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Study Guide Tuvia Bielski: Rescue Is Resistance

Study Guide Tuvia Bielski: Rescue Is Resistance

Study Guide Tuvia : Rescue is Resistance

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Before his death in 1987, and the heroes of the Uprising. told his wife, In fact, their resistance was more successful Lilka, “I will be famous when then both the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and I am dead.” Bielski and Lilka the work of Schindler in both numbers of lives were living in Brooklyn, New saved and numbers of Germans killed. Tuvia York, where they seemed to Bielski was a deeply complex man: cruel and be a typical immigrant family. tender, charismatic and profane, hotheaded and Bielski, who spoke thickly composed. But he was above all passionate and accented English, worked utterly determined, possessing a connection to as a truck driver delivering the sufferings of the Jewish people that bordered plastic materials to companies on the mystical. Members of the partisan group throughout the New York remember him as super-human, riding atop a metropolitan area. Bielski was white horse in their forest enclave. “He was sent in reality the man who many by God to save ,” said Rabbi Beryl Chafetz, consider among the greatest who as a rabbinical student took refuge in the heroes of anti-German Bielski camp. “He wasn’t a man, he was an angel,” resistance in World War II—a said Isaac Mendelson. man who master-minded and During World War II, the majority of European led one of the most significant Jews were deceived by the German’s meticulous Jewish rescue and resistance “disinformation” campaign. The Nazis detained operations of . millions of Jews and forced them into camps, It is a profound irony that he promising them safety in exchange for their work. Tuvia Bielski. Date unknown. would be forced to wonder when he would get Source: Novogrudek, The History of a In reality, many of these “work camps” were Jewish Shtetl, www.novogrudek.com. full credit for his achievements. death camps where men, women, and children In its outlines, Tuvia Bielski’s story sounds like the were systematically murdered. Yet approximately far-fetched creation of a Hollywood scriptwriter. 30,000 Jews, many of whom were teenagers, From a small village in the country now called escaped the Nazis to form or join organized , Tuvia and his brothers Asael, Zus, and resistance groups. These Jews are known as Aron escaped from invading Germans into a the , and they joined hundreds nearby forest and then created a refuge for of thousands of non-Jewish partisans fighting other local Jews there. But the Bielskis did more against the enemy throughout much than hide and save lives: periodically a group of Europe. of them emerged from the trees on horseback, Sometimes they fought alongside non-Jewish sub-machine guns strapped to their shoulders, partisan units. In some units they had to hide to ambush the enemy. In time, the forest their Jewish identity, even though they shared settlement became like a small town, complete Teaching with ‘Defiance’ a common enemy, the Germans. Many partisan with shoemakers and tailors, carpenters, and hat This guide can be used with JPEF’s units were so antisemetic that fighters of the multimedia curriculum for the film makers, a central square for social gatherings, a ‘Defiance’, starring and same unit could not openly reveal that they were . For additional resources tannery that doubled as a synagogue, and even Jews. Other partisan units were purely Jewish. In and information, go to: a theater troupe. Ultimately, the Bielski brothers www.jewishpartisans.org/defiance the case of the Bielski’s, they were composed not saved the lives of 1,200 Jews and killed more than merely of fighters, but of women, children, and 300 enemy soldiers. the elderly. The ’ achievement is on par Jewish partisans blew up thousands of German with more famous acts of wartime courage Conforms to Common Core Standards supply trains, convoys, and bridges, making it jewishpartisans.org/standards such as those performed by

1 Members of the Bielski unit, on guard harder for the Germans to fight the war. Partisans was thought by many that he was destined for duty at an airstrip in the . Approximate date 1943-1944. also destroyed German power plants and factories, great things. Source USHMM. focusing their attention on military and strategic Asael was the most reticent of the three older targets, not on civilians. Most partisan units brothers. Hardworking and loyal, he enjoyed wanted young men who could fight to join their operating the family’s business and planned ranks, and many were hostile to Jews. Not the eventually to take over his father’s responsibilities Bielskis, however. They took in hundreds of the at the mill. Zus was the brash one. He would elderly, ill, women, and children. throw punches first, ask questions later. His parents, it seemed, were always negotiating with

Additional Resources on the Bielski IN THE WOODS, WE WERE FREE the police to keep him out of trouble. Aron was brothers and the film‘ Defiance’ a pre-teen when the war began. Still, he helped t Tuvia, Asael, Zus, and Aron Bielski were four of 12 gather intelligence. His youth camouflaged Take the Teaching with the Film children born to a miller and his wife in the rural his role as a partisan, and it made him an ‘Defiance’ videocourse: village of Stankevich, near Novogrudek. The only indispensable member of the group. www.jewishpartisans.org/elearning Jews in a small community, they quickly learned t how to look after themselves. Unlike their father, When the Germans arrived in western Belarus, Download additional ‘Defiance’ curricula & other resources: who had a conciliatory nature, the three oldest then part of the , in June 1941, the www.jewishpartisans.org/defiance brothers wouldn’t hesitate to fight to defend their four brothers were 35, 33, 29, and 12. In the first t family’s honor. Their reputation was fearsome: it months of the occupation, Bielski family members See the Bielski partisans short film was rumored among the peasants that Asael and avoided the German onslaught, but by December (video version of pages 2-3): Zus had murdered a man. 1941 the invaders had captured and killed the www.jewishpartisans.org/films brothers’ parents and two of their younger t The four brothers had four different personalities, Get the ‘Defiance’ Educator’s DVD with siblings. Thousands of other Jews from the region 21 film excerpts and Bielski partisan but one common purpose. The brothers were either killed by the Germans and their testimonials: complemented each other’s strengths and collaborators or forced to live in ghettos. [email protected] weaknesses. Tuvia was more refined than his younger brothers. A tall, dark-haired man known The brothers sought refuge in the woods where by neighbors as the “Clark Gable of the Bielskis,” they had spent time as children. Asael and Zus, he was an avid reader who loved to recount who were hiding together, set about finding religious stories to illustrate current dilemmas. It safe homes for a dozen or so of their surviving

2 Wolozyn the dangers, many were eager ZYNA RIVER RE E to risk flight. By the autumn of B 1942, the Bielski group included NALIBOCKA FOREST Iwieniec BYSIRA RIVER nearly 100 members. “It seemed Naliboki like a fantasy from another Wsielub world,” wrote one inhabitant Novogrodek after the war. “A kind of gay R E IV Korelicze Stolpce R abandon filled the air; biting EN M Zdzieciol IE N frank talk spiced with juicy

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9 T curses; galloping horses and the Horodyszcze 1 IE

29- laughter of children. Suddenly I 19 saw myself as an extra in a Wild Baranovichi Slonim POLISH-SOV West movie.” LIPICZANSKA FOREST “Compared to the ghettos, it

LITHUANIA felt like heaven,” said Charles Bedzow. “In the woods, we were BELARUBE S free. That’s all I can tell you. We had freedom.” USSR relatives, including Aron. Tuvia, who IN THE FOREST was staying further to the north, moved The brothers moved quickly to build a fighting UKRAINE relatives in with force from the escapees, who joined forces with CZECHOSLOVAKIA friendly non-Jews. the growing army of engaging in guerrilla attacks against the occupiers. In October By the spring of 1942, a squad of Bielski and Soviet fighters raided 1942, Tuvia, Zus, and a German convoy loaded with supplies, killing at ROMANIA Asael decided it was least one German soldier. time to relocate all the relatives into a “It was satisfying in a larger sense,” Tuvia wrote MAP OF AREA: Approximate activity single location in the woods. Many were wary of the first attack on Nazis in his 1955 Yiddish of Bielski partisans in Eastern Poland of venturing into the wild, but the brothers language memoir, “A real spiritual high point, that (now Belarus) during the war. Source: Defiance: The Bielski Partisans, by were insistent. In a forest about a mile from the the world should know that there were still Jews . Oxford University Press, 1993. nearest road, they made an encampment where alive, and especially Jewish partisans.” everyone slept under blankets propped up by The strength and reputation of the brothers’ tree branches. The brothers also sought to obtain unit—formed as a military outfit with Tuvia as weapons for the group’s protection. commander, Asael as deputy commander, and As the murders and torture of the Jews increased Zus as chief of reconnaissance—grew throughout in the Novogrudek ghetto, and in others further late 1942. The young fighting men, a minority of away, Tuvia decided to expand the group beyond the overall Bielski population, spent long nights their relatives. Asael and Zus initially opposed obtaining food from local peasants—sometimes the plan, thinking that it was best to keep the stealing it—in order to feed the group. They also unit small and manageable. But Tuvia insisted. “I sought out and executed Nazi collaborators, would rather save one old Jewish woman than including one man who lived in the Bielskis’ kill 10 Nazi soldiers,” he said. He argued that boyhood village and was once close to the family. they couldn’t sit idle while their people were The brothers knew that the group needed to be being slaughtered. feared if it had any chance of surviving in such a hostile environment. And it worked: the size of “Asael and Zus would never have had the old the unit increased, seemingly with every passing people and women,” Aron recalled. “They would day. have their wives and girlfriends, but no way in hell would they have chosen to take all those With the arrival of the frigid Belarus winter, the people.” Emissaries were sent into the ghettos brothers worried about the prospect of their to retrieve Jews or urge them to leave; despite people freezing to death. They organized the

3 construction of large wooden the middle of a swamp, and although the fighting living quarters, known as lasted more than a week, only one partisan was zemlyankas in Russian. Built lost. partially into the ground, the In the weeks following the attack, the brothers structures utilized earthen located a dry spot in the dense forest and walls to contain as much began work on a new camp. “It really was heat as possible. The dank, something special,” said Jack Kagan, an escapee dark spaces were far from of the Novogrudek ghetto who emigrated to luxurious, but they kept the London after the war. Completed in October large group protected from and November 1943, it had a large kitchen, a the bitter Belorussian winter. bathhouse, a blacksmith forge, a small horse- “It also helped if we had a powered mill, a bakery, a tailor shop staffed little vodka,” remembered one by 18 men, a school for some 60 children, a survivor. gunsmith shop, and even a jail. It came to The dropping temperatures be called Jerusalem [see map on page 6]. brought an increase in enemy “Everybody was gainfully employed and it was activity. One , a unit of an embarrassment if you weren’t working,” Tuvia German-allied police rushed said in his 1946 book, [ towards the camp and shot a Yehudai Yaar Jews of ]. “We spent many hours after work in guard. Alerted by the gunfire, the Forest small groups meeting in and around the camp. the entire population fled The younger people always gathered around deeper into the woods to safety. Another time, 10 was killed during the the campfires, talking and singing. These were battle of Koenigsberg in 1944 while Jewish fighting men from the unit were killed by fighting in the . Approximate not official parties in the Soviet mold that we date 1943-1944. Source: USHMM a troop of German gendarmes who were tipped were forced by the few Communists among us off by two Belorussian collaborators. The Bielskis to attend on occasion. Around the campfires we were incensed by the act, and Asael and a crew would sing songs in Yiddish, Hebrew and our of fighters led a revenge attack, killing both the conversations always gravitated to the present collaborators and several others. The questions and future of .” of revenge and “an eye for an eye” made for long conversations within the group. Were the Bielskis going to ruthlessly kill others, inspired by acts of revenge? Or, were they going to be different?

The group grew again in the spring of 1943. A key factor in their success was that Tuvia, Zus, and Asael all had military experience prior to the German invasion; important training that only a small percentage of Jewish partisans had. The brothers were soon watching over nearly 800 Jews, constantly moving the ragged band to new locations, to keep one step ahead of the Nazis. It was clear that the local peasants knew where the Jews were hiding, and Tuvia was increasingly worried about the unit’s safety.

He had reason to worry. On June 9, 1943, the Bielski camp was once again attacked. This time, 10 Jews lost their lives. The brothers decided to relocate once again, to the dense Naliboki forest, many miles from the village of their boyhood. After an exhausting march to the forest, which was home to many Soviet partisan units, the

group suffered the biggest attack yet from the Zus Bielski after the War. Approximate date 1944-1945. Nazis. They escaped by retreating to an island in Source: USHMM

4 Since the group was ostensibly a Soviet unit But there was also tension between the brothers. More Information on loyal to the Communist creed, outward displays At one point Zus left the main Bielski camp to the Jewish Partisans 1 of Jewish or Zionist expression were to be join a Soviet partisan brigade that was focused The Jewish Partisan Educational avoided. But a profound Jewish spirit pervaded solely on fighting the Germans. Asael, Zus, and Foundation recommends these the community. “During Pesach, we prepared Tuvia often argued on which was the better way resources for further information: unleavened bread for those who wanted it,” to survive: bringing as many Jews as possible to Tuvia said. “Most of the people preferred kosher2 their camp, including people who could not fight, Films & Video meat. student Avraham Shmuel Kaibovitz or using their finite resources to physically fight • To see videos of Aron Bell, 3 from Mir was appointed to oversee the laws of against the Germans. the last surviving Bielski kashrut. Those people who wanted to observe the brother, please go to: www. Sabbath were also excused from performing tasks, jewishpartisans.org/partisans LIBERATION and in most cases their requests were granted, • Defiance , directed by Ed although there was no official reason for this.” In July 1944 the Red Army was winning the Zwick. A Paramount Vantage war against Germany and arrived to liberate the release, available online and For the inhabitants of the forest camp, Tuvia on DVD. was a respected and beloved figure. He frequently woods where the Bielski camp was located. The • A Partisan Returns: The gave speeches before the entire assembly, Bielski brothers reported to the Soviets that their group included a total of 1,140 Jews. They also Legacy of Two Sisters - former often breaking down in tears at the fate of the Bielski partisan Lisa Reibel reported that their fighting forces, sometimes Jews. Zus and Asael, far from being idealistic journeys back to her home visionaries, were more interested in leading with Soviet partisans, had killed a total of 381 in Belarus for the first time military expeditions against the Germans and enemy fighters. But few of the survivors were after nearly 65 years: www. their allies. The relative safety of the new camp willing to dwell on the successes: they emerged jewishpartisans.org/films allowed them greater freedom to complete their to find their homes ransacked, their families • Introduction to the Bielski tasks. For the next few months, they shot up murdered, and their communities destroyed. Partisans - With archival military outposts, attacked convoys traveling images and rare WWII As for the brothers, Asael Bielski was conscripted newsreel footage, narrated between the cities, and mined rail tracks with into the Red Army and killed in battle in February by Ed Asner: www. improvised bombs. 1945. Tuvia, Zus, and Aron emigrated to Israel, jewishpartisans.org/films In a typical incident, on April 29, 1944, a squad where they fought in the War of Independence. of eleven men led by Asael Bielski “blew up a The brothers later emigrated to the . German truck on the Lida-Novogrudek road”, Zus, who died in 1995, operated a trucking and Books according to a report delivered to the Soviet taxi company, while Tuvia, the great commander, toiled behind the wheel of a delivery truck. When • The Bielski Brothers: The command. According to the report, handwritten True Story of Three Men in the , Asael’s fighters killed one he died in 1987, he was buried on Long Island. Who Defied the Nazis, Built German soldier and two Nazi-allied policemen A year later, he was exhumed and given a state a Village in the Forest, and and interrupted vehicular traffic on the road for funeral with military honors in Jerusalem. Saved 1,200 Jews, by Peter Duffy, Harper Collins, 2004. ten hours. “There were no victims from our side It is difficult to estimate how many people are • Defiance: The Bielski Partisans, and no spoils of war,” the report said. In another alive today because of the actions of the Bielski incident, on May 20, 1944, Asael’s squad attacked by Nechama Tec. Oxford brothers. Many of the twelve hundred people who University Press, 1993. a unit of Polish partisans, killing six people and walked out of the woods in the summer of 1944 wounding several. have since died, but their children have borne There were groups of antisemitic Polish partisans children, who themselves have borne children. Websites who hunted down and killed Jewish partisans— By some accounts, approximately ten thousand members of the Polish , or Army people currently alive owe their existence to the • Teaching with ‘Defiance’ Krajowa. There were also other Polish partisans brothers’ decision, at Tuvia’s insistence, to shelter lesson plans, Ethics and ‘Defiance’ discussion who were allied to the Germans and wanted every Jew who arrived in the forest encampment. It is an achievement that is literally incalculable. guide and other Bielski the post-war Poland to be free of non-Catholics partisans resources: www. and fought against Jewish partisan groups as jewishpartisans.org/defiance well. [For more information about antisemitism • Novogrudek: History of a 1. A Jewish movement that arose in the late 19th century in in the Jewish partisans see JPEF’s study guide response to growing antisemitism and sought to reestablish Jewish Shtetl: Antisemitism in the Jewish Partisans, written in a Jewish homeland in British mandated Palestine. www.novogrudek.co.uk 2. Food that conforms to Jewish dietary laws. partnership with the ADL. You can also watch a • Defiance Film Website: www. short film on the same subject, narrated by Larry 3. Prior to the Holocaust, the village of Mir (35 miles from Naliboki) was home to some 2,400 Jews and a famous paramount.com/movies/ King, at: www.jewishpartisans.org/films]. yeshiva [Jewish religious school/university]. defiance

5 DISCUSSION QUESTIONS Textual Analysis

1. “Jerusalem” provided essential services for local Soviet partisan units in the forests. How do you think this might have contributed to the Bielski unit’s survival?

2. What do you understand about the relationship between the Bielski partisans and the Soviet partisan command? Between the Bielski and the Polish partisans? What evidence do you have from the text to support your understanding?

Ethics

1. The Bielski partisan unit was unique in that it readily accepted large numbers of non- fighters into its units. Do you think this enhanced or threatened their chances for survival (or both)? Explain your answer.

2. The Bielski partisans took severe measures against informants and collaborators. Often the collaborator and his entire family would be killed, and their home burned to the ground. Holocaust scholar Nechama Tec quotes Tuvia, explaining, “We could neither forgive nor forget. If we do not take revenge upon such collaborators, what would become of us? Every farmer would be free to inform.” Do you agree with Tuvia’s argument? Why or why not?

3. As commander of the unit, Tuvia insisted that all Jews be accepted and integrated into the camp. His brothers argued against Map of “Jerusalem”, the Bielski camp in the Naliboki Forest. Fall 1943 - Summer 1944. The camp had a tannery, bakery, soap factory, hat maker, school, and tailor and approximately 1,200 inhabitants by the this, fearing that large numbers of unarmed time of the German retreat from Poland. people would bring disaster to all. Do you agree with Tuvia’s position? Why or why not? What is the argument for Tuvia’s position? How would you counter the argument and press for his brothers’ concept of their mission?

4. In order to feed such large numbers of people, armed partisans were required to raid neighboring farms and villages. Tuvia describes the situation, “The peasants were poor, yet we had to do it. We were This study guide made possible by the Conference of Jewish Material Claims Against Germany-Rabbi Israel Miller Fund for in a predicament… sometimes we would Shoah Research, Documentation and Education, The Richard take their last cow, their last horse.” Is it and Rhoda Goldman Fund, The Walter and Elise Haas Fund, The permissible to put others’ lives in jeopardy Koret Foundation, the JPEF Gevurah Society, and Diane and Howard Wohl. to save one’s own? ©2010 - 2014 Jewish Partisan Educational Foundation. Revision ID: 14.4

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