Bielski partisans facts for kids
The Bielski partisans were a brave group of Jewish fighters during World War II. They fought against the Nazis and rescued many Jewish people from danger. They lived and fought in the forests of what was then Poland (now western Belarus). The group was named after the Bielski family, who were Polish Jews and led the group.
Under the protection of the Bielski partisans, 1,236 Jewish people survived the war. This was a very important rescue mission during the Holocaust. The group lived in the forests for more than two years.
Contents
Background
The Bielski family were millers and grocers in a village called Stankiewicze. At the start of World War II, this area was part of Poland. In September 1939, the Soviet Union took control of the area. This happened because Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union had an agreement not to fight each other.
The Bielski family worked as administrators for the new Soviet government. This made many local Polish people unhappy, as they saw the Soviets as invaders.
On June 22, 1941, Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union. The Nazis took over the area and created Jewish ghettos. They began their terrible plan to kill all Jewish people.
Partisans
How the Group Started
The parents and older family members of the Bielski brothers were killed in the ghetto on December 8, 1941. The four Bielski brothers – Tuvia, Alexander (also called "Zus"), Asael, and Aron Bielski – managed to escape into the nearby forest. In the spring of 1942, they formed their fighting group with 13 neighbors from the ghetto. The group started with about 40 people and grew quickly.
Tuvia, the oldest brother, became the group's leader. He had served in the Polish Army before the war. Tuvia sent people to secretly enter the ghettos in the area. They asked other Jewish people to join the group in the Naliboki Forest. Hundreds of men, women, and children eventually came to the Bielski camp. At its largest, the group had 1,236 members. Seven out of every ten members were women, children, or elderly people. The Bielskis never turned anyone away. About 150 members of the group used weapons to fight the Nazis and those who helped them.
How They Lived
The partisans lived in underground shelters called dugouts or bunkers. In their forest camp, they built many important things, including:
- A kitchen and a bakery
- A mill to grind grain
- A bathhouse
- A medical clinic for sick and injured people
- A quarantine hut for people with infectious diseases like typhus. This kept them separate from healthy people to stop the spread of sickness.
Members of the group had many different jobs. For example:
- They milked cows for fresh milk.
- Artisans made and repaired things. This helped the fighters keep their equipment working.
- More than 125 people worked in workshops.
- Tailors fixed old clothes and made new ones.
- Shoemakers repaired and made shoes.
- Leather-workers made belts, bridles, and saddles.
- Workers in a metalworking shop fixed damaged weapons and made new ones from spare parts.
- Some group members worked as carpenters, hat-makers, barbers, and watchmakers.
The group also set up a school in one of the dugouts. The camp even had its own jail and a court of law.
What They Did
The Bielski group's main goal was to fight the Germans and their collaborators (people who helped the Nazis). They also used sabotage to damage Nazi operations. The Nazi government offered a reward of 100,000 German marks to anyone who could help them catch Tuvia Bielski. In 1943, the Nazis tried hard to get rid of all partisan groups in the area. Some groups suffered many losses, but the Bielski partisans moved safely to a deeper part of the forest. They continued to protect the non-fighters in their group.
Like other partisan groups, the Bielski group would visit nearby villages to ask for food. Sometimes, peasants who did not want to share their food had conflicts with the partisans. However, some villagers willingly helped the Jewish partisans.
The Bielski partisans eventually worked with Soviet groups in the Naliboki Forest. Soviet commanders tried to get Bielski fighters to join their units, but they refused. Tuvia wanted to keep leading the Bielski partisans so he could continue protecting Jewish lives while also fighting.
The Bielski partisan leaders later split the group into two units. One was called Ordzhonikidze, led by Zus. The other was Kalinin, led by Tuvia. Fighting alongside the Soviets, they took part in battles. For example, on December 1, 1943, they helped the Soviets in a conflict with a group of Polish partisans. According to their records, the Bielski fighters from both units claimed to have killed a total of 381 enemy fighters.
End of the Group
In the summer of 1944, the Soviets began to push back the Nazi occupiers in Belarus. The Kalinin unit, which included 1,230 men, women, and children, came out of the forest and marched into Novogrodek.
Even though they had worked with the Soviets, the relationship between the Soviets and the Bielski partisans quickly became difficult. The Soviet secret police (NKVD) started questioning the Bielski brothers. They asked about things the brothers had collected during the war. Asael Bielski was forced to join the Soviet Red Army and died in the Battle of Königsberg in 1945. The other brothers escaped Soviet-controlled lands and moved to the West. Tuvia's cousin, Yehuda Bielski, was wanted by the NKVD. With Tuvia's help, he escaped to Hungary and then to Israel.
After the War
After the war, Tuvia Bielski returned to Poland. He then moved to Israel in 1945. Tuvia and Zus later settled in New York, where they ran a successful trucking business. When Tuvia died in 1987, he was buried in Long Island, New York. However, a year later, surviving partisans in Israel arranged for his body to be moved. He was given a hero's funeral at Har Hamenuchot, a graveyard in Jerusalem. His wife, Lilka, was buried next to him in 2001.
The last living Bielski brother, Aron Bielski, moved to the US in 1951. He changed his name to "Aron Bell." The rest of the Bell family now lives in upstate New York and California. Aron lives in Florida. None of the Bielskis ever asked for praise or rewards for what they did.
Yehuda Bielski, their first cousin and fellow partisan, moved to Israel to fight in the Irgun.
The village of Stankiewicze no longer exists. It was located near Navahrudak.
Books and Films
Several books and films have been made about the Bielski partisans:
- Defiance (1993) by Nechama Tec
- The Bielski Brothers (2004) by Peter Duffy
- Fugitives of the Forest: The Heroic Story of Jewish Resistance and Survival During the Second World War by Allan Levine
- With Courage Shall We Fight: The Memoirs and Poetry of Holocaust Resistance Fighters Frances "Fruma" Gulkowich Berger and Murray “Motke” Berger
In 2006, the History Channel showed a documentary called The Bielski Brothers: Jerusalem in the Woods.
An episode of the BBC series Who Do You Think You Are? showed UK television personality Natasha Kaplinsky learning that her great uncle was a member of the Bielski partisans. He survived the war.
The BBC series Ray Mears's Extreme Survival also featured an episode about the Bielski partisans.
The movie Defiance, directed by Edward Zwick, was released in 2009. It stars Daniel Craig as Tuvia Bielski.
Related pages
In Spanish: Partisanos de Bielski para niños
