(PDF) (DOC) (JPG)April 20, 2010

(MAHWAH, NJ) – The real story behind the 2009 film Defiance, depicting the Bielski partisan group’s feat of Holocaust resistance and rescue, was the topic of a program jointly sponsored by the Gross Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Valley Chabad and the Chabad of North West Bergen County held at Ramapo College on April 20, 2010. Sitting in amazement, the audience of more than 250 community members and students heard the story from Zvi, the son of one of the real-life protagonists Zus Bielski, who was played by Liev Schreiber in the film. Playing Zus’ older brother Tuvia, the leader of the group, in the movie was the British actor Daniel Craig.

Rabbi Dov Drizen of Valley Chabad, located in Woodcliff Lake introduced Bielski. No sooner did Zvi Bielski begin his talk than he invited his cousin Roz Kaufman of Wyckoff, whose parents survived the Holocaust in the Soviet Union, to come to the front of the room. In a few moving sentences she related how the Bielskis continued to live their lives as one big extended family in post-war Brooklyn apart from brother Asael, who unfortunately was killed in 1945 while serving in the Red Army.

For Tuvia, Zus and Asael Bielski the decision to establish a resistance group came after a German killing unit entered the Nowogrodek ghetto in December 1941and murdered their parents and two brothers. The net result was that in the nearby forests the Bielski brothers saved more than 1,200 Jews (including women, children and the elderly).

In Zvi Bielski’s presentation it quickly became evident that his father and uncles (Tuvia, Zus and Asael) were “tough guys,” outdoorsmen of a sort, who were determined not only to seek retribution from their Nazi tormenters, but also, and ultimately much more importantly, to save as many Jews from the Nazi death machine as possible. As Zvi explained several times, they were merciless in shielding the people under their protection. More than once, they were forced to kill entire families of Polish and Belorussian collaborators. The times were horrific and the Bielskis rose to the occasion.

That did not mean, Zvi explained, that the brothers were not compassionate or did not deal just as harshly with their own. He related, for example, the story of how, as the group fled deeper into the forest, his father saved a mother and her daughter who one of his subordinates deemed unfit to keep up with the group. For his behavior and to serve as an example, Zvi further elaborated, his father shot the subordinate on the spot. Years later, during a chance encounter on one of Tel Aviv’s main streets, the woman and her daughter had the opportunity to thank Zus Bielski personally for what he did.

Especially when recounting how his father was a hard man for a son seeking approval to impress, Zvi Bielski shared some humorous moments with the audience. One occurred when he showed his father a video of him skydiving in Florida. After failing to elicit a comment from him, he said, ‘Pop, did you see that ?¦!’ Zus Bielski’s response was: “So? You had a parachute, didn’t you?”

As entertaining as Zvi Bielski’s account was audience members left the program, that also included clips from Defiance and interviews with his mother and cousins, with a sense that the Bielski brothers and their associates had truly accomplished a singular feat. It is an accomplishment that in retrospect seems all the more incredible, if one bears in mind that the Bielski brothers were from a simple family of farmers who were also millers in a small town where Jews traditionally had more enemies than friends and where the Nazis easily found willing collaborators.

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