Bielski partisans

The Bielski partisans (the official name has been changed several times) was the largest group of the Jewish partisans in the course of the World War II who fought against the Nazi German occupiers and their collaborators in the area of Nowogrodek and Lida in present-day Belarus. The group spent around two years living in the forests and were initially organized by members of the Bielski family.

History

The Bielski family were farmers in Stankievichy near Nowogródek, an area that at the beginning of WWII belonged to the Second Polish Republic, but in September 1939 (see: Polish September Campaign) was seized by the Soviet Union (see: Soviet invasion of Poland (1939), which was then allied with Nazi Germany. Bielscy collaborated with the Soviets. Following the Germans' "Operation Barbarossa" invasion of the Soviet Union beginning on June 22, 1941, Nowogrodek became a Jewish ghetto, as Nazis took over those lands and started their antisemitic policies.

Formation

The three Bielski brothers: Tuvia and, Alexander Zisel "Zus", managed to flee to the nearby forest after their parents and other family members were killed in the ghetto in December 1941. Together with 13 neighbors from the ghetto, they formed the nucleus of a partisan combat group.

The group's commander was the older brother, Tuvia Bielski (1906–1987), a Polish Army corporal veteran (serving in the army from 1927 to 1929) and graduate of a Zionist youth movement. Tuvia "would rather save one old Jewish woman than kill ten German soldiers". He sent emissaries to infiltrate the ghettos in the area, recruiting new members to join the group in the Naliboki Forest. Hundreds of men, women, and children eventually found their way to the Bielski camp, which ultimately numbered over a thousand inhabitants, both civilians and fighters.

Organization

The partisans lived in underground dugouts (zemlyankas). In addition, several utility structures were built: a kitchen, a mill, a bakery, a bathhouse, a medical clinic for 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 a hundred 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 worked on belts, bridles, and saddles. A metal 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 Hassids. Carpenters, hat-makers, barbers, watchmakers served their own community and guests. The camp's many children went to dugout school. The camp even had its own jail and a court of law.

Activities

The Bielski group's partisan activity was aimed at the Nazis and their collaborators in the area, such as Belarusian volunteer policemen or local inhabitants who had betrayed or killed Jews. They also performed sabotage against the occupying forces. The Nazi regime offered a reward of 100,000 Reichmarks 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, still offering protection to the noncombatants among their band.

The Bielski partisans were affiliated with Soviet partisans in the vicinity of the Naliboki Forest under General Platon (Vasily Yefimovich Chernyshev). Several attempts by Soviet partisan commanders to absorb Bielski fighters into their units were resisted, so 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.

The Soviet partisan leaders split the group into two units, named Ordzhonikidze, led by Zus, and Kalinin, led 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.

Disbandment

In the summer of 1944, when the Soviet counteroffensive began in Belarus and the area was liberated, the "Kalinin" unit comprising the Bielski partisans, numbering 1,230 men, women and children, emerged from the forest and marched into Nowogrodek.

Asael Bielski served in the Soviet Red Army and fell in battle at Königsberg in 1945.

Post-War period

After the war, Tuvia Bielski returned to Poland, then emigrated to Mandatory Palestine in 1945. The surviving Bielski brothers eventually settled in the United States.

Aharon (who changed his name to Aron Bell in USA) was accused of kidnapping and theft and was jailed in 2007.

Allegations of war crimes

Bielski partisans are accused of war crimes on the neighbouring population; particularly for involvement in the massacre of 128 people committed by the Soviet partisans from Naliboki Forest in the Polish town of Naliboki in 1943. The investigation into the Naliboki case is being carried out by the Polish IPN institute. Though witnesses and some historians do place the Bielski partisans at the massacre, members of the brigade and other historians vehemently deny they had any involvement in the massacre. They claim that the partisans did not arrive in the area until several months after the event took place.

As revealed, for example, by interviews in the film The Bielski Brothers: Jerusalem in the Woods, the Bielski Partisans felt it necessary for their survival to be ruthless. Collaborators who turned in partisans to Nazi authorities were executed after cursory investigation. A group of German soldiers who surrendered to the Bielskis were summarily executed, presumably because there was no way for the partisans to keep prisoners in the field, but also because many partisans, who had suffered the loss of family at the hands of the Nazis, sought revenge. Ruthlessness sometimes extended to their own: In at least one instance, Zus Bielski executed one of his own officers for leaving a civilian behind, because the Bielski partisans maintained a non-negotiable policy of protecting Jewish civilians.

In books and film

There are currently two books written solely on the Bielski story: Defiance by Nechama Tec and The Bielski Brothers by Peter Duffy. The group is also mentioned in numerous books about this period in history.

In 2006 History Channel made a documentary entitled The Bielski Brothers: Jerusalem In The Woods, written and directed by filmmaker Dean Ward.

A 2008 film based on the exploits of the Bielski brothers, Defiance, was filmed by Edward Zwick and was released December 31, 2008. The film has aroused controversy for its lack of historical accuracy.

The BBC series Ray Mears's Extreme Survival featured an episode about the Bielski partisans. In this episode it was claimed that some 50 Bielski partisans were killed in action.

See also

• Haganah
• Palmach
• Nakam

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 0-78671-640-1.
• Announcement of the start of the IPN investigation (unofficial English-language translation).
• Review of "Sowjetische Partisanen in Weißrußland", by Marek Jan Chodakiewicz, in Sarmatian Review, April 2006.

Further reading

• 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 0884000508.
• 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

• The Bielski PartisansHolocaust Encyclopedia United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
• Jewish partisans directory (searchable) (partisans.org.il)
• Tuvia Bielski, Commander of a Jewish Partisan Unit in Belarus, Novogrudok, Poland Film and Photo Archive, Yad Vashem
• Naliboki, Poland, May 1944, Jews in the Tuvia Bielski Partisan Family Camp in the Naliboki Forest Film and Photo Archive, Yad Vashem
• Bielski partisans in the Naliboki forest Simon Wiesenthal Center Photo album
• The Stories of Those Rescued by the Bielski Partisans from Lida Lida Memorial Society Homepage First and Second Hand Accounts