Tuvia Bielski

Tuvia Bielski
File:Tuvia Bielski .jpg
Born	(1906-05-08)May 8, 1906 Stankiewicze, near Novogrudok, Russian Empire (Now Belarus)
Died	United States
Known for	Bielski partisans
Parent(s)	David and Beila Bielski
Relatives	Asael Bielski, brother Alexander Zeisal Bielski, brother Aron Bielski, brother

Tuvia Bielski (May 8, 1906 – June 12, 1987) was the leader of the Bielski group, Jewish partisans who were situated in the Naliboki forest in pre-war Poland (now western Belarus) during World War II.

Biography

Bielski grew up in the only Polish Jewish family in Stankiewicze. The small village in Eastern Poland (now Western Belarus) is located between towns of Lida and Navahrudak, both of which housed Jewish ghettos during World War II.

Tuvia was the son of David and Beila Bielski, who had 12 children: 10 boys and two girls. Tuvia was the third eldest. His brothers Asael, Alexander ("Zus") and Aron were later to become members of his partisan group.

During the First World War, Bielski served as an interpreter for the Imperial German Army, which were occupying the western territories of the Russian Empire. Already a speaker of Yiddish, he learned to speak the German language from these men and remembered it all his life. In 1927, he was recruited into the Polish Army, where he eventually became a corporal in the 30th Infantry Battalion. After completing his military service, Bielski returned home. In an effort to add to his family's income, he rented another mill. This income was still inadequate, so in 1929, at the age of 23, he married an older woman named Rifka who owned a general store and a large house. The couple lived in the nearby small town of Subotniki.

During the Soviet occupation in 1939, Bielski feared that he would be arrested by the NKVD due to his "bourgeois capitalist" occupation, so he moved to Lida. Before Tuvia left Subotniki he urged his wife, Rifka, to join him in the move to Lida. She refused.

In Soviet-controlled Lida, Bielski met and fell in love with another woman named Lilka. The love affair became serious. In late 1939, Bielski divorced his wife, Rifka and married Lilka, though they were not yet "officially" married due to wartime conditions.

World War II

Main article: Bielski partisans

When Operation Barbarossa broke out, Tuvia, Zus, and Asael were called up by their army units to fight against the Nazi German occupiers. Tuvia recalls: "Suddenly about fifty planes (Luftwaffe) flew over the town dropping incendiary bombs. In a very few minutes the entire place was on fire. The commander called us in, ordered us to leave the burning town and regroup in a forest about five kilometers from there. We were to continue working. We carried out his command but soon after we began our job in the forest another wave of planes flew over the area and set the woods on fire. The commander called us in and said: 'Friends, you are on your own!'" After the units disbanded, the Bielski brothers fled to Stankiewicze, where their parents lived. In early July 1941, a German army unit arrived in Stankiewicze and Jewish residents were moved to a ghetto in Nowogródek. The four Bielski brothers managed to flee to the nearby forest. Their parents, two brothers and other family members, including Rifka and Zus' wife and child, were killed in the ghetto on December 8, 1941.

Tuvia Bielski led a group of Jewish partisans who hid in the forest. Although always hunted by Nazis, Bielski's group continued to grow. They periodically raided the ghettos to help people escape. They lived in the forests for over two years, and in their camp, they built a school, a hospital, and a nursery. As leader of the Bielski partisans, his aim was not to attack railroads and roads that the German Nazis were using as supply routes, although there were some such attacks but to save Jews, who were under persecution from the Nazis during the Holocaust. The Bielski partisans ultimately saved the lives of more than 1,200 Jews.

In 1944, Asael Bielski was conscripted into the Soviet Army and killed in battle in Germany.

Later life

After the war, Tuvia, Zus and their wives went to Israel via Romania, and ultimately immigrated to the United States in 1956. They joined their older brother Walter in New York, where he had gone before the war. Tuvia and Zus ran a small trucking firm in New York City for 30 years. He married Lilka, another Jewish escapee; they remained married for the remainder of their lives. They had three children: sons Michael and Robert, and daughter Ruth, and nine grandchildren: three grandsons (Brendon, Jordan, and Taylor) and six granddaughters (Sharon, Ariel, twins Talia and Vanessa and twins Tori and Sarah). Sharon (Rennert) made a documentary about her family called In Our Hands: The Legacy of the Bielski Partisans.

When Tuvia died in 1987, he was nearly penniless. He was initially buried on Long Island; one year after his death, his remains were exhumed and taken to Jerusalem, where he was given a state funeral with full military honors in 1988. The exact grave is at Har Tamir - a part of Har Hamenuchot. The following location is in Hebrew using Latin letters: Gush taf-bet, Chelka daled, Shura 19, kever 11 translated into English: Block 402. Section 4, Row 19, grave 11

Legacy

Daniel Craig portrayed Tuvia in the film Defiance (2008), which has been criticised in Poland due to its omission of the alleged involvement of the Bielski group in a massacre of Polish civilians conducted by Soviet-aligned partisans in Naliboki. The Naliboki massacre was the subject of an official inquiry by the Polish Institute of National Remembrance's Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation. The investigation found no conclusive evidence linking the Bielski group to the crime. However, the involvement of Bielski's group is still considered to be one of the possibilities in the course of the investigation.

External links

• Tuvia Bielski at Find a Grave
• Tuvia Bielski: Partisan Leader
• Voices on Antisemitism Interview with Daniel Craig from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum