Customer Reviews

The Bielski Brothers: The True Story of Three Men Who Defied the Nazis, Built a Village in the Forest, and Saved 1,200 Jews

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

When the Germans finally retreated from Belarus in the summer of 1944, almost twelve hundred Jewish survivors of the Holocaust shocked the world by materializing from the forest where they had lived in hiding during the German occupation. Tuvia, Asael, and Zus Bielski, three brothers, had managed to establish a well-organized community in the forest which lasted for almost three years, protecting hundreds of Jewish citizens while wreaking havoc on their German occupiers. Author Peter Duffy places this extraordinary story of survival in context by describing the Bielskis' lives and achievements, quoting from Tuvia Bielski's previously unknown journal, and revealing the sociopolitical history, including the anti-Semitism, of Belarus, a region south of Lithuania.

In establishing their forest community, open to all Jews, the Bielskis had to fight "wars" on four fronts: the immediate threat from the Germans and the local police; the danger from local peasants and collaborators; the suspicions of Soviet partisans who questioned whether the Bielskis were sufficiently dedicated to their cause; and most of all, internal dissension. This was no "utopian community of enlightened democratic and egalitarian governance," and many readers may cringe at the extremes to which the leadership occasionally resorted in order to eliminate dissension.

At its height, the forest village consisted of long, camouflaged dugouts for sleeping, a large kitchen, mill, bakery, bathhouse, tannery, school, jail, theater, and two medical facilities. Tailors, seamstresses, shoemakers, watchmakers, carpenters, mechanics, and experts in demolition provided the 1200-member community with necessary skills, and about sixty cows and thirty horses provided food and transportation. Many of the men served as part of the armed contingent which secured food and engaged in sabotage and the murder of German officials.

By concentrating on one family and its life during the war, Duffy creates a powerful documentary about Jewish life. Breaking the narrative into six-month installments, he details the progress of the war throughout the region, relentlessly revealing cold statistics--the thousands of people killed in a single ghetto in a single day. As the numbers mount, the reader's horror at the immense scale of the genocide grows, the victims' utter helplessness becomes obvious, and the reader's amazement at the Bielskis' achievement in creating their village increases. Mary Whipple

If you have any interest in the Partisan movement, the Jewish resistance, the Warsaw uprising, the White rose, Edelweiss Pirates, Oskar Schindler or anyone else that defied the nazi regime, you have to read this book. First off, this is not a bang bang shoot em up account of the Bielski brothers. This is more about the massive effort it took to move over 800 people-quietly- thru a forest crawling with thousands of Nazis whose only purpose was to find them. Truly, an amazing feat of logistics that can be marvelled at, but then to think that they did it more than once?!?! Unbelievable!

If you didnt know any better, you'd swear it was a work of fiction, moreover, after reading it, you are going to wonder why on earth are our children not taught about such brave souls! truly one of the more memorable and gripping books I have read in quite a while. get it, you will not be sorry.

This book masterfully tells the story of the Bielskis and of the forest world they created, which led to the survival of those who would otherwise have been murdered.
This is a triumphant story and one that needs to be shouted from the mountaintops.

After seeing the Holocaust movie "Defiance", I had some unanswered questions about the heroic Bielski Brothers--what country did they live in? How did they learn to speak fluent German and Russian? Why did they disagree with one another? What happened to them after the war? So I purchased the book "The Bielski Brothers: The True Story of Three Men Who Defied the Nazis, Built a Village in the Forest, and Saved 1,200 Jews". This filled in the blanks for me. The book becomes a little dry when it lapses into simply repeating historical records; it's better when it gets into characterizing each of the brothers and describing their different personalities. The movie and the book are good complements to each other--the book tells the facts of their story, and the movie captures the drama, passion, tragedy and horror of the Holocaust. It is difficult to watch but well worthwhile.

This is the amazing story of three brothers; Tuvia, Asael and Zus Bielski, who made it their mission to save as many Jews as possible during World War II. They were somehow able to hide in the forest and save 1,200 or more Jews.

This is an incredible story, these three brothers worked so hard to achieve what was a seemingly impossible task. They were very organized, and their final camp was built like a village in the forest, complete with a blacksmith, a tailor, a barber, a bath house and a village square where dancers and singers performed. They endured freezing cold temperatures, near starvation and constant fear that they would be discovered and killed.

The writing was very clear and concise and events were laid out in a very logical and chronological order. There were many different people who came into the story and Peter Duffy did a wonderful job helping the reader keep track of them. He would often reiterate a story or description of an individual mentioned earlier.

I thought the story was an honest portrayal of the Bielski brothers, they were not portrayed as one dimensional but as many faceted and fallible people. Peter Duffy wrote about their mistakes as well as their success.

How horrible that these brave men who saved so many lives were not recognized as the heroes that they were.

I could not put this book down. I recently saw the movie, Defiance, based on the true story about the Bielski brothers and decided I needed to know more about their lives. I cannot believe that this happened (they saved as many Jews during WWII as Oscar Schindler) and hardly anyone knows about them! I was riveted from the first page - just knowing it was historical made it incredibly interesting. I highly recommend this book - it reads like a novel, but it's true.

This is carefully researched remarkably well written narrative of yet another extraordinary Shoah( Holocaust) story. This tells of the Bielski brothers and their struggle to rescue remnants of those being slaughtered by the Nazis in Byelorussia. They build a community of twelve- hundred Jews who they led through a whole series of extraordinary rescues in the forests of Byelorussia. The account is a detailed, dramatic and moving one. Incredible courage and determination are displayed by the Bielski brothers.There are as well surprising manifestations of human goodness, and generosity. This is against a background of overwhelming cruelty, horror and suffering caused by the Nazis and their anti- Semitic local allies. Tuvia makes the notable statement that he would rather rescue one Jewish helpless old lady than kill ten Nazi soldiers. But despite the concentration on saving civilian lives there is is nonetheless much heroic partisan action. The second Bielski brother Zus is the most ferocious and avenging in this regard.
I was very deeply moved by this work. And I believe each and every reader who wishes to understand something about the evil and cruelty of human nature on one side, and its heroic greatness on another, should read this book. One hero in this book who I believe deserves special mention is the non- Jewish friend of the Bielski family , Konstantin Koslowsky a Bielorussian peasant who countless times risked his own life and that of his family to save his Jewish friends and neighbors.
I have read thousands of books in my life. This is one which I will always remember.

Skillfully written and touchingly rendered, I simply could not put this book down. In writing this book, Duffy did not merely produce a thorough and detailed work of history, illuminating an essential and yet often overlooked aspect of the vast subject matter of The Holocaust; in writing `The Bielski Brothers' he created a vivid and complex personal narrative which reads like the best of novels. This book is a gift to those, such as myself, who grew up hearing their parents or grandparents partisan stories in fragments, now rendered pieces of an assemble-able puzzle replete with outline, geography and chronology. This book is a gift to humanity at large in that it drives home the ever essential message of hope, of rising to the occasion, of determination, of valor - all blazing eternal in the direst of circumstances as exemplified in these true life heroes, portrayed here in all of their intricate humanity.

After having watched the film "Defiance" a moving and upsetting portrayal of the story, I noted that some here on Amazon criticized the director for straying from the real story. So, I got this book from the library, read it and here are my views.

The book is thoroughly sourced and researched and it shows. While there is a coherent narrative the book borrows from direct quotes from those who were there. We hear first hand impressions and they are raw and nightmarish. While I was upset at the depictions in the movie, it really does not come close to the fullness of suffering, depredation, murder, evil and heroic efforts described in the book. The scale of evil, in my view, as Jews in particular were singularly targeted in Eastern Europe, is amongst the most vile actions of the despicable Nazi regime. When the war was slipping away from them the SS stepped up their efforts to complete the destruction of European Jewry at the expense of evacuating their own soldiers from the front. Such was the determination of the Nazi hierarchy to demolish Jews even if they were going to lose the war. We read of how the SS recruited men (by freeing) criminals from German jails, suiting them up in uniforms, issuing guns and sending them to the Eastern front with the sole job of killing as many Jews as possible. This is what the Jews had to face: a monstrous killing machine led by a revolting bunch of "devils henchmen", for lack of a better term.

In the most unlikely way the brothers Bielski decided that they would fight back as partisans as well as shelter as many other Jews as possible. To do so they had to fight endless battles: some to convince meek shtetl and ghetto dwellers that hiding in the forest was better than avoiding the random killings all around. Some of the battles were (controversially) among other Jews who dared challenge their leadership. While I cannot judge what I would have done in their place, to criticize their own brutal responses, to the point of killing those they were enraged with, is to take sides and I just choose not to. What is also clear is that if these brothers had shown more compassion and flexibility, they would have been swept aside many times by other aggressive Jewish leaders, and who knows if they would have been better leaders in the long run? The facts are that the Bielski's were the initial leaders and they would not let other Jews or Russian commanders displace them, no matter what. This tenacity, in the long run, helped them save almost 1200 lives. That speaks for itself.

What is very hard to stomach as you read...is the scope and ferocity of the Nazi murderers, both the Germans and the locals, from Belorussia, Ukraine, etc. The reality was that many local residents gleefully helped the Germans hunt down Jews, knowing full well that it was a death sentence. We have to ask why? What did these Jewish peasants, farmers, tailors and craftsman do to these non-Jews to motivate them to assist the Nazi's? It haunts the entire book and there is no answer attempted. Anti-semitism was not something that stopped with the Germans; even many of the Russian Red Army expressed all too typical contempt for their own Jewish partisans fighting alongside their soldiers.

This is a gut wrenching and very disturbing book. But, in telling the full story, the scope of the heroism is all the more highlighted. Seen against the towering odds against them, the Bielski brothers accomplished what was considered impossible, maybe miraculous. Escape and survive the most efficient and horrific attempt to wipe out Jews. They succeeded beyond anyone's expectations, least of all their own. We can only conclude that had more Jews decided early on in the war to fight back and become partisans that the outcome would not have been the same. A very important book for all serious students of WW2. Graphic and not for the weak stomach. The film does err in the depiction of the conflicts among the brothers and on a few other facts. It was not necessary to create inaccuracies as the real story was adequately stirring. Sad to say, many Hollywood films based on history are guilty of ignoring the known facts in favor of the directors views.

A great book, followed by an OK movie. This book shows that not all Jews gave up the fight when faced with the Nazi forces. Some Jews fled to the forest, where they accumulated guns and food. They mounted resistance to the Germans and their proxy forces. I admire the Bielski Brothers for their courage to face tremedous odds and forces against them. Their courage showed the Nazi forces that not all Jews surrendered meakly.

I read this book in one sitting. It is an easy read about human dignity and courage. I also have the other book about this subject called Defiance, and I can't wait to start this book, even though it has a slightly different prospective.