up old clothing and stitched together new garments; shoemakers fixed old and made new footwear; leather-workers laboured on belts, bridles and saddles. A ] shop established by Shmuel Oppenheim repaired damaged weapons and constructed new ones from spare parts. A tannery, constructed to produce the hide for ] and leather workers, became a de facto synagogue because several tanners were devout ] ]. Carpenters, hat-makers, barbers and watchmakers served their own community and guests. The camp's many children attended class in the dugout set up as a school. The camp even had its own jail and court of law.<ref>], ''The Bielski Brothers''. New York, HarperCollins, 2003, {{ISBN|0-06-621074-7}}, pp. 214-17.</ref> | ||
Some accounts note the inequality between well-off partisans and poor inhabitants of the camp |
Some accounts note the inequality between well-off partisans and poor inhabitants of the camp.<ref name="auto">{{in lang|pl}} Piotr Zychowicz, {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110718023913/http://www.rp.pl/artykul/252550_Bielski_pomagal_Zydom__ale_tez_ich_wykorzystywal.html |date=18 July 2011 }}, ''Rzeczpospolita'' (The Republic), 23 January 2009.</ref> According to one of Tuvia Bielski's cousins who lived in the camp, relayed to her daughter, women were forced to strip naked upon entry and give up their underwear as a form of "entry ticket".<ref name="auto"/> | ||
===Activities=== | ===Activities=== | ||
The Bielski unit's partisans were primarily concerned with survival. Due to their poor equipment and training, they were not assigned main combat roles. Instead, its members operated field kitchens, hospitals, and bakeries and provided tailoring and cobbling services for Soviet soldiers.<ref name="auto1">Kazimierz Krajewski, ''""Opór"? "Odwet"? Czy po prostu "polityka historyczna"?"'', ''Instytut Pamięci Narodowej'', no. 3/2009, p. 104.</ref> Their main task, though, was forced requisitioning of food and other supplies from the local population.<ref name="auto1"/> The Bielski partisan group decided to prioritize saving Jews;<ref> {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180701140305/https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=TseLDAAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1 |date=1 July 2018 }}, chapter by Kenneth Slepyan, Palgrave Macmillan, pages 52-53</ref> Tuvia Bielski said "I would rather save one old Jewish woman than kill ten German soldiers".<ref> {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180701111621/https://books.google.com/books?id=QN4jDgAAQBAJ |date=1 July 2018 }}, David B. Kopel, Praeger, page 119</ref> | |||
The Bielski group's partisan activities were aimed at the Nazis and their ]s, such as Belarusian volunteer policemen or local inhabitants who had betrayed or killed Jews. They also conducted ] missions. The Nazi regime offered a ] of 100,000 ]s for assistance in the capture of Tuvia Bielski, and in 1943, led major clearing operations against all partisan groups in the area. Some of these groups suffered major casualties, but the Bielski partisans fled safely to a more remote part of the forest, and continued to offer protection to the noncombatants among their band. | |||
The Bielski partisans' targets also included the Germans and their ] who had betrayed or killed Jews, such as ]ian volunteer policemen and local inhabitants, as well as their families. In one case, the Bielski partisans killed some 12 people from a Belarusian family who had betrayed two Jewish girls to the Germans. In another, the Bielski partisans killed several collaborators whose names they extracted from Ivan Tzwirkes, a collaborator with a Jewish wife.<ref name="Bauer2007"> {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180627145224/http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/pdf-drupal/en/research/yv-studies/bauer.pdf |date=27 June 2018 }} Yad Vashem Studies 35.2 (2007): 59.M, ].</ref> They also conducted ]. | |||
The Bielski group would raid nearby villages and forcibly seize food (much like other partisan groups in the area); on occasion peasants who refused to share their food with the partisans were the subject of violence and even murder. This caused hostility towards the partisans from peasants in the villages, though some would help the Jewish partisans.<ref name='Camps'> {{cite web|url=http://www1.yadvashem.org/odot_pdf/microsoft%20word%20-%205841.pdf |title=Family Camps in the Forest |accessdate=2009-01-22 |publisher=Shoah Resource Center }}</ref><ref name="hollywood">, ''Gazeta Wyborcza'', 2008-06-16</ref><ref name=aronbell>{{pl icon}} Piotr Głuchowski, Marcin Kowalski, ''(Aron Bell Erased)'', ], 008-06-16</ref> | |||
At the beginning of 1943 German planes dropped leaflets in the area promising a 50,000 ] reward for assistance in the capture of ]; this figure was subsequently doubled to 100,000 RM. The leaflets, which were intended for the Christian population, also reached Jews and provided motivation and courage to attempt an escape to the forest camp.<ref> {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180628154038/https://books.google.com/books?id=ow0fX5FviF4C&pg=PA315 |date=28 June 2018 }}, Oxford University Press, Nechama Tec, 2009, page 315</ref> | |||
The Bielski partisans eventually became affiliated with Soviet partisans in the vicinity of the Naliboki Forest under ] (]). Several attempts by Soviet partisan commanders to absorb Bielski fighters into their units were resisted, such that the Jewish partisan group retained its integrity and remained under Tuvia Bielski's command. This allowed him to continue in his dedication to protect Jewish lives along with engaging in combat activity, but would also prove a problem later on. | |||
In August 1943 the Germans conducted a major clearing operation, ] (also dubbed the "big hunt"), against villages and partisan groups in the Naliboki forest. Partisan groups in the forest and surrounding villages suffered major casualties. The Bielski partisans, however, split into small groups and assembled back in their former base in the Jasinowo forest.<ref> {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180628153654/https://books.google.com/books?id=tM9EeN01rvYC&pg=PA241 |date=28 June 2018 }}, Oxford University Press, Nechama Tec, 1993, pages 116-124</ref> The communities around the Naliboki forest were devastated, the Germans deported the non-Jewish residents fit for work to Germany for slave labor and murdered most of the rest. Prior to the manhunt, homeless refugees were mainly Jews who had escaped the ghetto, but in the fall of 1943 non-Jewish Belarusian, Polish, and Roma who managed to flee roamed in the forest. Many joined partisan units, special family camps set up by the Soviets, and some joined the Bielski group who returned to the area and accepted anyone willing to join. While the Germans wrecked many communities, much was left behind in and around the forest that could sustain life. Fields, orchards, and beehives all had their produce and farm animals roamed the area around the forest. While the buildings of the villages were partially demolished, much of the building material was left usable as well as some household goods. The Bielski group foraged and gathered much of these materials, and tended to the fields.<ref> {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180628181332/https://books.google.com/books?id=tM9EeN01rvYC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q=wrecked%20many%20communities&f=false |date=28 June 2018 }}, Oxford University Press, Nechama Tec, 1993, pages 127-129</ref> | |||
The Bielski Jews, fighting on the Soviet side, took part in ]. Notably, they took part in a disarmament of a group of Polish partisans by the Soviets on 1 December 1943.<ref name=wyborcza>{{en icon}} '''' {{pl icon}} '''', '']'', 2009-01-06</ref> | |||
The Bielski partisans eventually became affiliated with Soviet organisations in the vicinity of the Naliboki forest under General Platon (Vasily Yefimovich Chernyshev). Several attempts by Soviet commanders to absorb the Bielski fighters into their units were resisted,{{citation needed|date=June 2018}} and the Jewish partisan group retained its integrity and remained under Tuvia Bielski's command. This allowed him to continue his mission of protecting Jewish lives and engaging in combat activity, but it would prove a problem later on.{{citation needed|date=June 2018}} | |||
The Bielski partisan leaders split the group into two units, one named ''Ordzhonikidze'', led by Zus, and the other ''Kalinin'', commanded by Tuvia. According to partisan documentation, Bielski fighters from both units killed a total of 381 enemy fighters, sometimes during joint actions with Soviet groups.<ref>Duffy, Peter, The Bielski Brothers. New York: HarperCollins, 2003. ISBN 0-06-621074-7. p. 281: "The numbers are cited in the partisan histories of Ordzhonikidze (Fond 3618; Opus I; File 23) and Kalinin (Fond 3500; Opus 4; File 272) in the Minsk archives. The Kalinin history is also available at Yad Vashem (M.41/120).</ref> 50 members of the group were killed.<ref name=hol/> | |||
In September 1943 General Platon ordered the splitting of the group. The first group, named ''Ordzhonikidze'' (a ]), was a 180 mainly Jewish fighting detachment (commanded by a non-Jew Lyushenko). All the rest were designated as ''Kalinin'' (named for the ]) and included some 800 people, including 160 armed defenders, that were based in Naliboki forest and provided services to other partisan groups in the forest as well as participating in sabotage and diversionary actions. On 1 April 1944, the group was renamed as the ''Bielski otriad''.<ref name="Bauer2007"/> | |||
===Disbandment=== | |||
In the summer of 1944, when the Soviet counteroffensive began in Belarus and the area was taken over by the Soviets, the ''Kalinin'' unit, numbering 1,230 men, women and children, emerged from the forest and marched into Nowogrodek. | |||
Like other Soviet-affiliated partisan groups in the area, the Bielski partisans raided nearby villages and forcibly seized food; on occasion, peasants who refused to share their food with the partisans were subjected to violence, even murder. This caused hostility toward the partisans on the part of the peasants, though some willingly helped the Jewish partisans. Other peasants informed on the Jewish partisans in the forests to the Germans.<ref>http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/education/newsletter/28/bielski_brothers.asp#09 {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180620024948/http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/education/newsletter/28/bielski_brothers.asp#09 |date=20 June 2018 }} The International School for Holocaust Studies Solidarity in the Forest – The Bielski Brothers By Franziska Reiniger</ref> As the region was already pacified{{tone inline|reason=While technically correct, "pacification" seems almost euphemistic for what the Wehrmacht was about. Better word?|date=June 2019}} by the Germans and many villages were burned to the ground, the local population was in an especially dire situation.<ref name=opor>Kazimierz Krajewski – "Opór"? "Odwet"? Czy po prostu "polityka historyczna"? nr 3/2009 - Instytut Pamięci Narodowej page 104</ref><ref name='Camps'>{{cite web |url=http://www1.yadvashem.org/odot_pdf/microsoft%20word%20-%205841.pdf |title=Family Camps in the Forest |access-date=22 January 2009 |publisher=Shoah Resource Center}}</ref> | |||
Despite their previous collaboration with the Soviets, relations quickly worsened.<ref name=wojna>{{pl icon}} Piotr Głuchowski, Marcin Kowalski, , Gazeta Wyborcza, 2009-01-13</ref> The ] started interrogating the Bielski brothers about the rumors of loot they had reportedly collected during the war, and about their failure to "implement socialist ideals in the camp".<ref name=wojna/> Asael Bielski was conscripted into the ] and fell in ] in 1945.<ref name=wojna/> The remaining brothers escaped Soviet-controlled lands, emigrating West.<ref name=wojna/> Tuvia's cousin, ], was sought by the NKVD for having been an officer in the pre-war Polish Army but managed to escape with Tuvia's help and made his way to Hungary and then to Israel.<ref>http://www.jewishpress.com/pageroute.do/37115/</ref> | |||
====Assessment of combat operations==== | |||
According to partisan documentation, in the period from the fall of 1943 to summer 1944 the Bielski fighters (1,140 Jews, 149 of whom were armed combatants) claimed to have carried out 38 combat missions, destroying two locomotives, 23 train cars, 32 telegraph poles, and four bridges.<ref> {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180627173123/https://books.google.com/books?id=QN4jDgAAQBAJ&pg=PA119&lpg=PA119&dq=bielski+38+combat+missions&source=bl&ots=eUa24hvLhw&sig=CTu2ju4edsPrrG-V1X-NBw48P0w&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi1tbbv4PPbAhXFCcAKHT65CnIQ6AEIJzAA#v=onepage&q=bielski%2038%20combat%20missions&f=false |date=27 June 2018 }}, David B. Kopel, Praeger, page 119</ref> In total, the Bielski partisans claimed during the war to have killed 381 enemy fighters (in part, jointly with Soviet groups) and to have lost 50 members.<ref>Duffy, Peter, The Bielski Brothers. New York: HarperCollins, 2003. {{ISBN|0-06-621074-7}}. p. 281: "The numbers are cited in the partisan histories of Ordzhonikidze (Fond 3618; Opus I; File 23) and Kalinin (Fond 3500; Opus 4; File 272) in the Minsk archives. The Kalinin history is also available at Yad Vashem (M.41/120).</ref><ref> {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180627173033/https://books.google.com/books?id=u4I2DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA83&dq=bielski+381+killed&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwih6I_f4fPbAhWlBcAKHUmiAu8Q6AEILTAB#v=onepage&q=bielski%20381%20killed&f=false |date=27 June 2018 }}, ABC-Clio, Paul R. Bartrop, Michael Dickerman, page 83</ref> | |||
According to {{ill|Kazimierz Krajewski|pl|Kazimierz Krajewski}}, a November 1943 report from Tuvia Bielski to the Soviet command stated that in two years of operations Bielski Otriad killed 14 Germans, 17 policemen, and 33 spies and provocateurs (Krajewski thinks these likely included peasants unsympathetic to Soviet partisans or who had resisted being plundered). In his opinion, 14 Germans killed was not a substantial number for a two-year period.<ref name="auto1"/> Further, Krajewski believes these numbers to be overestimated.<ref name="auto1"/> | |||
===Post-war=== | |||
After the war, Tuvia Bielski returned to Poland, then emigrated to ] (present-day ]) in 1945. Tuvia and Zus eventually settled in the ]. They operated a succesful trucking business. | |||
=== Relations with other groups === | |||
The last living Bielski brother, ], emigrated to the US in 1951. He changed his name to "Aron Bell". The remainder of the Bell family now lives in upper ] state and ]. Tuvia and Zus were buried in ]. Aron lives in Florida. None of the Bielskis ever sought for any recognition or reward for their actions. | |||
The Bielski partisans had friendly relations with the local ] commander, 2nd Lt. ]. Miłaszewski, a native of the region, located his camp a kilometer from the Bielski camp, and according to Tuvia Bielski's memoirs felt a deep sympathy for the Bielski group because it sheltered women, elderly, and children. In August 1943 the Germans conducted a large-scale operation in the Naliboki forest, inflicting losses on civilians, Polish ] units, Soviet partisans, and the Bielski group.<ref>The Polish Underground and the Jews, 1939-1945, Cambridge University Press, ], {{ISBN|978-1107014268}}, pages 273-275</ref><ref> {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180628124834/https://books.google.com/books?id=tM9EeN01rvYC&pg=PA241&dq=bielski+%22polish+underground%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjhhMfezvXbAhVSWsAKHSusAkcQ6AEIMzAC#v=onepage&q=%22local%20pole%22&f=false |date=28 June 2018 }}, Oxford University Press, Nechama Tec, 1993, pages 114-117</ref> | |||
==Allegations of war crimes== | |||
Some of the members of the Bielski partisans (but not the Bielski brothers themselves) have been accused of ] on the neighboring population, particularly for involvement in the 1943 ] of 129 people, committed by Soviet partisans.<ref name="IPN">] and other crimes committed by Soviet partisans from Naliboki forest]</ref> Though witnesses and some historians do place members of Bielskis' unit at the massacre, former members of the brigade and other historians dispute this<ref name=rpmus/>, asserting that the partisans did not arrive in the area until several months after the event took place.<ref>Marissa Brostoff, "Polish Investigators Tie Partisans to Massacre," ''Forward'' (8/7/08) http://www.forward.com/articles/13935/</ref> The Polish ] has been investigating the massacre since the early 2000s. As of April 2009, it has not issued official findings,<ref name="IPN"/><ref>{{cite web|publisher=]|title=Jewish Brothers' Resistance Inspired'Defiance'|url=http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=98759355&ft=3&f=searchTerm=The+Great+Escape1045|date=2008-12-28|accessdate=2009-01-20}}</ref> | |||
however, some of the historians working at the Institute have written in other publications that the Bielski brothers were not involved in the massacre.<ref name=rpmus>{{pl icon}} Bogdan Musiał, , Rzeczpospolita, 31-01-2009</ref> The Polish ] has been investigating the massacre since the early 2000s. | |||
Following the German action, in which the Home Army unit lost 120 men and was forced out of the forest, Miłaszewski was replaced with ], who was placed in charge of the Stolpce battalion. By September 1943, the Soviets had begun a policy of confrontation against the Polish anti-Nazi underground, which it saw as a threat to their aims in Eastern Poland.<ref name=wojna/> In December, the Soviets drew Plich's men into a trap by inviting them to "friendly talks", then surrounded Pilch's men and threatened to execute kidnapped Polish officers unless the unit surrendered. Bielski's unit participated in this operation.<ref name=wojna/> Some 135 Polish soldiers and nine officers were arrested. However, Pilch managed to evade capture along with 50 others; according to Pilch the Bielski partisans were too distracted with pillaging the Polish camp in search of valuables, which allowed him to escape capture.<ref name=wojna/> Pilch's unit would continue to fight the Soviet partisans.<ref name=wojna/><ref> {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180628124834/https://books.google.com/books?id=tM9EeN01rvYC&pg=PA241&dq=bielski+%22polish+underground%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjhhMfezvXbAhVSWsAKHSusAkcQ6AEIMzAC#v=snippet&q=%22protected%20by%20Poles%22&f=false |date=28 June 2018 }}, Oxford University Press, Nechama Tec, 1993, pages 153</ref> Fighting on the Soviet side, the Bielski partisans took part in ].<ref name=wyborcza>'' {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091229203156/http://wyborcza.pl/1,76842,6125087,The_True_Story_of_the_Bielski_Brothers.html |date=29 December 2009 }}'' {{in lang|pl}} '' {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130317180113/http://wyborcza.pl/1,76842,6124559,Prawdziwa_historia_Bielskich.html |date=17 March 2013 }}'', '']'', 6 January 2009</ref> On 5 March 1944, Zus's fighter detachment and Soviet forces jointly attacked a group of Polish fighters, killing 47 and injuring 20 more. On 22 March 20 Jewish fighters managed to ambush a Nazi convoy and kill 12.<ref>The Bielski Brothers: The True Story of Three Men Who Defied the Nazis, Built a Village in the Forest, and Saved 1,200 Jews, ], 2004, page 246</ref> According to Kazimierz Krajewski, in May 1944, the village of Kamień in ] was attacked by a force including Bielski partisans; 23 Home Army soldiers and 20 civilians were killed.<ref name="auto2"/> | |||
==Books and film== | |||
===Internal conflict=== | |||
Two English language books have focused on the Bielski story: ''Defiance'' (1993) by ] and ''The Bielski Brothers'' (2004) by Peter Duffy. The group is also mentioned in numerous books about this period in history. A new book (January 2009) in ] by two reporters from ]: "Odwet: Prawdziwa historia braci Bielskich" (Revenge: The True Story of the Bielski Brothers) focuses on the larger political and historical context in which the partisans operated, specifically the fighting between Polish and Soviet resistance groups in the ] (former Eastern Poland) region. | |||
Tuvia Bielski was known for his authoritarian leadership style and was constantly involved in power struggles with other members of the unit.{{cn|date=June 2020}} | |||
Israel Kessler (who tried to organize a group of people to leave the Bielski camp and form their own unit)<ref name="RedBanner298"> {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180627115720/https://books.google.com/books?id=NH0K92ZcNN0C&pg=PA298&dq=Bielski+executed+Israel&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiJlp7-x_PbAhULAcAKHd__AFgQ6AEIJzAA#v=onepage&q=Bielski%20executed%20Israel&f=false |date=27 June 2018 }}, ], pages 298-299</ref> and others sent letters to General Platon and other Soviet officials that Tuvia Bielski was holding gold and jewelry in contradiction to partisan orders to hand these over to headquarters. A unit member, Stepan Szupien, suggested to the Soviets that they arrest and execute Bielski, accusing him of confiscating money under the pretext of buying weapons.<ref>Kazimierz Krajewski, ''"Opór"? "Odwet"? Czy po prostu "polityka historyczna"?'' Instytut Pamięci Narodowej, no. 3/2009, pp. 106-7.</ref> The Soviet command, concerned about the unit's leadership, began an internal investigation into an alleged ] conducted by Bielski. Chernyshev cleared Bielski of the charges following an investigation.<ref name="RedBanner298"/><ref> {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180627173121/https://books.google.com/books?id=tM9EeN01rvYC&pg=PA182&dq=Bielski+platon+letter&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjojbGj0vPbAhVKKsAKHQhSD9QQ6AEILTAB#v=onepage&q=Bielski%20platon%20letter&f=false |date=27 June 2018 }}, Nechama Tec, page 182-3</ref> Bielski viewed Kessler's actions as rebellion, put Kessler on trial, and executed him.<ref name="RedBanner298"/> According to witness Estera Gorodejska, a drunk Bielski personally executed Kessler with three shots. Later Bielski ordered the destruction of Kessler's grave.<ref>{{in lang|pl}} Piotr Zychowicz, {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110718023913/http://www.rp.pl/artykul/252550_Bielski_pomagal_Zydom__ale_tez_ich_wykorzystywal.html |date=18 July 2011 }}, ''Rzeczpospolita'' (The Republic), 23 January 2009</ref> | |||
===Disbandment=== | |||
In 2006, the ] aired a documentary entitled ''The Bielski Brothers: Jerusalem In The Woods'', written and directed by filmmaker Dean Ward. | |||
In the summer of 1944, following the Soviet ] which allowed them to regain control over Belarus, the ''Kalinin'' unit, numbering some 1,200 of which 70 per cent were women, elderly and children, marched into Nowogródek. Following one final parade, they disbanded.<ref> {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180629211636/https://books.google.com/books?id=wZ0nDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA94&dq=bielski+into+Nowogrodek&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi0zKzkxfnbAhVJDMAKHej_CawQ6AEIMDAB#v=onepage&q=bielski%20into%20Nowogrodek&f=false |date=29 June 2018 }}, ], University of Nebraska Press, page 94</ref> | |||
Despite their previous cooperation with the Soviets, relations quickly worsened.<ref name=wojna>{{in lang|pl}} Piotr Głuchowski, Marcin Kowalski, {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180622111441/http://wyborcza.pl/duzyformat/1,127290,6147557,Wojna_polsko_ruska_pod_bokiem_niemieckim.html |date=22 June 2018 }}, Gazeta Wyborcza, 13 January 2009</ref> The ] started interrogating the Bielski brothers about the rumors of loot they had reportedly collected during the war and about their failure to "implement socialist ideals in the camp".<ref name=wojna/> Asael Bielski was conscripted into the ] and died in the ] in 1945.<ref name=wojna/> The remaining brothers escaped Soviet-controlled lands, emigrating to the West.<ref name=wojna/> Tuvia's cousin, Yehuda Bielski, was sought by the NKVD for having been an officer in the pre-war ] but managed to escape with Tuvia's help and made his way to ] and then to ].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.jewishpress.com/pageroute.do/37115/ |title=The Cousins Bielski,Leslie Bell |access-date=24 January 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110310092322/http://www.jewishpress.com/pageroute.do/37115 |archive-date=10 March 2011 }}</ref> | |||
==Postwar== | |||
After the war, Tuvia Bielski returned to Poland, then immigrated to present-day Israel in 1945. Tuvia and Zus eventually settled in ] where they operated a successful trucking business. | |||
The last living Bielski brother, ], immigrated to the US in 1951. He changed his name to "Aron Bell." The remainder of the Bell family now lives in ] and ]. Aron lives in ].<ref>{{Cite news |title=A conversation with Aron Bielski, last of the Bielski brothers |url=https://www.jns.org/a-conversation-with-aron-bielski-last-of-the-bielski-brothers/ |work=] |date=14 April 2020 |access-date=28 May 2021}}</ref> None of the Bielskis ever sought any recognition or reward for their actions. | |||
Yehuda Bielski, their first cousin and fellow partisan, moved to Israel initially to fight in the ] and then as a lieutenant in the IDF in the ]. Later, Yehuda and his family moved to America where he became a businessman.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Brunner |first=Debra |date=2022-04-21 |title=Tasty and Significant |url=https://thetogetherplan.com/tasty-and-significant/ |access-date=2022-08-15 |website=The Together Plan |language=en-GB}}</ref> | |||
==Books and film== | |||
Two English language books have focused on the Bielski story: ''Defiance'' (1993) by ] and '']'' (2004) by Peter Duffy. The group is also mentioned in numerous books about this period in history. ''Fugitives of the Forest: The Heroic Story of Jewish Resistance and Survival During the Second World War'', by Allan Levine,<ref>Levine, Allan . New York: first published 1998, 2008 reissue, by Lyons Press.</ref> tells the story of Jewish fighters and refugees in forests across Europe, including the Bielski partisans. ''With Courage Shall We Fight: The Memoirs and Poetry of Holocaust Resistance Fighters Frances "Fruma" Gulkowich Berger and Murray "Motke" Berger'' tells the story of two Bielski Brigade fighters before, during and after the war. | |||
In 2006, the ] aired a documentary titled ''The Bielski Brothers: Jerusalem in the Woods'', written and directed by filmmaker Dean Ward.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0966562/ |title=The Bielski Brothers: Jerusalem in the Woods |date=12 November 2006 |website=IMDb}}</ref> | |||
A book (January 2009) in ] by two reporters from ], ''Odwet: Prawdziwa historia braci Bielskich'' (''Revenge: The True Story of the Bielski Brothers'') was accused of consisting of plagiarism<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.holocaustresearch.pl/index.php?mod=news&show=93&template=print |title=Centrum Badań nad Zagładą Żydów - Plagiatorzy nagrodzeni ! |last=Meteoryt.pl |website=holocaustresearch.pl}}</ref> and withdrawn.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://wiadomosci.wp.pl/ksiazka-o-braciach-bielskich-wycofana-z-dystrybucji-6036220796564609a |title=Książka o braciach Bielskich wycofana z dystrybucji |first=Wirtualna Polska Media |last=S.A. |date=9 February 2009}}</ref> | |||
The ] series '']'s Extreme Survival'' featured an episode about the Bielski partisans. | |||
The feature film '']'', co-written, produced and directed by ], was released |
The feature film '']'', co-written, produced and directed by ], was released internationally in January 2009. It stars ], ], ] and ] as Tuvia, Zus, Asael and Aron Bielski respectively. It opened to mixed reviews<ref name='Rotten'>{{cite web |url=http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/10009458-defiance/ |title=Defiance |access-date=20 January 2009 |work=Rotten Tomatoes |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090121194827/http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/10009458-defiance/ |archive-date=21 January 2009 |url-status=live }}</ref> and raised questions about the roles various groups played during the war.<ref name="tch">{{cite news |author=Kamil Tchorek |url=http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/film/article5420709.ece |title=Country split over whether Daniel Craig is film hero or villain |work=] |date=31 December 2008 |access-date=31 December 2008 |location=London }}{{dead link|date=September 2024|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref> | ||
The brothers also published a book in Israel. | |||
==See also== | ==See also== | ||
* ] | * ] | ||
* ] | |||
* ] | |||
* ] | |||
* ] | * ] | ||
* '']'' | |||
* ] | |||
* ] | |||
* ] | |||
==Notes== | ==Notes== | ||
{{Reflist}} | {{Reflist|30em}} | ||
==References== | ==References== | ||
* Alperowitz, Yitzchak. "Tuvia Bielski", in '']'' vol. 1, p. |
* Alperowitz, Yitzchak. "Tuvia Bielski", in '']'' vol. 1, p. 215–16. Illustrations. | ||
* Arad, Yitzhak. "Family Camps in the Forest", in '']'' vol. 2, p. |
* Arad, Yitzhak. "Family Camps in the Forest", in '']'' vol. 2, p. 467–469. Illustrations, map. | ||
* Smith, Lyn. ''Remembering: Voices of the Holocaust''. Ebury Press, Great Britain, 2005, Carroll & Graf Publishers, New York, 2006. ISBN |
* Smith, Lyn. ''Remembering: Voices of the Holocaust''. Ebury Press, Great Britain, 2005, Carroll & Graf Publishers, New York, 2006. {{ISBN|0-7867-1640-1}}. | ||
* . | * . | ||
* , by ], in '']'', April 2006. | |||
==Further reading== | ==Further reading== | ||
* Berger, Ralph S. and Albert S. Berger, editors "With Courage Shall We Fight: The Memoirs and Poetry of Frances "Fruma" Gulkowich Berger and Murray "Motke" Berger". Comteq Publishing, 2010. {{ISBN|978-1-935232-20-9}}. | |||
* Duffy, Peter, '']''. New York: HarperCollins, 2003. ISBN 0-06-621074-7. | |||
* Duffy, Peter, '']''. New York: HarperCollins, 2003. {{ISBN|0-06-621074-7}}. | |||
* Eckman, Lester and Lazar, Chaim, ''The Jewish Resistance: The History of the Jewish Partisans in Lithuania and White Russia During the Nazi Occupation 1940–1945''. Shengold Publishers, 1977. ISBN 0884000508. | |||
* |
* Eckman, Lester and Lazar, Chaim, ''The Jewish Resistance: The History of the Jewish Partisans in Lithuania and White Russia During the Nazi Occupation 1940–1945''. Shengold Publishers, 1977. {{ISBN|0-88400-050-8}}. | ||
* Levine, Allan, ''Fugitives of the Forest: The Heroic Story of Jewish Resistance and Survival During the Second World War''. Stoddart, 1998. Reissued with a new introduction by The Lyons Press, 2008. {{ISBN|978-1-59921-496-2}}. | |||
* ], ''Defiance: The Bielski Partisans''. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993. ISBN 0-19-509390-9. | |||
* ], ''Defiance: The Bielski Partisans''. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993. {{ISBN|0-19-509390-9}}. | |||
==External links== | ==External links== | ||
*{{National Public Radio|98759355}} | * {{National Public Radio|98759355}} | ||
*Holocaust Encyclopedia ] | * Holocaust Encyclopedia ] | ||
* (partisans.org.il) | * {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110719073641/http://www.partisans.org.il/Site/default.aspx?lang=en |date=19 July 2011 }} (partisans.org.il) | ||
* from the | |||
* Film and Photo Archive, ] | |||
* Film and Photo Archive, ] | |||
* ] Photo album | |||
* ] First and Second Hand Accounts | |||
{{Bielski partisans}} | {{Bielski partisans}} | ||
{{Jewish Belarusian history|state=collapsed}} | |||
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Latest revision as of 16:45, 6 November 2024
Jewish partisan unit during World War II
Formation | Spring 1942 |
---|---|
Type | Underground organization |
Region | German-occupied Poland (today Belarus) |
Leader | Bielski brothers (Tuvia, Alexander, Asael, Aron) |
The Bielski partisans were a unit of Polish Jewish partisans who rescued Jews from extermination and fought the German occupiers and their collaborators around Novogrudok and Lida in German-occupied Poland (now western Belarus). The partisan unit was named after the Bielskis, a family of Polish Jews who organized and led the community.
The Bielski partisans spent more than two years living in the forest. By the end of the war they numbered as many as 1,236 members, most of whom were non-combatants, including children and the elderly. The Bielski partisans are seen by many Jews as heroes for having led as many refugees as they did away from the perils of war and the Holocaust. However, as their relations with the non-Jewish population were strained and occasionally violent, their wartime record has been the subject of some controversy in Poland.
Background
Before World War II, the Bielski family had been millers and grocers in Stankiewicze (Stankievichy), near Novogrudok, an area that at the outbreak of the war belonged to Poland and in September 1939 was occupied by the Soviet Union (cf. Polish September Campaign and Soviet invasion of Poland (1939)) in accord with the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union.
Before the war, Tuvia Bielski had received training in the Polish Army. After performing reserve duty, he engaged in trade, eventually becoming a smuggler.
Under the Soviet occupation of eastern Poland, the remainder of the Bielski family served as low-level administrators for the Soviets, with Tuvia Bielski becoming a commissar. This strained the Bielskis' relations with their neighbours, many of whom were subjected to Soviet repression.
During Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union beginning 22 June 1941, a Jewish ghetto was established within Novogrudok, as the Germans took over the area and implemented their genocidal policies (see Holocaust in Poland and Holocaust in Belarus).
Partisans
Formation
The four Bielski brothers, Tuvia, Alexander (also known as "Zus"), Asael, and Aron, fled into the nearby forests after their parents and other family members had been killed in the ghetto on 8 December 1941. In the spring of 1942, together with 13 ghetto neighbors, they formed the nucleus of a partisan combat unit. The unit originally numbered some 40 people, but quickly grew.
The unit's commander was the oldest brother, Tuvia, who had served in the Polish Army from 1927 to 1929, rising to the rank of corporal. He had been interested in the Zionist youth movement. He sent emissaries to infiltrate the area's ghettos, recruiting new members to the unit, which was sheltering in the Naliboki forest. Hundreds of men, women, and children eventually found their way to the Bielski encampment; at its peak, the unit hosted 1,236 people, 70 per cent of them women, children and elderly; no one was turned away. About 150 people engaged in armed operations.
Organization
The partisans lived in underground dugouts (zemlyankas) or bunkers. In addition, several utility structures were built: a kitchen, a mill, a bakery, a bathhouse, a medical clinic for the sick and wounded and a quarantine hut for those who suffered from infectious diseases such as typhus. Herds of cows supplied milk. Artisans made goods and carried out repairs, providing the combatants with logistical support that later served the Soviet partisan units in the vicinity as well. More than 125 workers toiled in the workshops, which became famous among partisans far beyond the Bielski base. Tailors patched up old clothing and stitched together new garments; shoemakers fixed old and made new footwear; leather-workers laboured on belts, bridles and saddles. A metalworking shop established by Shmuel Oppenheim repaired damaged weapons and constructed new ones from spare parts. A tannery, constructed to produce the hide for cobblers and leather workers, became a de facto synagogue because several tanners were devout Hasidic Jews. Carpenters, hat-makers, barbers and watchmakers served their own community and guests. The camp's many children attended class in the dugout set up as a school. The camp even had its own jail and court of law.
Some accounts note the inequality between well-off partisans and poor inhabitants of the camp. According to one of Tuvia Bielski's cousins who lived in the camp, relayed to her daughter, women were forced to strip naked upon entry and give up their underwear as a form of "entry ticket".
Activities
The Bielski unit's partisans were primarily concerned with survival. Due to their poor equipment and training, they were not assigned main combat roles. Instead, its members operated field kitchens, hospitals, and bakeries and provided tailoring and cobbling services for Soviet soldiers. Their main task, though, was forced requisitioning of food and other supplies from the local population. The Bielski partisan group decided to prioritize saving Jews; Tuvia Bielski said "I would rather save one old Jewish woman than kill ten German soldiers".
The Bielski partisans' targets also included the Germans and their collaborators who had betrayed or killed Jews, such as Belarusian volunteer policemen and local inhabitants, as well as their families. In one case, the Bielski partisans killed some 12 people from a Belarusian family who had betrayed two Jewish girls to the Germans. In another, the Bielski partisans killed several collaborators whose names they extracted from Ivan Tzwirkes, a collaborator with a Jewish wife. They also conducted sabotage.
At the beginning of 1943 German planes dropped leaflets in the area promising a 50,000 Reichsmark reward for assistance in the capture of Tuvia Bielski; this figure was subsequently doubled to 100,000 RM. The leaflets, which were intended for the Christian population, also reached Jews and provided motivation and courage to attempt an escape to the forest camp.
In August 1943 the Germans conducted a major clearing operation, Operation Hermann (also dubbed the "big hunt"), against villages and partisan groups in the Naliboki forest. Partisan groups in the forest and surrounding villages suffered major casualties. The Bielski partisans, however, split into small groups and assembled back in their former base in the Jasinowo forest. The communities around the Naliboki forest were devastated, the Germans deported the non-Jewish residents fit for work to Germany for slave labor and murdered most of the rest. Prior to the manhunt, homeless refugees were mainly Jews who had escaped the ghetto, but in the fall of 1943 non-Jewish Belarusian, Polish, and Roma who managed to flee roamed in the forest. Many joined partisan units, special family camps set up by the Soviets, and some joined the Bielski group who returned to the area and accepted anyone willing to join. While the Germans wrecked many communities, much was left behind in and around the forest that could sustain life. Fields, orchards, and beehives all had their produce and farm animals roamed the area around the forest. While the buildings of the villages were partially demolished, much of the building material was left usable as well as some household goods. The Bielski group foraged and gathered much of these materials, and tended to the fields.
The Bielski partisans eventually became affiliated with Soviet organisations in the vicinity of the Naliboki forest under General Platon (Vasily Yefimovich Chernyshev). Several attempts by Soviet commanders to absorb the Bielski fighters into their units were resisted, and the Jewish partisan group retained its integrity and remained under Tuvia Bielski's command. This allowed him to continue his mission of protecting Jewish lives and engaging in combat activity, but it would prove a problem later on.
In September 1943 General Platon ordered the splitting of the group. The first group, named Ordzhonikidze (a famous Georgian communist), was a 180 mainly Jewish fighting detachment (commanded by a non-Jew Lyushenko). All the rest were designated as Kalinin (named for the Soviet head of state) and included some 800 people, including 160 armed defenders, that were based in Naliboki forest and provided services to other partisan groups in the forest as well as participating in sabotage and diversionary actions. On 1 April 1944, the group was renamed as the Bielski otriad.
Like other Soviet-affiliated partisan groups in the area, the Bielski partisans raided nearby villages and forcibly seized food; on occasion, peasants who refused to share their food with the partisans were subjected to violence, even murder. This caused hostility toward the partisans on the part of the peasants, though some willingly helped the Jewish partisans. Other peasants informed on the Jewish partisans in the forests to the Germans. As the region was already pacified by the Germans and many villages were burned to the ground, the local population was in an especially dire situation.
Assessment of combat operations
According to partisan documentation, in the period from the fall of 1943 to summer 1944 the Bielski fighters (1,140 Jews, 149 of whom were armed combatants) claimed to have carried out 38 combat missions, destroying two locomotives, 23 train cars, 32 telegraph poles, and four bridges. In total, the Bielski partisans claimed during the war to have killed 381 enemy fighters (in part, jointly with Soviet groups) and to have lost 50 members.
According to Kazimierz Krajewski [pl], a November 1943 report from Tuvia Bielski to the Soviet command stated that in two years of operations Bielski Otriad killed 14 Germans, 17 policemen, and 33 spies and provocateurs (Krajewski thinks these likely included peasants unsympathetic to Soviet partisans or who had resisted being plundered). In his opinion, 14 Germans killed was not a substantial number for a two-year period. Further, Krajewski believes these numbers to be overestimated.
Relations with other groups
The Bielski partisans had friendly relations with the local Home Army commander, 2nd Lt. Kacper Miłaszewski. Miłaszewski, a native of the region, located his camp a kilometer from the Bielski camp, and according to Tuvia Bielski's memoirs felt a deep sympathy for the Bielski group because it sheltered women, elderly, and children. In August 1943 the Germans conducted a large-scale operation in the Naliboki forest, inflicting losses on civilians, Polish Home Army units, Soviet partisans, and the Bielski group.
Following the German action, in which the Home Army unit lost 120 men and was forced out of the forest, Miłaszewski was replaced with Adolf Pilch, who was placed in charge of the Stolpce battalion. By September 1943, the Soviets had begun a policy of confrontation against the Polish anti-Nazi underground, which it saw as a threat to their aims in Eastern Poland. In December, the Soviets drew Plich's men into a trap by inviting them to "friendly talks", then surrounded Pilch's men and threatened to execute kidnapped Polish officers unless the unit surrendered. Bielski's unit participated in this operation. Some 135 Polish soldiers and nine officers were arrested. However, Pilch managed to evade capture along with 50 others; according to Pilch the Bielski partisans were too distracted with pillaging the Polish camp in search of valuables, which allowed him to escape capture. Pilch's unit would continue to fight the Soviet partisans. Fighting on the Soviet side, the Bielski partisans took part in clashes between Polish and Soviet forces. On 5 March 1944, Zus's fighter detachment and Soviet forces jointly attacked a group of Polish fighters, killing 47 and injuring 20 more. On 22 March 20 Jewish fighters managed to ambush a Nazi convoy and kill 12. According to Kazimierz Krajewski, in May 1944, the village of Kamień in Stolpce was attacked by a force including Bielski partisans; 23 Home Army soldiers and 20 civilians were killed.
Internal conflict
Tuvia Bielski was known for his authoritarian leadership style and was constantly involved in power struggles with other members of the unit. Israel Kessler (who tried to organize a group of people to leave the Bielski camp and form their own unit) and others sent letters to General Platon and other Soviet officials that Tuvia Bielski was holding gold and jewelry in contradiction to partisan orders to hand these over to headquarters. A unit member, Stepan Szupien, suggested to the Soviets that they arrest and execute Bielski, accusing him of confiscating money under the pretext of buying weapons. The Soviet command, concerned about the unit's leadership, began an internal investigation into an alleged protection racket conducted by Bielski. Chernyshev cleared Bielski of the charges following an investigation. Bielski viewed Kessler's actions as rebellion, put Kessler on trial, and executed him. According to witness Estera Gorodejska, a drunk Bielski personally executed Kessler with three shots. Later Bielski ordered the destruction of Kessler's grave.
Disbandment
In the summer of 1944, following the Soviet Operation Bagration which allowed them to regain control over Belarus, the Kalinin unit, numbering some 1,200 of which 70 per cent were women, elderly and children, marched into Nowogródek. Following one final parade, they disbanded.
Despite their previous cooperation with the Soviets, relations quickly worsened. The NKVD started interrogating the Bielski brothers about the rumors of loot they had reportedly collected during the war and about their failure to "implement socialist ideals in the camp". Asael Bielski was conscripted into the Soviet Red Army and died in the Battle of Königsberg in 1945. The remaining brothers escaped Soviet-controlled lands, emigrating to the West. Tuvia's cousin, Yehuda Bielski, was sought by the NKVD for having been an officer in the pre-war Polish Army but managed to escape with Tuvia's help and made his way to Hungary and then to Israel.
Postwar
After the war, Tuvia Bielski returned to Poland, then immigrated to present-day Israel in 1945. Tuvia and Zus eventually settled in New York where they operated a successful trucking business. The last living Bielski brother, Aron Bielski, immigrated to the US in 1951. He changed his name to "Aron Bell." The remainder of the Bell family now lives in upstate New York and California. Aron lives in Florida. None of the Bielskis ever sought any recognition or reward for their actions.
Yehuda Bielski, their first cousin and fellow partisan, moved to Israel initially to fight in the Irgun and then as a lieutenant in the IDF in the 1948 Arab-Israeli war. Later, Yehuda and his family moved to America where he became a businessman.
Books and film
Two English language books have focused on the Bielski story: Defiance (1993) by Nechama Tec and The Bielski Brothers (2004) by Peter Duffy. The group is also mentioned in numerous books about this period in history. Fugitives of the Forest: The Heroic Story of Jewish Resistance and Survival During the Second World War, by Allan Levine, tells the story of Jewish fighters and refugees in forests across Europe, including the Bielski partisans. With Courage Shall We Fight: The Memoirs and Poetry of Holocaust Resistance Fighters Frances "Fruma" Gulkowich Berger and Murray "Motke" Berger tells the story of two Bielski Brigade fighters before, during and after the war.
In 2006, the History Channel aired a documentary titled The Bielski Brothers: Jerusalem in the Woods, written and directed by filmmaker Dean Ward.
A book (January 2009) in Polish by two reporters from Gazeta Wyborcza, Odwet: Prawdziwa historia braci Bielskich (Revenge: The True Story of the Bielski Brothers) was accused of consisting of plagiarism and withdrawn.
The feature film Defiance, co-written, produced and directed by Edward Zwick, was released internationally in January 2009. It stars Daniel Craig, Liev Schreiber, Jamie Bell and George MacKay as Tuvia, Zus, Asael and Aron Bielski respectively. It opened to mixed reviews and raised questions about the roles various groups played during the war.
See also
- Abba Kovner
- Kastner's Train
- Nakam
- The Pianist (2002 film)
- World War II Behind Closed Doors: Stalin, the Nazis and the West
- List of Holocaust films
Notes
- ^ "THE BIELSKI PARTISANS". United States Holocaust Museum. Archived from the original on 14 January 2009. Retrieved 15 January 2009.
- ^ Kazimierz Krajewski – "Opór"? "Odwet"? Czy po prostu "polityka historyczna"? nr 3/2009 - Instytut Pamięci Narodowej page 105
- Tec, Nechama (1993). Defiance: The Bielski Partisans. Oxford University Press US. ISBN 0-19-509390-9.
- ^ Gazeta Wyborcza - 12 January 2009 Piotr Gluchowski, Marcin Kowalski< PIOTR GŁUCHOWSKI, MARCIN KOWALSKI Wojna polsko-ruska pod bokiem niemieckim
- Snyder, Timothy, "Caught Between Hitler & Stalin", The New York Review of Books, vol. 56, no. 7 (30 April 2009), (restricted)
- Peter Duffy, The Bielski Brothers. New York, HarperCollins, 2003, ISBN 0-06-621074-7, pp. 214-17.
- ^ (in Polish) Piotr Zychowicz, "Bielski pomagał Żydom, ale też ich wykorzystywał" ("Bielski Helped the Jews, but Also Exploited Them") Archived 18 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine, Rzeczpospolita (The Republic), 23 January 2009.
- ^ Kazimierz Krajewski, ""Opór"? "Odwet"? Czy po prostu "polityka historyczna"?", Instytut Pamięci Narodowej, no. 3/2009, p. 104.
- War in a Twilight World: Partisan and Anti-Partisan Warfare in Eastern Europe, 1939-45 Archived 1 July 2018 at the Wayback Machine, chapter by Kenneth Slepyan, Palgrave Macmillan, pages 52-53
- The Morality of Self-defense and Military Action: The Judeo-Christian Tradition Archived 1 July 2018 at the Wayback Machine, David B. Kopel, Praeger, page 119
- ^ "Nowogrodek: The Story of a Shtetl." Archived 27 June 2018 at the Wayback Machine Yad Vashem Studies 35.2 (2007): 59.M, Yehuda Bauer.
- Defiance Archived 28 June 2018 at the Wayback Machine, Oxford University Press, Nechama Tec, 2009, page 315
- Defiance Archived 28 June 2018 at the Wayback Machine, Oxford University Press, Nechama Tec, 1993, pages 116-124
- Defiance Archived 28 June 2018 at the Wayback Machine, Oxford University Press, Nechama Tec, 1993, pages 127-129
- http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/education/newsletter/28/bielski_brothers.asp#09 Archived 20 June 2018 at the Wayback Machine The International School for Holocaust Studies Solidarity in the Forest – The Bielski Brothers By Franziska Reiniger
- Kazimierz Krajewski – "Opór"? "Odwet"? Czy po prostu "polityka historyczna"? nr 3/2009 - Instytut Pamięci Narodowej page 104
- "Family Camps in the Forest" (PDF). Shoah Resource Center. Retrieved 22 January 2009.
- The Morality of Self-defense and Military Action: The Judeo-Christian Tradition Archived 27 June 2018 at the Wayback Machine, David B. Kopel, Praeger, page 119
- Duffy, Peter, The Bielski Brothers. New York: HarperCollins, 2003. ISBN 0-06-621074-7. p. 281: "The numbers are cited in the partisan histories of Ordzhonikidze (Fond 3618; Opus I; File 23) and Kalinin (Fond 3500; Opus 4; File 272) in the Minsk archives. The Kalinin history is also available at Yad Vashem (M.41/120).
- The Holocaust: An Encyclopedia and Document Collection Archived 27 June 2018 at the Wayback Machine, ABC-Clio, Paul R. Bartrop, Michael Dickerman, page 83
- The Polish Underground and the Jews, 1939-1945, Cambridge University Press, Joshua D. Zimmerman, ISBN 978-1107014268, pages 273-275
- Defiance Archived 28 June 2018 at the Wayback Machine, Oxford University Press, Nechama Tec, 1993, pages 114-117
- ^ (in Polish) Piotr Głuchowski, Marcin Kowalski, Wojna polsko-ruska pod bokiem niemieckim Archived 22 June 2018 at the Wayback Machine, Gazeta Wyborcza, 13 January 2009
- Defiance Archived 28 June 2018 at the Wayback Machine, Oxford University Press, Nechama Tec, 1993, pages 153
- The True Story of the Bielski Brothers Archived 29 December 2009 at the Wayback Machine (in Polish) Prawdziwa historia Bielskich Archived 17 March 2013 at the Wayback Machine, Gazeta Wyborcza, 6 January 2009
- The Bielski Brothers: The True Story of Three Men Who Defied the Nazis, Built a Village in the Forest, and Saved 1,200 Jews, Peter Duffy, 2004, page 246
- ^ in the Shadow of the Red Banner: Soviet Jews in the War Against Nazi Germany Archived 27 June 2018 at the Wayback Machine, Yitzhak Arad, pages 298-299
- Kazimierz Krajewski, "Opór"? "Odwet"? Czy po prostu "polityka historyczna"? Instytut Pamięci Narodowej, no. 3/2009, pp. 106-7.
- Defiance Archived 27 June 2018 at the Wayback Machine, Nechama Tec, page 182-3
- (in Polish) Piotr Zychowicz, "Bielski pomagał Żydom, ale też ich wykorzystywał" ("Bielski Helped Jews but Also Exploited Them") Archived 18 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine, Rzeczpospolita (The Republic), 23 January 2009
- Saving One's Own: Jewish Rescuers During the Holocaust Archived 29 June 2018 at the Wayback Machine, Mordecai Paldiel, University of Nebraska Press, page 94
- "The Cousins Bielski,Leslie Bell". Archived from the original on 10 March 2011. Retrieved 24 January 2009.
- "A conversation with Aron Bielski, last of the Bielski brothers". Jewish News Syndicate. 14 April 2020. Retrieved 28 May 2021.
- Brunner, Debra (21 April 2022). "Tasty and Significant". The Together Plan. Retrieved 15 August 2022.
- Levine, Allan Fugitives of the Forest. New York: first published 1998, 2008 reissue, by Lyons Press.
- "The Bielski Brothers: Jerusalem in the Woods". IMDb. 12 November 2006.
- Meteoryt.pl. "Centrum Badań nad Zagładą Żydów - Plagiatorzy nagrodzeni !". holocaustresearch.pl.
- S.A., Wirtualna Polska Media (9 February 2009). "Książka o braciach Bielskich wycofana z dystrybucji".
- "Defiance". Rotten Tomatoes. Archived from the original on 21 January 2009. Retrieved 20 January 2009.
- Kamil Tchorek (31 December 2008). "Country split over whether Daniel Craig is film hero or villain". The Times. London. Retrieved 31 December 2008.
References
- Alperowitz, Yitzchak. "Tuvia Bielski", in Encyclopaedia of the Holocaust vol. 1, p. 215–16. Illustrations.
- Arad, Yitzhak. "Family Camps in the Forest", in Encyclopaedia of the Holocaust vol. 2, p. 467–469. Illustrations, map.
- Smith, Lyn. Remembering: Voices of the Holocaust. Ebury Press, Great Britain, 2005, Carroll & Graf Publishers, New York, 2006. ISBN 0-7867-1640-1.
- Announcement of the start of the IPN investigation (unofficial English-language translation).
Further reading
- Berger, Ralph S. and Albert S. Berger, editors "With Courage Shall We Fight: The Memoirs and Poetry of Frances "Fruma" Gulkowich Berger and Murray "Motke" Berger". Comteq Publishing, 2010. ISBN 978-1-935232-20-9.
- Duffy, Peter, The Bielski Brothers. New York: HarperCollins, 2003. ISBN 0-06-621074-7.
- Eckman, Lester and Lazar, Chaim, The Jewish Resistance: The History of the Jewish Partisans in Lithuania and White Russia During the Nazi Occupation 1940–1945. Shengold Publishers, 1977. ISBN 0-88400-050-8.
- Levine, Allan, Fugitives of the Forest: The Heroic Story of Jewish Resistance and Survival During the Second World War. Stoddart, 1998. Reissued with a new introduction by The Lyons Press, 2008. ISBN 978-1-59921-496-2.
- Tec, Nechama, Defiance: The Bielski Partisans. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993. ISBN 0-19-509390-9.
External links
- Bielski partisans on National Public Radio
- The Bielski Partisans Holocaust Encyclopedia United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
- Jewish partisans directory (searchable) Archived 19 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine (partisans.org.il)
- Voices on Antisemitism Interview with Daniel Craig from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
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