Room 7: Resistance

Note: This room is under development.

Acts of Moral Courage

This room tells the stories of individuals to took risks on behalf of Jews during the Holocaust. Today, we refer to them as “rescuers” and think of their actions as heroic. However, these individuals do not think of themselves as particularly remarkable: they consider what they did as what human beings should do for one another.

Although many of the rescuer stories are about non-Jews, there were also Jews who engaged in rescue activity. Jews opposed the Nazis in the forests of Eastern Europe and the ghettos of Poland. They also fought in resistance movements in the West, with Tito in Yugoslavia, and side by side with Soviet partisans. Even in the death camps, there are stories of Jews resisting with force. Particularly outstanding were the Bielski Partisans who saved 1200 Jews in the forests and ghettos of Eastern Poland.

As you read the stories, reflect on Cynthia Ozick’s remarks and consider what it takes for an individual to be a human.

See also:

• Gay Block: Rescuers http://www.gayblock.com/resc.html

• Jewish Foundation for the Righteous http://www.jfr.org

• Teacher's Guide to the Holocaust: Testimony: A Lesson in Creating Poetry http://fcit.coedu.usf.edu/holocaust/people/RESCUERS/poetry.htm

HEROES: Courage and Sacrifice

PARTISANS: Courage and Sacrifice

Photo:Bielski family.

The Bielski family were prominent among Jewish partisans during the Holocaust. The three Bielski brothers—Tuvia, Zus and Asael—took enormous risks on behalf of Jews, confronting German military units as well as hostile Russian partisan groups. The Bielski’s saved 1200 Jews through their efforts.

Map:Western Belorussia during World War II.

Before the war, it would have been difficult to predict that the Bielski’s would exhibit such leadership and courage. They led relatively normal lives in a small town in Eastern Poland (Belorussia). They were the only Jewish family in their town and had assimilated with their peasant neighbors. The two older brothers—Chaim, Velvel and Nathan—had departed to seek their fortunes in the United States, leaving Tuvia and Zus were starting their respective careers away from their small village while the brothers Asael and Arzyck remained at home.

All this changed with the Russian occupation in 1939 and the subsequent German invasion in the summer of 1941 when the Bielski parents and other close relatives were herded into a ghetto with other Jews of the area. The Bielski brothers were part of a small minority of Jews who from the very beginning refused to become trapped in a ghetto. They were constantly on the move, seeking to evade the enemy.

Photo: Author of Defiance: The Bielski Partisans, Nechama Tec

The author, Nechama Tec, describes the resourcefulness of the Bielski brothers in her book, Defiance: The Bielski Partisans:

. . . When they had no place for the night they would sneak into a barn or pigsty and sleep there without the owner’s knowledge. Though cautious, they had many close calls.

After the brothers learned of the murder of their parents and relatives in the ghetto, they became more determined than ever to preserve their freedom from German domination.

By the early spring of 1942, the brothers managed to form an otriad (a partisan detachment), which initially consisted of their immediate surviving relatives and close friends. Over the next three years, approximately 1200 Jews came into their otriad. In contrast to Russian partisan units and many of the other Jewish units that retsricted participation to young men capable of fighting, the Bielski’s took in any Jew who sought their help and actively helped liberate Jews from nearby ghettos to join the unit.

In the closing year of the war, the Bielski unit established a community that resembled a shtetl (small Jewish town) with workshops, a synagogue, a school, a hospital and a court. Each member was urged to contribute what he or she could, but the Bielski’s never turned away a Jew, who showed willingness to cooperate with the community. Yet, the leaders did remove individuals, who threatened the survival of the unit. In a few cases, the leaders tried and executed those deemed dangerous to the community.

The guiding philosophy of Tuvia Bielski and other leaders of the otriad was that all Jews must be protected. Saving Jews superseded taking revenge against the Germans. Women, children and the elderly were accepted in the unit, including Jewish refugees who had fled other partisan units or the ghettos. The younger men in the unit took incredible risks on food missions to assure that everyone in the unit would have food. And, when German detachments pursued the Bielski otriad in the Nalibocka Forest during the “Big Hunt” of August 1943, the younger men escorted the large entourage of women, children and elderly to safety in new locations.

There were enormous strains of life in the forest that the otriad dealt with on a daily basis. Women needed to worry about their basic survival. Unattached women faced more dangers than those with lovers, and, on several occasions, women took lovers for the express purpose of gaining safety. There were very few children in the community. Women were often encouraged to have abortions in order to prevent extra burdens on the otriad resources. Adults in the community grieved the loss of their children. On one occasions, during a Purim (Jewish holiday) celebration, one of the partisans jumped up shouting, “Where are my children? Revenge! Revenge!”

Tuvia Bielski, the commander of the otriad, was a striking and memorable personality. He had a charisma that drew people to him and inspired their trust and admiration. Over the war years, he demonstrated leadership qualities rarely expected of a man from his humble origins. Despite the possibility of attack from antisemitic Polish and Russian partisan groups, Tuvia used judgment in creating alliances with non-Jewish commanders who had not been blinded with hatred for Jews. On several occasions, these partnerships were helpful for the Bielski’s in procuring supplies and protection for the otriad.

The postwar years were anticlimactic for Tuvia. He sank into obscurity although those he rescued continued to admire him. Tuvia settled first in Israel, where he owned a taxi. Later, he moved to the United States, where he drove a truck; he owned two trucks by the end of his career. Until the end of his life, he thought of his years in the otriad as the most important time of his life.