KEYNOTE SPEAKER: ZVI BIELSKI
Mr. Zvi Bielski spoke extemporaneously about his father's and uncles' resistance against the Nazis. Some of the comments he made were:
"I was seven and we were at the beach when I first noticed the scars on his chest and arm. When I asked what had caused the big red mark right across his heart, he calmly told me the Nazis had tried to kill him. I kept on asking questions and as I grew up he told me more of his story. But he was so modest - he always told me it wasn't just him and his brothers. There were the young boys who took up the fight, the scouts, the women. Everyone. Then just before he died, he took my hand in a bear-like grip and said, 'Please let the world know what I did with my brothers.' The Bielski brothers, Tuvia, Zus and Asael, grew up on the edge of the Belarusian forest. When the Nazis came to their town in Poland and neighbors started turning on their Jewish friends."
"When Nazis came to where my dad lived with his brothers, they said 'we will not, we will not, we will not submit no matter what. If we die, we'll die fighting.' The brothers fled into the woods with only their horses and two guns. A few weeks later, little brother Ahron, who was 11, found them. Their parents, he told them, along with Zus's first wife and baby daughter had been massacred. That was the start of it for my father. He said that in order to survive and overcome the Nazis he had to be fierce, to fight an armed resistance and to save as many Jews as they could. But not only did they survive, they caused quite a bit of trouble for the Nazis. The jacket Zus always wore he took from a Nazi officer he had killed. The three of them were an aggressive breed and could not comprehend submitting to these beasts. The brothers had to become killers in order to survive, They sought revenge. Some of those who felt their rage were the Polish collaborators who killed Jewish children for Nazi coin. It's never nice to talk about spilling blood. My dad was very vengeful. He felt there was no gray area. Even in daylight the whole place was pitch-black because of the density of the trees. The Nazis couldn't get tanks in and every time they tried to breach the perimeter on foot they were shot at by the Bielski brigade. My mother was afraid of the forest when she first went in because she was from the city. The Nazis were scared of it too, but the brothers had grown up there - it was like their back yard. The 100-mile deep forest where the Bielskis built their own village, ultimately became home to 1,230 Jews. They lived in clusters of 20 to 40, digging deep trenches and covering them with branches to sleep under. The camp included libraries, nurseries and clinics. Food was scarce, so young scouts would venture out at night to steal from farms. The staple diet was potato soup. Weapons were always in short supply. Quite often the boy soldiers fashioned sticks to look like guns because they had nothing else to frighten Nazis or informers with. My mother who was rescued from the ghetto, was afraid of the forest when she first went in because she was from the city. Eventually she had her own horse and a gun. She never fired it but my father said he had given it to her so that if she got caught she could kill herself. My father and his brothers didn't know they were heroes then. The world had been turned upside down and they just did what they had to do. You have to see things in the context of the times but yes, they killed people. Informers' homes would be burned or ransacked, they'd pin a note in the remains saying why they had done it. On one rescue mission, one of my father's men refused to go back for a woman and her child who were lagging behind. He shot the man dead. Again, it sent a message to others. Orders were orders. You have to remember the times they were living in. They all agreed they'd rescue anyone they could. Other resistance groups wouldn't take women or children. But the Bielskis did. I've since met children who were saved. Over 20,000 people are alive today because of the Bielski brothers' resistance."
