1. Bielski Partisans: Jewish Resistance during the Holocaust
The movie Defiance is based on the actual events of the Bielski Partisans

2. Who were the Bielski’s?
The Bielski family were millers and grocers living and working in and around a town called Novogrudek, in the Soviet Union.
In 1941, the Nazis established a ghetto in the town. In December 1941, after their parents were killed in the ghetto the brothers fled to the nearby Naliboki forest.
The four brothers:Arczyk, Asael, Tuvia, and Zus

3. What did they do?
In the spring of 1942, some 40 people had formed a partisan group deep in the forest. The oldest brother, Tuvia, was their leader.
Initially, the Bielski brothers attempted only to save their own lives and those of their family members.
They fled to the nearby Zabielovo and Perelaz forests, where they formed the nucleus of a partisan detachment consisting at first of about 30 family members and friends.

4. What did they do?
They formed a camp that was more like a small village in the forest. Eventually the partisan group had 1,236 members, 70% of whom were women, children and the elderly.
Within the camp they built kitchens, a mill, a bakery, a bathhouse, a medical clinic and a metal workshop to repair damaged weapons. There was also a school and a synagogue.

5. About 150 from the group were involved in armed resistance against the Nazis. They attacked the Nazis and their collaborators, often carrying out sabotage missions.
Under Tuvia’s leadership the Bielski group remained independent from other resistance groups and worked to protect Jews and attack Nazis.
At one point the Nazis had to allocate a large amount of vital resources to try to defeat the partisans.

6. What happened?
The Bielski brigade pillaged food, attacked the enemy, and destroyed supply depots. As a result, the Nazis offered a reward of 100,000 marks for Tuvia Bielski’s capture.
In the summer of 1943, the Nazis went deep into the Nalibocka Forest to fight Jewish partisan units, including the Bielski partisans.

7. What happened?
The Soviet army commander in the region, who was allied with Tuvia Bielski, called upon him to divide the camp between fighters and civilians so that the able-bodied would not be hindered by those among them unable to resist.
Tuvia Bielski refused. He moved his camp even further into the densest parts of the Nalibocka Forest. Bielski would not abandon women, children, and the elderly; he would not leave them behind to die defenseless and alone.

8. What happened?
eventually returned victoriously to Novogrudek as the War ended.
Three of the four brothers survived the War and as their story became widely known, they became regarded as leading resistance fighters against the Nazis.

9. Bielski Partisans preparing to blow up a railway

10. Survivor Testimony of the B

11. Tuvia Bielski: Founder