Study Guide Tuvia Bielski: Rescue is Resistance

Before his death in 1987, Tuvia heroes of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. In fact, Bielski told his wife, Lilka, “I their resistance was more successful then both will be famous when I am the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and the work of dead.” Bielski and Lilka were Schindler in both numbers of lives saved and living in Brooklyn, New York, numbers of Germans killed. Tuvia Bielski was a where they seemed to be a deeply complex man: cruel and tender, typical immigrant family. charismatic and profane, hotheaded and Bielski, who spoke thickly composed. But he was above all passionate and accented English, worked as a utterly determined, possessing a connection to truck driver delivering plastic the sufferings of the Jewish people that bordered materials on the mystical. Members of the partisan group to companies throughout the remember him as super-human, riding atop a New York metropolitan area. white horse in their forest enclave. “He was sent Bielski was in reality the man by God to save Jews,” said Rabbi Beryl Chafetz, who many consider among who as a rabbinical student took refuge in the the greatest heroes of anti- Bielski camp. “He wasn't a man, he was an angel,” German resistance in World said Isaac Mendelson. War II—a man who master- During World War II, the majority of European minded and led one of the Jews were deceived by the German's meticulous most significant Jewish rescue “disinformation” campaign. The Nazis detained and resistance operations of millions of Jews and forced them into camps, by the Holocaust. It is a profound promising them safety in exchange for their work. irony that he would be forced to wonder when he Tuvia Bielski. Date unknown. In reality, many of these “work camps” were death Source: Novogrudek, The History of a would get full credit for his achievements. Jewish Shtetl , www.novogrudek.com. camps where men, women, and children were In its outlines, Tuvia Bielski's story sounds like the systematically murdered. Yet approximately far-fetched creation of a Hollywood scriptwriter. 20,000 to 30,000 Jews, many of whom were From a small village in the country now called teenagers, escaped the Nazis to form or join Belarus, Bielski and his brothers Asael and Zus organized resistance groups. These Jews are escaped from invading Germans into a nearby known as the Jewish partisans, and they joined forest and then created a refuge for other local hundreds of thousands of non-Jewish partisans Jews there. But the Bielskis did more than hide fighting against the enemy throughout much and save lives: periodically a group of them of Europe. emerged from the trees on horseback, sub- Sometimes they fought with non-Jewish partisan machine guns strapped to their shoulders, to units. In some units they had to hide their Jewish ambush the enemy. In time, the forest settlement identity, even though they shared a common became like a small town, complete with enemy, the Germans. Many partisan units were shoemakers and tailors, carpenters, and hat so antisemetic that fighters of the same unit makers, a central square for social gatherings, a could not openly reveal that they were Jews. This guide is part of JPEF’s Teaching tannery that doubled as a synagogue, and even a with Defiance multimedia curriculum Other partisan units were purely Jewish. In the which includes: theater troupe. Ultimately, the Bielski brothers case of the Bielski's, they were composed not • Defiance Film on DVD saved the lives of 1,200 Jews and killed more than • Educator’s DVD of Excerpts merely of fighters, but of women, children, and • Educator’s Lesson Guide 300 enemy soldiers. Educator’s DVD and Guide are currently the elderly. available ONLY through workshops. The Bielski partisans' achievement is on par with Jewish partisans blew up thousands of German To bring Teaching with Defiance to more famous acts of wartime courage such as your community, call 415.563.2244 or supply trains, convoys, and bridges, making it email defi[email protected] those performed by Oskar Schindler and the

1 Part of the BIelski unit towards the end harder for the Germans to fight the war. Partisans thought by many that he was destined for great of the War. Approximate date 1943- also destroyed German power plants and factories, things. 1944. Source USHMM. focusing their attention on military and strategic Asael, the middle son, was the most reticent of targets, not on civilians. Most partisan units the three. 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, infirm, women, and children. throw punches first, ask questions later; his parents, it seemed, were always negotiating IN THE WOODS, WE WERE FREE with the police to keep him out of trouble.

Tuvia, Asael, and Zus Bielski were three of 12 When the Germans arrived in western Belarus, children born to a miller and his wife in the then part of the Soviet Union, in June 1941, the village of Stankevich, near Novogrudek. The only three brothers were 35, 33, and 29. In the first Jews in a small community, they quickly learned months of the occupation, Bielski family members how to look after themselves. Unlike their father, avoided the German onslaught, but by December who had a conciliatory nature, the three wouldn't 1941 the invaders had captured and killed the hesitate to fight to defend their family's honor. brothers' parents and two of their younger Their reputation was fearsome: it was rumored siblings. Thousands of other Jews from the region among the peasants that Asael and Zus had were either killed by the Germans and their murdered a man. collaborators or forced to live in the nearest ghetto. The three brothers had three different personalities, but one common purpose. Tuvia, The brothers sought refuge in the woods where however, was more refined than his two younger they had spent time as children. Asael and Zus, brothers. A tall, dark-haired man known by who were hiding together, set about finding safe neighbors as the “Clark Gable of the Bielskis,” he homes for a dozen or so of their surviving was an avid reader who loved to recount religious relatives, including their younger brother, Aron, stories to illustrate current dilemmas. It was who was 12 at the time. Tuvia, who was staying further to the north, moved relatives in with

2 Wolozyn Emissaries were sent into the ZYNA RIVER RE ghettos to retrieve Jews or urge E B MINSK them to leave; despite the NALIBOCKA FOREST Iwieniec dangers, many were eager to Lida BYSIRA RIVER Naliboki risk flight. By the autumn of Wsielub 1942, the Bielski group Novogrodek included nearly 100 members. R E IV Korelicze Stolpce R “It seemed like EN R M Zdzieciol E IE D a fantasy from another world,” N R

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L Baranovichi O Slonim P spiced with juicy curses; LIPICZANSKA FOREST galloping horses and the laughter of children. Suddenly LITHUANIA I saw myself as an extra in a Wild West movie.” BELARUS “Compared to the ghettos, it USSR felt like heaven,” said Charles Bedzow. “In the POLAND woods, we were free. That's all I can tell you. We friendly non-Jews. had freedom.” But by the spring of UKRAINE 1942, the three CZECHOSLOVAKIA decided it was time JERUSALEM IN THE FOREST to relocate all the The brothers moved quickly to build a fighting HUNGARY relatives into a force from the escapees, who joined forces with ROMANIA single location in the woods. Many the growing army of Soviet partisans engaging in were wary of guerrilla attacks against the occupiers. In October venturing into 1942, a squad of Bielski and Soviet fighters raided a German convoy loaded with supplies, killing at MAP OF AREA: Approximate activity the wild, but the brothers were insistent. In a of Bielski partisans in Eastern Poland forest about a mile from the nearest road, they least one German soldier. (now Belarus) during war. Source: made an encampment where everyone slept under Defiance: The Bielski Partisans , by “It was satisfying in a larger sense,” Tuvia wrote Nechama Tec. Oxford University Press, blankets propped up by tree branches. The 1993. of the first attack on Nazis in his 1955 Yiddish brothers also sought to obtain weapons for the language memoir, “A real spiritual high point, that group's protection. the world should know that there were still Jews As the murders and torture of the Jews increased alive, and especially Jewish partisans.” in the Novogrudek ghetto, and in others further The strength and reputation of the brothers' away, Tuvia decided to expand the group beyond unit—formed as a military outfit with Tuvia as their relatives. Asael and Zus initially opposed the commander, Asael as deputy commander, and Zus plan, thinking that it was best to keep the unit as chief of reconnaissance—grew throughout late small and manageable. But Tuvia insisted. “I 1942. The young fighting men, a minority of the would rather save one old Jewish woman than overall Bielski population, spent long nights kill 10 Nazi soldiers,” he said. He argued that obtaining food—sometimes stealing it—from the they couldn't sit idle while their people were local peasant population to feed everyone. They being slaughtered. also sought out and executed Nazi collaborators, “Asael and Zus would never have had the old including one man who lived in the Bielski's people and women,” recalled a younger Bielski boyhood village and was once close to the family. brother, Aron, who was 12 at the time. “They The brothers knew that the group needed to be would have their wives and girlfriends, but no feared if it had any chance of surviving in such way in hell would they have chosen to take all a hostile environment. And it worked: the size of those people.” the unit increased, seemingly with every passing day.

3 With the arrival of the cold the middle of a swamp, and although the fighting weather, characteristic of the lasted more than a week, only one man was lost. Belarus winter, the brothers, worried about the prospect of In the weeks following the attack, the brothers ocated a dry spot in the dense forest and began their people freezing to death, l ordered the construction of work on a new camp. “It really was something pecial,” said Jack Kagan, an escapee of the large wooden living quarters, s known as zemlankas in Novogrudek ghetto who emigrated to London Russian. Built partially into the after the war. Completed in October and ground, the structures utilized November 1943, it had a large kitchen, a earthen walls to contain as bathhouse, a blacksmith forge, a small horse- much heat as possible. The powered mill, a bakery, a tailor shop staffed dank, dark spaces were far by 18 men, a school for some 60 children, a from luxurious, but they kept gunsmith shop, and even a jail. It came to the large group protected from be called Jerusalem. [See map on page 6] the bitter Belorussian winter. “Everybody was gainfully employed and it was an “It also helped if we had a embarrassment if you weren't working,” Tuvia said little vodka,” remembered in his 1946 book, Yehudai Yaar [Jews of the one survivor. Forest ]. “We spent many hours after work in small The dropping temperatures groups meeting in and around the camp. The brought an increase in enemy younger people always gathered around the activity. One night, a unit of German-allied police campfires, talking and singing. These were not Asael Bielski was killed during the official parties in the Soviet mold that we were battle of Koenigsberg in 1944 while rushed towards the camp and shot fighting in the Red Army. Approximate a guard. Alerted by the gunfire, the entire forced by the few Communists among us to date 1943-1944. Source: USHMM population fled deeper into the woods to safety. attend on occasion. Around the campfires we Another time, 10 Jewish fighting men from the would sing songs in Yiddish, Hebrew and our unit were killed by a troop of German gendarmes conversations always gravitated to the present who were tipped off by two Belorussian and future of Israel.” collaborators. The Bielskis were incensed by the act, and Asael and a crew of fighters led a revenge attack, killing both the collaborators and several others. The questions 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. 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 a dense forest called Naliboki many miles from the village of their boyhood. After an exhausting march to the forest, which was home to many Soviet partisan units, Zus Bielski after the War. Approximate date 1944-1945. the group suffered the biggest attack yet from the Source: USHMM Nazis. They escaped by retreating to an island in

4 Since the group was ostensibly a Soviet unit loyal But there was also tension between the brothers. More Information on to the Communist creed, outward displays of At one point Zus left the main Bielski camp to the Jewish Partisans Jewish or Zionist 1 expression were to be avoided. join a Russian partisan brigade that was focused The Jewish Partisan Educational But a profound Jewish spirit pervaded the solely on fighting the Germans. Asael, Zus, and Foundation recommends these 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," Tuvia to survive: bringing as many Jews as possible to 2 said. "Most of the people preferred kosher meat. their camp, including people who could not fight, Films & Video Yeshiva student Avraham Shmuel Kaibovitz from or using their finite resources to physically fight Mir was appointed to oversee the laws of kashrut. against the Germans. • To see a video of Aron Bell, the last surviving Bielski Those people who wanted to observe the Sabbath brother, talking about his were also excused from performing tasks, and in brother Tuvia, please go to: most cases their requests were granted, although LIBERATION www.jewishpartisans.org/ there was no official reason for this.” In July 1944 the Red Army was winning the war partisans For the inhabitants of the forest camp, Tuvia against Germany and arrived to liberate the • A Partisan Returns: The Legacy of Two Sisters , directed by was a respected and beloved figure. He frequently woods where the Bieslki camp was located. The Bielski brothers reported to the Soviets that their Mitch Braff (2008) gave speeches before the entire assembly, often www.jewishpartisans.org/ breaking down in tears at the fate of the Jews. group included a total of 1,140 Jews. They also films Zus and Asael, far from being idealistic reported that their fighting forces, sometimes with Soviet partisans, had killed a total of 381 • Defiance , directed by Ed visionaries, were more interested in leading Zwick. A Paramount Vantage military expeditions against the Germans and enemy fighters. But few of the survivors were release, available on DVD. their allies. The relative safety of the new camp willing to dwell on the successes: they emerged to find their homes ransacked, their families • The Partisans of Vilna , directed allowed them greater freedom to complete their by Joshua Waletzky (1987). tasks. For the next few months, they shot up murdered, and their communities destroyed. military outposts, attacked convoys traveling As for the brothers, Asael Bielski was conscripted Books between the cities, and mined rail tracks with into the Red Army and killed in battle in February improvised bombs. • The Bielski Brothers: The True 1945. Tuvia and Zus emigrated to Israel, where Story of Three Men Who In a typical incident, on April 29, 1944, a squad both fought in the War of Independence, and Defied the Nazis, Built a of eleven men led by Asael Bielski “blew up a then, in the mid-1950s, to the United States. Zus, Village in the Forest, and Saved 1,200 Jews, by Peter German truck on the Lida-Novogrudek road”, who died in 1995, operated a trucking and taxi Duffy, Harper Collins, 2004. according to a report delivered to the Soviet company, while Tuvia, the great commander, command. According to the report, handwritten toiled behind the wheel of a delivery truck. When • Defiance: The Bielski Partisans, by Nechama Tec. Oxford in the Russian language, Asael's fighters killed he died in 1987, he was buried on Long Island. University Press, 1993. one German soldier and two Nazi-allied A year later, he was exhumed and given a state policemen and interrupted vehicular traffic on funeral with military honors in Jerusalem. • Daring to Resist: Jewish Defiance During the the road for ten hours. “There were no victims It is difficult to estimate how many people are Holocaust, by Yitzhak Mais from our side and no spoils of war,” the report alive today because of the actions of the Bielski (ed), Museum of Jewish said. In another incident, on May 20, 1944, brothers. Many of the twelve hundred people who Heritage, 2007. Asael's squad attacked a unit of Polish partisans, walked out of the woods in the summer of 1944 • Jewish Resistance in Nazi- killing six people and wounding several. There have since died, but their children have borne Occupied Eastern Europe , by were groups of antisemtic Polish partisans who children, who themselves have borne children. Reuben Ainsztein. Harper & hunted down and killed Jewish partisans — By some accounts, approximately ten thousand Row, 1974. members of the Polish Home Army, or Army people currently alive owe their existence to the Krajowa. There were also other Polish partisans brothers' decision, at Tuvia's insistence, to shelter Websites who were allied to the Germans and wanted the every Jew who arrived in the forest encampment. • Teaching with Defiance & post-war Poland to be free of non-Catholics and It is an achievement that is literally incalculable. Bielski Partisans Resources: fought against Jewish partisan groups as well. www.jewishpartisans.org/ For more information about antisemitism in the defiance Jewish partisans see JPEF's study guide written in 1. A Jewish movement that arose in the late 19th century in • Novogrudek: History of a parternship with the ADL, Antisemitism in the response to growing antisemitism and sought to reestablish a Jewish homeland in British mandated Palestine Jewish Shetel: Jewish Partisans . In addition, a short film narrated 2. Food that conforms to Jewish dietary law. www.novogrudek.co.uk by Larry King on the subject is also available on • Defiance Film Website: the JPEF website: www.jewishpartisans.org/films www.defiancemovie.com

5 QUESTIONS: Ethics Textual Analysis 1. The Bielski partisan unit was unique in that it 1. “Jerusalem” provided essential services for local readily accepted large numbers of non-fighters Soviet partisan units in the forests. How do you into its units. Do you think this enhanced or think this might have contributed to the Bielski threatened their chances for survival or both? unit's survival? Explain. A Partisan Returns: The Legacy 2. What do you understand about the relationship 2. The Bielski partisans took severe measures of Two Sisters - a 20 minute between the Bielski partisans and the Soviet against informants and collaborators. Often the documentary film about a partisan command? Between the Bielski and collaborator and his entire family would be former Bielski partisan who returns to her hometown of the Polish partisans? What evidence do you killed, and their home burned to the ground. Holocaust scholar, Nechama Tec quotes Tuvia, Novorgrodek, Belarus nearly have from the text to support your 65 years after escaping into understanding? explaining, “We could neither forgive nor the forest through a 750-foot forget. If we do not take revenge upon such tunnel. collaborators, what would become of us? Every Watch the film at farmer would be free to inform.” Do you agree www.jewishpartisans.org/films with Tuvia's argument? Why or why not? to witness a personal story of one woman's trip with her 3. As commander of the unit, Tuvia insisted that family as they explore the all Jews be accepted and integrated into the former ghetto, the tunnel she camp. His brothers argued against this, fearing escaped from, and the forests that large numbers of unarmed people would where she lived with 1,200 bring disaster to all. Do you agree with Tuvia’s others in the Bieslki camp. DVDs of the film can be position? Why or why not? What is the ordered from the Jewish argument for Tuvia's position? How would you Partisan Educaitonal counter the argument and press for his Foundation through brothers’ concept of their mission? [email protected]

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 in a predicament… sometimes we would take their last cow, their last horse.” Is it permissible to put others’ lives in jeopardy to save one's own?

Map of the Bielski camp in Naliboki Forest. Fall 1943 - Summer 1944. The camp had a tannery, bakery, soap factory, hat maker, school, and tailor, and had approximately 1,200 inhabitants.

For more information please contact: Jewish Partisan Educational Foundation 2107 Van Ness Avenue Suite 302 San Francisco, CA 94109 415-563-2244 (tel) 415-563-2442 (fax) [email protected]

THIS STUDY GUIDE MADE POSSIBLE BY THE CONFERENCE OF JEWISH MATERIAL CLAIMS AGAINST GERMANY -R ABBI ISRAEL MILLER FUND FOR SHOAH RESEARCH , D OCUMENTATION AND EDUCATION , T HE RICHARD AND RHODA GOLDMAN FUND , T HE WALTER AND ELISE HAAS FUND , THE KORET FOUNDATION , THE JPEF G EVURAH SOCIETY , AND DIANE AND HOWARD WOHL . ©2010 Jewish Partisan Educational Foundation Revision no: 12.00 6