Defiance: The Bielski Partisans

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Describing the entire partisan movement in the region, Tec shows that while most forest fighters in Belorussia were rifle-carrying young men, the members of this extraordinary community included both men and women, some with weapons but mostly unarmed, ranging from infants to the elderly. She reconstructs for the first time the amazing details of how these partisans and their families--hungry, exposed to the harsh winter weather, always on the lookout for German patrols--managed not only to survive, but to offer protection to all Jewish fugitives who could find their way to them. Driven by courage born out of despair, they dug wells, set up workshops to repair guns, made clothes, and resoled shoes, supplied services to other guerilla units, and even established a makeshift hospital and school in the forest. Arguing that this success would have been unthinkable without the vision of one man, Tec offers penetrating insight into the group's commander, Tuvia Bielski, and his journey from his life as the son of the only Jewish peasant family in an isolated rural village to his emergence as a leader possessing the charisma and courage to command under all but impossible circumstances.

Tec brings to light the untold story of Bielski's struggle as a partisan who lost his parents, wife, and two brothers to the Nazis, yet never wavered in his conviction that it was more important to save one Jew than to kill twenty Germans. She shows how, under Bielski's guidance, the partisans smuggled Jews out of heavily guarded ghettos, scouted the roads for fugitives, and led retaliatory raids against Belorussian peasants who collaborated with the Nazis against their former Jewish neighbors. Refusing to turn away the weak or the old for the sake of the survival of the larger group, Bielski would warn new arrivals to the forest, "Life is difficult, we are in danger all the time, but if we perish, if we die, we die like human beings."

A scholar, a writer, and herself a Holocaust survivor, author Nechama Techas devoted the last two decades to studying the fate of European Jewry, recording rare but vital examples of human compassion, resistance, altruism and heroism in the face of overwhelming horror and despair. Drawing on wide-ranging research and never before published interviews with surviving partisans--including Tuvia Bielski himself two weeks before his death in 1987--she reconstructs here the poignant and unforgettable story of those who chose to fight.

What Customers Say About Defiance: The Bielski Partisans:

What the Bielski brothers did was wonderful. This book is really good. I saw the movie first and was really impressed with that so I later bought the book.

She is careful to properly analyze the problems associated with leadership of a diverse group while still respecting the tremendous job of saving over 1200 lives. I belive that Ms. Tec did and excellent job in researching the memories of the survivors and telling their story. As an avid reader of non-fiction, Definace was a book I had trouble putting down. I am inspired enough to want to now see the movie version. Tec did an excellent job of descriptively putting one in mind of the surroundings of the Belorussian woods. Ms. I was both heartened and saddened by reading this account of the extension of the Holocust to the eastern edge of old Poland.

I was not disappointed. How do you live it the woods for years and constantly face danger.

But - the question stays with me - why was Tuvia Bielski not better recognised for his outstanding role in saving so many Jews. The book is so enthralling that I read it in a weekend and felt my time was well spent.

I saw the movie 'Defiance' because it starred Daniel Craig and I thought the story was interesting. How did the partisan's survive.

Thank you Nechama Tec for this extraordinary book. But what the movie did - good as it was, was to arouse my curiosity - there had to be more to the story than what they could put in a film.

This book went into the detail that was missing in the movie and enlarged on the issues that the movie only touched on.

Told in a gripping fashion. An incredible story of an unsung humanitarian who saved 1200 Jews in the Belorussian Forest in WWII.

In addition, the movie focuses on the main characters at the expense of everyone else in the film. Despite several attacks from Germans, and continual friction from nearby Russian partisans, the Bielskis formed a "tribal society" that lasted until the Red Army liberated the group in 1944.It is hard to look back on the heroic efforts of the Bielskis without feeling a sense of awe. What he, his family, and the Jews who joined him in the forest achieved defies belief.Ed Zwick directed a movie, presumably based on this book. Nechama Tec seems to be building a case for Tuvia Bielski.

Nechama Tec's "Defiance" is a fascinating account of the survival of 1200 Jews during the second world war. It seems as if the Jews spend the entire movie standing in line, waiting for food and complaining about the servings. The movie makes several gratuitous and unnecessary departures from the book, presumably for dramatic effect. Three brothers - Tuvia, Asael and Zus Bielski, created a sanctuary in the forest for Jews fleeing from Nazi persecution and extermination in the ghettos.

The author describes his infidelities, suspected favoritism, the peremptory execution of a tanner who refused to follow orders, and offers commentary, either in her own words or by using the thoughts of eyewitnesses, to rationalize Tuvia's behavior.In my mind, Tuvia needs no explanation or apologies. This seems like an insult to the men and women who risked their lives and suffered so many deprivations. According to Tec, the Bielskis accepted all Jews, including those who were unarmed and those who were not able to fight, such as children and the elderly. While the Germans slaughtered their families in the ghettos, a few escaped to join the Bielskis in the forest, suffering hunger, mistreatment, disease, and the fear of German raids.While the history is incredible, the narrative is uneven and apologist.