Bielski, << BYEHL skee, >> partisans were one of the largest and most successful Jewish resistance groups that opposed the Nazis during World War II (1939-1945). Partisans are resistance fighters who work behind enemy lines in wartime. From 1942 to 1944, the Bielski partisans camped in the forests of what was then a part of Nazi-occupied eastern Poland (now part of western Belarus). The group saved more than 1,200 Jews from the Holocaust—the systematic, state-sponsored murder of Jews and others by the Nazis. The group’s leaders were three brothers from a family of Jewish farmers named Bielski: Tuvia << TOO vyah >> , Asael << uh SOYL >> , and Zus << zoos >> .
The Bielski family lived in the village of Stankiewicze, Poland (now Stankievichy, Belarus). In 1941, Nazis killed the brothers’ parents and two other brothers. Tuvia, Asael, Zus, and a younger brother, Aharon << AH ha rown >> , fled to the nearby Zabielovo and Perelaz forests, where they formed a group with about 30 family members and friends. Tuvia, a Polish army veteran, commanded the group. Asael served as Tuvia’s deputy, and Zus was placed in charge of reconnaissance.
The Bielskis encouraged Jews in nearby villages to join them in the forest, where they would be protected from the Nazis. They also sent guides into ghettos—that is, the parts of cities where Jews were forced to live—to escort Jews to the forest. Jews serving in organizations of Soviet partisans also joined the Bielski group. By 1943, the group consisted of about 700 Jews. Later that year, the group moved to a permanent base in the Naliboki Forest, an isolated region on the Nemen River northeast of Nowogrodek (now Navahrudak, Belarus).
The Bielski group lived in underground bunkers in the forest. The partisans acquired weapons and equipment from the Soviet Union, with whom they were allied, as well as from local non-Jewish supporters. The group attacked police, disabled trains, and destroyed bridges and railroads.
By the time the area was liberated on June 23, 1944, the Bielski group had grown to about 1,230 people. An estimated 50 members of the group were killed during its existence.
