Belsky (partisans). My brother Daniel Craig

Original taken from yevmen in "Jewish partisans" had no measure in their unreasonable anger and in robberies

The film “The Challenge”, directed by Edward Zwick, released in Polish cinemas, caused a wave of indignation in this country, reports the British newspaper The Guardian. Poles were offended by the heroic portrayal of the four Bielski brothers, who fled Nazi-occupied Polish territory and then organized a Jewish gang in what is now Belarus.

Today it is known that this gang participated in an attack on the village of Naliboki, as a result of which 128 of its civilians, including children, were brutally killed by Jews, houses were burned and almost 100 cows and 70 horses were stolen.

For example, the conservative newspaper Rzecpospolita, in an article dedicated to the release of Edward Zwick’s painting, reports that during the war, Jewish gangs were not particularly strapped for money when they came to villages for food. “Very often these visits were accompanied by murders and rapes”,” The Guardian quotes.

Similarly, the information about the premiere of E. Zwick’s film was met with indignation by the most popular newspapers in Poland - “Gazeta Wyborcza” (which, by the way, generally holds liberal views - say, on the issue of the Ukrainian-Polish conflict of 1942-44) and the conservative “Rzeczpospolita” .

The newspaper calls the eldest of the brothers, Tuvya, the leader of the Jewish organized crime group, “a cross between a bandit and a hero,” and the more liberal publication Gazeta Wyborcza, although it does not mention the Bielskis’ guilt in the attack on Naliboki, describes the detachment commander as an alcoholic, a sadist and a rapist.

When the Germans occupied the territory of Belarus, the Belsky brothers (Tuvia, Asael, Zus and Aaron) went into the forest. In the forest, Jews who had escaped from the ghettos of Novogrudok and Lida united around the four. Together they founded a camp that they nicknamed “Forest Jerusalem.” By the summer of 1944 there were about 1,200 people there. It was the so-called “family camp”. The Belsky gang was autonomous in its activities and did not pay attention to the fight against the Nazis, concentrating on self-preservation in “Forest Jerusalem” and robbing local residents. In materials devoted to the activities of the detachment, it is repeatedly emphasized that, according to the Belsky brothers, it was more important for them “to save one Jew than to kill ten German soldiers.” Soon after the war, “partisan” Tuvia left to liberate Israel, and from there in 1954 he moved to the United States.

In modern Polish media, a negative assessment of the Bielski detachment dominates. Thus, in particular, the newspaper “Nash Dzennik”, citing the results of the investigation of the Institute of National Memory, claims that this unit, together with Soviet partisans, took part in the extermination of peaceful Poles in the town of Naliboki. (the Zhikhars of Nalibok were never scolds, this is the Belarusian territory and only Belarusians lived there - IBGK) Researcher of the massacre in Naliboki, Leszek Zhebrovsky, who is quoted by this publication, claims that the Bielski detachment practically did not act against the Germans, but was engaged in robbing the surrounding villages and kidnapping girls.

L. Zhebrovsky emphasizes that terrible things happened in the Belsky camp, it even went as far as murders, and a kind of harem was created from young girls. Recognizing that the detachment's goal was to survive, the historian notes that even after recognizing the supremacy of the command of the Soviet partisan movement over themselves, the Belskys did not intensify the anti-German struggle.

“Our Dzennik” claims that as a result of requisitions from the local population, the Belsky detachment accumulated significant food supplies, its fighters did not deny themselves anything, meat was their daily food. At the same time, the Polish communist Jozef Marchwinski is quoted, who was married to a Jewish woman and was seconded to the Bielski detachment by the Soviet command. He described those times as follows: “The Belskys had four brothers, tall and prominent guys, so it’s not surprising that they had the sympathies of the girls in the camp. They were heroes in terms of drinking and love, but they did not want to fight. The eldest of them (the camp commander), Tevye Belsky, led not only all the Jews in the camp, but also a rather large and attractive “harem” - like King Saud in Saudi Arabia. In the camp, where Jewish families often went to bed with empty stomachs, where mothers pressed their hungry children to their sunken cheeks, where they prayed for an extra spoonful of warm food for their babies - in this camp a different life blossomed, there was a different, rich world!

Among other accusations in today's Polish press against the Bielski brothers, first of all, Tevye - the appropriation of gold and valuables given by the Jews who lived in the camp for the purchase of weapons.

Another sensitive point is the participation of fighters from the Bielski brothers’ detachment in clashes between the Home Army and Soviet partisans on the side of the latter in the second half of 1943. But this is a topic for another conversation. Let us only note that “Our Dzennik” also pointed out that on August 26, 1943, a group of fighters from the Bielski detachment, together with other Soviet partisans, destroyed about 50 AK soldiers led by Lieutenant Antonym Burzynski-“Kmitsits”. In May 1944, there was another clash between the Belsky detachment and AK fighters - six AK soldiers were killed, the rest retreated.

According to the Belorusskaya Gazeta, already in the fall of 1942. The Belsky detachment began combat activities: together with neighboring partisan detachments, several attacks were carried out on cars, gendarmerie posts and railway sidings, a sawmill at the Novelnya station and eight agricultural estates were burned. In January, February, May and August 1943. The Germans launched punitive operations to destroy the camp. So on January 5, 1943, two groups from the Belsky detachment were discovered and shot. On this day, Tevye's wife Sonya died. But thanks to the skillful actions and exceptional ingenuity of the commander, each time it was possible to save the majority of the inhabitants of the forest camp.

The final report of T. Belsky’s detachment noted that the soldiers of his detachment derailed 6 trains, blew up 20 railway and highway bridges, 800 meters of railroad tracks, destroyed 16 vehicles, and killed 261 German soldiers and officers. At the same time, the Polish historian from the INP Piotr Gontarchik claims that “Most of the battles in which Jewish troops took part were completely made up. 90 percent of the actions that were later described as battles with the Germans were actually attacks on civilians."

The main goal that the residents of the Jewish family camps had was to survive. This explains the small amount of anti-German activity. Jewish researchers also admit this. So the Polish newspaper “Rzeczpospolita” quotes prof. N. Tets:

“I remember talking to Tevye two weeks before his death. She asked why you decided to take this heroic action? “I knew what the Germans were doing,” he replied. - I wanted to be different. Instead of killing, I wanted to save.” He didn't fight the Germans, that's true. Because he believed that “one saved Jewish old lady is more important than 10 killed Germans.”

This principle can be stated in other words: “one Jewish old lady is more important than 10 Soviet soldiers" Or this: “one Jewish old woman is more important than one hungry Polish child from whom we took food.” The strategy of the Jewish gangs was simple: you fight, while we stand aside and rob the local population.

Relations between Jewish bandits and local civilian population- one of the most complex and painful pages in the history of WWII in the territory of Central and Eastern Europe. The Belsky detachment is no exception. One of the Jewish media puts it this way:

“Residents of nearby villages collaborated with the Jews because they quickly learned that for them the Bielskis were more dangerous than the Nazis. The partisans did not hesitate to destroy informers and collaborators. One day, a local peasant turned over a group of Jews who came to ask him for food to the Nazis. The partisans killed the peasant himself, his family and burned his house.”

According to the memoirs of Leonid Okun, who escaped from the Minsk ghetto at the age of 12 and lived in another family Jewish camp, “They were definitely afraid of Belsky. Belsky’s detachment had “sharp teeth” and selected thugs, Polish Jews, who were not distinguished by excessive sentimentality.”

It was the Jewish gangs that the Polish underground especially blamed for the requisitions and robberies of Polish civilians. Incl. One of the conditions put forward by the Poles in the negotiations with the Soviet side was to limit the activities of Jewish gangs. Thus, at the first meeting of officers of the Novogrudok district of the AK with the commanders of the Lenin partisan brigade on June 8, 1943, the AK members demanded that Jewish gangs not be sent to requisition:

“...do not send Jews, they take up arms at their own discretion, rape girls and small children... insult the local population, threaten further revenge from the Soviet side, have no measure in their unreasonable anger and robberies.”

The reports of the Zhonda Delegation (underground Polish civil administration) spoke about events in the former Novogrudok Voivodeship:

“The local population is exhausted by constant requisitions, and often theft of clothing, food and equipment. Most often this is done, mainly in relation to the Poles, the so-called. family units consisting exclusively of Jews and Jewish women.”

AK also took food from people, as did the Soviet partisans. This was an army and they had to eat to fight. However, the Jewish bandits were not an army, they did not fight the Germans, they thought only about their own salvation, and at the same time they acted especially cruelly during their expropriation actions. “Killing a person is the same as smoking a cigarette,” one of the fighters of the Belsky detachment, Itske Reznik, later recalled about those times.

The Poles openly disliked Jews - they could not forgive them for their collaboration with the Soviet authorities during the occupation in 1939-41. (in the memoirs of former residents of Nalibok about September 1939, Jews with red armbands who joined the Soviet police invariably appear).

After the war, Tevye and Zus and their families moved to Poland, and from there to Palestine. They settled on the outskirts of Tel Aviv in Holon and worked as drivers. According to some reports, the elder brother took part in the war with the Arabs in 1948, and was even considered missing for some time. Tevye later immigrated to New York, where he worked until the end of his life as a taxi driver (according to other sources, as a truck driver) and died in 1987 at the age of 81. A year later, Tevye Belsky was reburied with military honors at the Heroes' Cemetery on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem. Zus also moved to the USA, where he eventually founded a small transport company, died 1995

In 2007, a scandal broke out around the youngest of the Belsky brothers, 80-year-old Aaron, now living under the name Aaron Bell. He and his 60-year-old Polish wife Henryka were arrested in the United States on charges of kidnapping and taking someone else's property. According to investigators, the situation was as follows: the couple brought their neighbor in Palm Beach, Florida, 93-year-old Yanina Zanevskaya, to Poland, who only wanted to look at her homeland, and deceived her into leaving her in a private nursing home. They paid for her stay there (about a thousand dollars a month), called several times, but did not take her back to the States. In addition, 250 thousand dollars (inheritance from rich husbands) were illegally withdrawn from Zanevskaya’s account as her legal guardians. All this was punishable by 90 years in prison. According to the Polish Gazeta Wyborcza, last summer Aron and his wife were under house arrest. It was not possible to find more recent news about this case.

The script for The Challenge is based on a book by Holocaust researcher Nechama Tek, a Jew who supposedly miraculously escaped in Poland during the war by posing as a Catholic Pole.

It should be noted that Jewish gangs in the western part of modern Belarus were indeed active during the Great Patriotic War. Usually they tried to avoid clashes with local partisans, be they Soviet saboteurs or anti-communists from the Polish Home Army. Not to mention the clashes with the Germans, which the Jews tried to avoid in every possible way. At the same time, it was the Jewish gangs that most actively robbed and killed Belarusian peasants. An example of this is the book “Blood and Ashes of Drazhno” by journalist and local historian Viktor Hursik, who described what took place in 1943. destruction of a Belarusian village by a Jewish gang led by Israel Lapidus:

“We ran to the garden to save ourselves, and my mother returned to the house and wanted to take something out. The thatched roof of the hut was already on fire by that time. I lay there, didn’t move, and my mother didn’t return for a long time. I turned around, and ten of her people, even women, were stabbing with bayonets, shouting: “Take it, you fascist bastard!” I saw how her throat was cut. - The old man paused again, his eyes were devastated, it seemed that Nikolai Ivanovich was reliving those terrible minutes. “Katya, my sister, jumped up, asked: “Don’t shoot!”, and took out her Komsomol card. Before the war, she was a pioneer leader and a convinced communist. During the occupation, I sewed my father’s ticket and party ID into my coat and carried it with me. But the tall partisan, in leather boots and uniform, began to aim at Katya. I shouted: “Dziadzechka, don’t kill my sister!” But a shot rang out. My sister's coat instantly became stained with blood. She died in my arms. I will always remember the killer's face. I remember how I crawled away. I saw that my neighbor Fekla Subtselnaya and her baby daughter were thrown alive into the fire by three partisans. Aunt Thekla held her baby in her arms. Further, at the door of the burning hut, lay the old woman Grinevichikha, burnt, covered in blood”...

In the Derechin area, a gang was assembled under the command of Doctor I. Atlas, in the Slonim area - the Shchors 51 detachment; in the Kopyl region, Jews who fled from the Nesvizh ghetto and two other ghettos created the “Zhukov” gang, Jews from the Dyatlovo region created a gang under the command of Ts. Kaplinsky. Jews from the ghetto of Bialystok and surrounding cities and towns created the Jewish gang “Kadima” and several other small gangs. Several thousand Jews fled from the Minsk ghetto alone into the forests, from which they united into 9 large gangs. In Poland in 1942-1944 there were 27 large Jewish gangs, in Lithuania there were initially 7 Jewish gangs. By the way, in September 1943, the head of the Central Headquarters of the partisan movement, Panteleimon Ponomarenko, with a special directive prohibited the admission of fugitives from the ghetto into partisan detachments, since among them there were a large number of traitors and provocateurs.

A particular problem was created by the fact that the Jews needed to feed. They obtained food and clothing from the local population. During these supply operations, the Jews behaved like ordinary robbers, or at least that is how the population perceived them. They requisitioned women's underwear, children's clothing, household belongings...

The Germans turned a blind eye to these gangs - after all, they avoided active hostilities, so the Polish and Soviet partisans tried to solve the problem of Jewish looting.

On November 20, 1943, not far from the village of Dubniki, Ivenets district, a mounted platoon of the Polish battalion N 331 under the command of the cornet Nurkevich (nicknamed Night) shot 10 “Soviet partisans” from Sholom Zorin’s detachment. Here are their names: Zyama Axelrod, Israel Zager, Zyama Ozersky, Leonid Opengeim, Mikhail Plavchik, Efim Raskin, Chaim Sagalchik, Leonid Fishkin, Grigory Charno, Sholom Sholkov. (In 1965, their ashes were reburied in Ivenets). And this is what happened: on the night of November 18, in the village of Sovkovshchizna, Ivenetsky district, Jews took food from the peasants for their gang. One of the peasants complained to Nurkevich that “the Jews are robbing.” Home Army (AK) soldiers surrounded the bandits and opened fire, after which they stole 6 horses and 4 carts. The marauders were disarmed and shot.

Let us quote the document - Order No. 116 of the AK commander, General Bur-Komorowski, dated September 15, 1943:

“Well-armed gangs wander aimlessly through towns and villages, attacking estates, banks, commercial and industrial enterprises, houses and farms. The robberies are often accompanied by murders, which are carried out by Soviet partisans hiding in the forests, or simply by bandits. Men and women, especially Jewish women, take part in the attacks.<…>I have already issued orders to local commanders, if necessary, to use weapons against these robbers and revolutionary bandits.”

According to Jewish sources, the largest number of Jews were in the forests and swamps of Belarus - about 30 thousand. The number of underground Jews in Ukraine exceeded 25 thousand. Another 2 thousand Jews literally comprised the gangs operating in the Baltic states. As you can see, the number of Jewish “partisans” on the territory of the USSR numbered 5 divisions, but they distinguished themselves in causing significant damage to local residents, and not at all to the Germans.

According to modern researchers, in Belarus alone, 47 Jews commanded partisan/bandit detachments. Let's name some names...

Isaac Aronovich Zeifman, lieutenant of the Red Workers' and Peasants' Army, although among the partisans he was known under the name Ivan Andreevich Grinyuk, now lives in the USA in New York.

Arkady Grigoryevich Lekhtman, also a glorious commander of a partisan detachment in Belarus, but known under the name Volkov, now he says that he knew 47 more glorious red partisan commanders in Belarus who helped carry out Comrade Stalin’s line.

Efim Korentsvit, lieutenant of the Red Army, also helped peasants in Belarus, also the commander of the partisans, a detachment, although later they trusted him more, he was parachuted into the Tatras in 1944, where he organized the Soviet Slovak partisan movement, and then in Kiev he helped the Ukrainians free themselves from of national patriotism, carrying out the ideas of Lenin and Stalin, this executioner is known under the name of Evgeniy Volyansky

Joseph Lazarevich Fogel, also a commander and also accidentally surrounded, is known under the name Ivan Lavrentievich Ptitsyn, according to documents, he led the red avenger partisans from the Shturmovaya brigade.

Aba Kovner, a glorious red commander of partisan detachments, in 1943 united the glorious red-Jewish detachments: commanders Shmuel Kaplinsky, Yakov Prener and Abram Resel, their “Avenger” detachment should still be remembered not by the fascist monsters who seized Soviet land, but by the irresponsible Belarusians peasants. Comrade Aba Kovner reached Berlin, where in the fall of 1945 he led the “Jewish Avengers Brigade” (DIN) on the territory of defeated Germany, identifying and destroying the Nazis and their accomplices involved in the genocide of the Jewish people, and managed to destroy about 400 such executioners without trial or investigation. , but by the end of 1945, the British, wanting to stop the too scandalous atrocities of the Soviet hero the executioner, caught Abu.., but it was apparently difficult to judge, so the dear and beloved red commander ended up in Palestine, where he took an active part in the War of Independence, protecting Jewry from Arab fascism. This fiery warrior died in 1987...

Evgeny Finkelshtein. known under the name Miranovich, his detachment did not let the fascists sleep, on his account - 7 destroyed garrisons, 12 blown up echelons, how many civilians and burned villages - they don’t even count - that’s why Comrade Finkelstein received the star of Hero of the USSR from the Bolshevik Communist Party .

Shalom Zorin, also a glorious Jewish commander, originally from Minsk, left Israel in 1971.

Yehezkel Atlas, born in Poland, a doctor, but after Germany attacked Poland, he fled to the USSR, when Germany attacked the USSR, Comrade Atlas organized a Jewish partisan detachment and this glorious Jewish avenger died in battle in the summer of 1942, his glorious deeds are remembered in cities of Derechin, Kozlovshchina, Ruda-Yavorskaya;

Sholom Zandweiss, his half-thousand-strong Jewish detachment named after Kaganovich was created from escaped prisoners of the ghettos of Baranovichi, Pinsk, Brest and Kobrin, they were desperate Jews, they did not put their own and others’ lives at a penny and were willing to take any risk and even certain death, but almost no one died, although their civilian casualties can tell a lot, but who asks now.

Aron Aronovich, commanded the "Struggle" detachment, it is difficult to say with whom he fought and why he worked out the rewards, but undoubtedly the memory of him did not fade in the burned villages with the peasants, although this was a long time ago, much has been erased, now they think more about Coca-Cola and about Lukashenko, of course, too.

Hero of Russia (this title was awarded to him relatively recently) Yuri Kolesnikov, in fact Khaim Toivovich Goldstein, was the commander of a special sabotage detachment in Belarus.

Commander Nikolai Nikitin is actually Beines Mendelevich Shteynhardt.

Commander Nikolai Konstantinovich Kupriyanov is actually Kogan.

Commander Yuri Semenovich Kutsin is actually Yehuda Solomonovich.

Commander Philip Philipovich Kapusta is also a Jew.

The commander of the Kutuzov detachment, the killer of civilians, Israel Lapidus, escaped from the Minsk ghetto.

The commander of the Jewish partisan detachment named after Zharkov, Sholom Khalyavsky, along with other Jews, fled from the Nesvizh ghetto.

The commander of the “Old Man” brigade, Boris Grigorievich Byvaly, and the brigade commander Semyon Ganzenko are also Jews.

The Jewish commander David Ilyich Fedotov operated in the Mogilev region.

The commander of the detachment named after Dmitry Pozharsky is a Jew Arkady Isaakovich Kolupaev

Commander Dmitry Petrovich Levin

Massacre in Naliboki

Before the 1939 war, in the village of Naliboki, located on the edge of the forest of the same name, there lived approx. 3 thousand (according to other sources - about 4 thousand) inhabitants, about 90% of them were Roman Catholics. Also, 25 Jewish families lived here (according to some Polish sources - several hundred people). At the beginning of the occupation, a post of the Belarusian collaboration police was located in the town. In mid-1942, it was liquidated and, with the permission of the German authorities, a Polish self-defense group was legally created in Naliboki. According to Polish sources, this self-defense was secretly controlled by the AK, and there was an unspoken non-aggression agreement with the Soviet partisans.

At the beginning of May 1943, partisans attacked the town. It is alleged that detachments commanded by Rafal Wasilewicz and Pavel Gulewicz took part in the attack. In addition, according to the INP (its Lodz unit began an investigation into this case back in 2001 at the request of the Congress of Poles in Canada) and other Polish historians, partisans of Bielski’s detachment also took part in the attack and murder of civilian Poles. The attackers grabbed mostly men, who were shot; some local residents were burned in own homes. Also among the dead were a 10-year-old child and 3 women. In addition, local farms were robbed - food, horses, cows were taken, most houses were burned. The church, post office and sawmill were also burned. According to the Polish side, more than 130 people were killed.

INP investigators interviewed approx. 70 witnesses. INP Prosecutor Anna Galkevich, who is leading the case, said last year that the investigation was coming to an end. Most likely, the case will be closed due to the death of the suspects in the massacre.

The same “Our Dziennik” also published an interview with Vaclav Nowicki, a former resident of Nalibok and a witness to the events on the night of May 8-9, 1943 (he was 18 years old at the time). According to him, among the attackers there were definitely Jews from the Belsky detachment. In particular, he heard them talking in Hebrew (apparently Yiddish); several of the local Jews among the attackers were recognized by his grandfather. According to V. Novitsky, there could have been much more casualties among the Poles if it had not been for Major Vasilevich, who protected them from Jewish partisans. At the same time, V. Novitsky accused the INP of rejecting his evidence. At the same time, back in 2003, in a public speech, INP Procurator A. Galkevich stated that “among the attackers were also Jewish partisans from a detachment under the command of Tevye Belsky. Witnesses named the names of the partisans known to them who took part in the attack, indicating that among them there were also women and residents of Nalibok of Jewish nationality.” As V. Novitsky indicated, the attack occurred at approximately 5 o’clock in the morning, they attacked approx. 120-150 Soviet partisans. His fellow villager Vaclav Hilicki describes it this way: “They walked straight, broke into houses. Everyone they met was killed in cold blood. No one was spared."

Polish sources also claim that the attack on the town was led by its former Jewish residents, who were commanded in the Bielski camp by Israel Kesler, who was a professional thief before the war. The brothers Itsek and Boris Rubezhevsky also belonged to this group. The latter’s wife, Sulia Volozhinskaya-Rubin, in her memoirs, published in 1980 in Israel, and also voiced in a documentary film in 1993, claimed that the attack on an unnamed Polish village, as a result of which approx. 130 people (the number coincides with the number of victims in Naliboki), was initiated by her husband out of revenge for the attacks of local residents on Jews who escaped from the ghetto, and on Jewish partisans, in particular for the murder of the Rubezhevskys’ father. Is this so?.. Add to this information the fact that Kesler was killed by T. Belsky for trying to seize power over the camp (according to other sources, Kesler was executed by the verdict of the camp court for trying to destroy the detachment).

There will never be a consensus on the issue of the Belsky brothers’ gang and similar formations. For some they will always be heroes, despite the unpleasant information, for others they will always be villains, regardless of the conditions and circumstances of those times. For some, Tevye Belsky will always be associated with the rescued Jewish old woman, for others with the 130 residents of Nalibok who were burned alive...

Jewish partisan detachment. The commander is Tuvier Belsky, seventh from the right in the top row. Photo from Wikapedia.

I praise the world's triumph
Contentment and prosperity.
Saving one is more pleasant
How to destroy a dozen.

R. Burns lane S. Marshak.

Soviet propaganda was silent about many things. Including the participation of Jews in the Second World War. In particular, in the partisan movement in Belarus. This is one of the little-known pages of the history of the Second World War. But what’s even sadder is that even today citizens living in the post-Soviet space know almost nothing about many things. Or they know very little. There are, of course, those who don’t want to know. It’s clear that these people won’t read my post.

But for those who find the topic interesting, I will try to tell you simply and clearly about events that are already covered in a rather dense 70-year-old veil of oblivion. There are very few witnesses left. But I was lucky enough to communicate with some of them in Belarus and in the Promised Land.

Let me preface the story with a short background. In the territories occupied by the Nazis Soviet Union V underground organizations About 20 thousand Jews fought against the Nazis in ghettos, concentration camps and partisan detachments. More than 4,000 people fought in 70 purely Jewish partisan detachments.

These partisan detachments were created by Jews who fled from ghettos and fascist concentration camps. Many of the organizers of the Jewish detachments were actively involved in the underground organizations that existed there before their escape.

The main task of the Jewish partisan detachments was to save the remnants of the Jewish population that had not yet fallen under the ruthless Nazi skating rink. Family camps were often established near partisan bases. Fugitives from the ghetto found refuge in them. Mostly disabled people, women, old people and children.

Soldiers of Jewish detachments courageously fought against the Nazis, defending family camps. They suffered heavy losses. And it happened that detachments in an unequal struggle perished almost entirely along with the civilian Jewish population they were defending...

It was not easy for everyone to fight in the forests of Belarus and Ukraine. But the Jewish partisans had a particularly hard time. They could not count on help from the local population. They could not, if necessary, dissolve in it. The Jewish partisans could not receive support from their fellow tribesmen locked in the ghetto.

The situation was aggravated by anti-Semitic sentiments among Soviet partisans. This is what I found in one memo addressed to the head of the underground regional committee of the CPSU:

“...Parisan detachments do not help them (the Jews), Jewish youth are accepted extremely reluctantly. Facts were noted when partisans from N.N. Bogatyrev’s detachment, having taken away the weapons of those who came, sent them back unarmed. Almost to the slaughter of the Nazis. There have been cases of execution of Jewish volunteers. Anti-Semitism in the partisan environment is quite developed...

...Some commanders of partisan detachments still accept Jews. But in V. Grozny’s detachment there are quite a lot of Jews. They fight well. Zotov also has Jews. But Markov and Strelkov have none. They don’t accept it, even with weapons...”

At first, purely Jewish detachments in the forests of Belarus were in an autonomous position. They themselves obtained weapons, provisions, and clothing. They planned and carried out combat operations themselves. However, over time, the Jewish detachments turned into international ones. Unlike their Belarusian colleagues, Jewish commanders accepted into the detachments anyone who wanted to fight the Nazis.

The Jewish partisan detachment named after Kalinin gained legendary fame, at least among the Jewish population. Its organizers and permanent commanders throughout the partisan war on Belarusian soil were the famous Belsky brothers.

There were more than 1.2 thousand Jews in the Belsky family camp. These were people who had mostly fled from the area of ​​the small Belarusian town of Novogrudok. A group of fugitives from the Minsk ghetto led by Shalom Zorin (1902-74) created another family camp. He did not have a personal name. IN archival documents passes as Detachment No. 106. The detachment consisted of more than 800 Jews.

In the area of ​​the town of Derechin, a detachment was formed under the command of Doctor I. Atlas, in the Slonim area - a detachment named after Shchors 51. Not far from the regional center of Kopyl, Jews who fled from the ghetto of the city of Nesvizh and two neighboring ghettos created a large detachment named after Zhukov. Jews from the Dyatlovo region - a detachment under the command of Ts. Kaplinsky (1910-42).

The underground fighters who fled from the Bialystok ghetto and fugitive Jews from the surrounding cities and towns created a large Jewish partisan detachment “Kadima”. In a detachment of young, strong guys, several small well-armed mobile combat groups were formed. They inflicted very sensitive blows on the fascists and local police collaborators.

In 2009, the talented Belarusian director Alexander Stupnikov, whom A. Lukashenko expelled from Belarus long ago, made a wonderful documentary film “Outcasts” about the Jewish partisan detachments that courageously and effectively fought in the Belarusian forests.

Now, after a short introduction, I will move directly to the events of 1941-1944. I’ll tell you a fascinating documentary story about probably the most famous Jewish partisan detachment in the Belarusian forests, the brothers Tuvya, Asael and Zus Belsky.

My story is based on information gleaned, as they say, first-hand. From the last living participants in those ancient events that we were lucky enough to meet in Israel. We managed to “dig up” something in the archives of Minsk and Jerusalem.

I also read modest information in open press in Russian. And a more extensive one - in Hebrew and English. So I’ve collected a fair amount of material, and I’ll be happy to share it with those whose interest or elementary curiosity prompts them to read this post.

I'll start with the Belsky family. At the very beginning of the 19th century, the ancestors of the famous brothers settled in the village of Stankevichi, located between the Belarusian cities of Lida and Novogrudok, not far from Nalibokskaya Pushcha. In this village they were the only Jewish family.

The point is that in Russian Empire after the Second Partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (1791), by decree of Empress Catherine II, the so-called “Pale of Permanent Jewish Settlement” was introduced. A precisely delineated border of the territory appeared on the Russian administrative map, beyond which Jews were categorically prohibited from permanent residence under pain of criminal liability.

True, an exception was made for several categories of the Jewish population. IN different time these were merchants of the first guild, persons with higher education, recruits who had served in Russian army all 25 years old, artisans assigned to the corresponding workshops, etc.

Jews were forbidden to live in cities and at the same time in rural areas. They did not have the right to engage in agricultural labor, so they could not own land. Selling it to Jews was strictly prohibited. It was then that the legendary Jewish shtetls appeared on the primordially Russian soil. "Shtetel" in Yiddish.

The Belskys belonged to a unique stratum of Belarusian Jewish peasants. Since in Tsarist Russia Jews did not have the right to own land; they were occasionally able to rent small areas at the neighbors.

The Jews lived with their Polish and Belarusian neighbors, not exactly in perfect harmony, but one could say it was tolerable. Nevertheless, the Belsky family chronicle records a case when the Belsky brothers had to forcefully stop an attempt to seize part of their land.

There was, in modern terms, a major showdown. Or, more simply, a tough fight. Fortunately, no one died, but a fair amount of blood was shed. Polish - more. Perhaps for this reason, until 1939, life at the Belskys proceeded smoothly, without any unpleasant incidents with their neighbors.

In short, one can even say this: rural Jews, quite rare in Poland, were quite satisfied with their lives. Their huge family, which included 11 children, even survived the German occupation during the First World War relatively safely.

The Belskys' real problems began in 1939. As is now very well known, that year another repartition of long-suffering Poland occurred. Its leaders have always called, and occasionally still call it, their country as the heir of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.

A once huge state located on the territory of modern Poland, Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania, as well as parts of Russia, Latvia, Estonia, Moldova and Slovakia. Actually, these memories after the defeat of Poland in another war, sometimes served as a formal reason for the endless redistribution of its lands.

In 1939, Stalin and Hitler, through their ministers Molotov and Ribbentrop, again, for the umpteenth time, redrew the map of Poland. As a result, all members of the Belsky family with their impressive farm ended up in the Land of the Soviets.

As paradoxical as it may sound, none of them took even one step in the eastern direction. The Soviet government, of course, immediately nationalized the mill. There is also little left of the once large, well-kept farm that brought in a decent profit.

In return, all 13 people of the huge Belsky family turned into, it seems, full citizens of the country of workers and peasants. Formally, it became their “home” country. After all, all the Belskys were hereditary peasants. And even quite good ones. Thank God they weren’t dispossessed and sent to Siberia.

Now a few words about the family itself. I'll start with the Belskys' eldest son, Tuvya. He was born in 1906. At first he studied at a Jewish religious school, then at a secular, but now Polish one. As a result, I mastered 6 languages. In addition to his native Yiddish, he knew Hebrew well, Polish, Belarusian, and German perfectly. He also spoke Russian quite well, although with a strong Jewish-Polish accent.

Tuvya served in the Polish army. For his valor and courage he was awarded and promoted to non-commissioned officer. After demobilization, he married a beautiful girl, Khaya. As a dowry, he received a small store. Tuvya's two younger brothers, Asael and Zusya, after entering Western Belarus into the USSR, they were immediately drafted into the Red Army.

Again, it seems that the Belskys survived another political cataclysm quite peacefully. However, relatively quiet life didn't last long. In 1940, the NKVD began an action to identify bourgeois elements in Western Belarus. A wide wave of general repressions rolled in. And soon it came to deportation to Siberia.

Tuvya, being the owner of the store, fit well into the category of this element, harmful from the point of view of the Bolsheviks and Communists. Well, after the store was nationalized, he realized that they would soon come for him.

The Belskys abandoned big house, a well-established farm, cows, chickens and other living creatures, and the whole family scurried off to Bialystok. Tuvya got a job in a small office as an assistant accountant. The salary was modest, but the Jewish peasant owned many urban blue-collar professions. They helped out.

They lived there until June 22, 1941. After the Wehrmacht invasion of Belarus, the wholesale extermination of the Jewish population immediately began. The Nazis shot the two Belsky brothers, Yakov and Abram, back in the summer. And on December 7, the parents, Belsky’s younger sister, wife Zusya Sela and their two-month-old daughter were shot among 4,000 local Jews.

Tovya, who escaped from encirclement, Asael, Zus, and their younger 12-year-old brother Aron, who miraculously escaped execution. At the end of December 1941, they went into the forest near their native village. The brothers managed to bring some of their relatives there. It was they who formed the backbone of the future detachment. At first, there were only 17 people in the squad, and the weapon was one TT with an incomplete clip. Tuvya Belsky was unanimously elected commander.

There were terrible Epiphany frosts and the Belskys were very cold. Nevertheless, very soon they obtained weapons for all members of the small detachment. We found something. But most of it was gained in battle.

At the beginning of the summer of 1942, more than two hundred Jews who fled from the Novogrudok ghetto joined the detachment. The number of Jewish squads reached 250 people. In the fall of 1942, a military formation led by the Belsky brothers began to smash the Nazis, which is called all weapons.

Soon the fame of the Jewish partisans spread throughout the area. With each successful operation against the Nazis it grew and expanded. And the commander of the detachment, Tuvya Belsky, gained authority among the Belarusian partisans for his extremely effective combat activities.

Tuvya has proven himself to be a decisive, courageous, and extraordinary-thinking commander. His past experience of serving in the Polish army contributed a lot to this. By the end of 1942, the detachment under the command of Tuvya Belsky was officially recognized by the Main Command of the Belarusian partisan movement.

Good knowledge of the area and connections with the local population allowed Belsky’s detachment to avoid serious clashes with the Germans for quite a long time. In August 1942 Jewish partisans established contacts with the Novogrudok ghetto.

A 15-year-old boy, Aron, the youngest of the Belsky brothers, managed to do this. He was able to enter the ghetto and, with the help of the underground, organize the escape of almost 150 Jews. Mainly women, children and old people.

Of the 250 members of the detachment of armed fighters, there were just over a third. However, in the fall of 1942, the partisans of Tuvia Bielski carried out several daring operations. They destroyed large garage fascists with eight trucks and armored personnel carriers. In one of the night battles, a dozen and a half palitsai and fascist soldiers were killed.

Several gendarmerie posts were destroyed. They blew up a railway siding and burned down a sawmill at the Novelnya station. In these battles, Belsky's fighters took possession of a large number of captured weapons. Including two heavy machine guns and a large amount of ammunition.

And yet, the main success of the first battles with the Nazis should be considered the authority that the detachment gained from their Slavic comrades in arms. The detachment commander, Tuvia Belsky, established himself as a decisive and experienced commander, and this was recognized by many.

In the spring of 1943 in Jewish detachment there were already 750 people. He was assigned to a separate partisan unit of the Kirov Brigade. The detachment was still commanded by Tuvia Belsky. Asael became the deputy and commander of the combat wing, which consisted of approximately 150 people.

Zus commanded intelligence and counterintelligence. Aron, the youngest brother of the Belskys, was responsible for communication with the ghetto, other partisan detachments and the local population. The commanders of neighboring partisan detachments often stated that the Belskys should get rid of what they considered to be an enormously expanded “family camp.” They insisted on intensifying sabotage and combat activities.

However, Tuvia Belsky thought differently. Of course, he never refused to beat the fascists, but at the same time he always instructed his fighters: “SAVING A JEW IS MUCH MORE IMPORTANT THAN KILLING A GERMAN.” Tuvia always considered his main task to be saving as many Jews as possible.

One day, his fighters organized the escape of a large group of ghetto prisoners from the town of Lida. When the Jews reached the partisan base, Tuvya addressed them with the following words: “Friends, this is one of the happiest days of my life. These are the moments I live for: look how many people managed to get out of the ghetto!

I can't guarantee you anything. We are trying to survive, but we may die. Of course, my fighters and I will do everything to save as many lives as possible. We accept everyone into the squad. We do not deny anyone the chance to survive: neither the elderly, nor children, nor women.

However, many dangers await us. And yet, if we are destined to die, then we will die not like a flock of frightened sheep, but with dignity with weapons in our hands, as the warriors of Bar Kochba and the Maccabees once died.”

This approach to guerrilla warfare went against the practice of the Belarusian partisan detachments. Their commanders, as a rule, accepted only combat-ready men into their ranks. And often only those who have already obtained weapons.

In fact, such harsh tactics could be, if not justified, then at least understandable. Near the bases of partisan detachments there were so-called “family camps”. Family members of the partisans lived in them - wives, children, elderly parents. These camps are sometimes catastrophically
low level reduced the mobility and secrecy of partisan formations.

The “family members” had to be protected, fed, clothed, and treated. Where possible, women and children were airlifted to the Soviet rear or taken across the front line:

But the vast majority of relatives of the Belarusian partisans, who were threatened with death, were forced to hide in the forests. They nailed themselves to partisan bases, forming “family camps.” The security and supply of these camps distracted the partisans from their main task - the fight against the invaders.

Therefore, very often people who came to the partisans were sent back. Back where they came from. The motivation has always been standard: “We have a combat unit, not an almshouse.” For Jews, such a refusal was tantamount to a death sentence. After all, they could either return to the ghetto, or even worse, to a death camp.

You could, of course, try to turn to the local population for help. But it was incredibly dangerous: German propaganda fueled violent anti-Semitic sentiments. Well, and, as is well known, people who sheltered Jews were threatened the death penalty. It's sad but this historical fact– very, very few people saved Jews.

The situation was aggravated by anti-Semitic sentiments among the Belarusian partisans. In one memo addressed to the secretary of the Baranovichi underground regional party committee, Major General Vasily Chernyshev, I found the following entry: “...Partisan detachments do not help Jews.

Even Jewish youth are reluctantly accepted. There were facts when partisans from N.N. Bogatyrev’s detachment, having taken away the weapons of the Jewish guys who came, sent them back. I report that anti-Semitism in the partisan environment is quite developed..."

And here is another quote from the same document: “...Some partisan detachments sometimes accept Jews, some drive them away. There were several cases where they were even shot. There are quite a few Jews in Grozny’s detachment, and Zotov also has quite a few of them. But Markov and Strelkov have not a single Jew?!..."

But most of all I was shocked by the story of the elderly Israeli Lazar Gelman. As a twelve-year-old teenager, he, his mother and older sister ended up in the Minsk ghetto. However, he was soon able to escape into the forest. Lazar reached the partisan detachment named after Parkhomenko. Oddly enough, he was accepted into the squad.

The command of the detachment quickly noticed the smart and brave boy and began entrusting him with very difficult and dangerous tasks. The boy, risking his life, began to lead Jews out of the Minsk ghetto. But not everyone. And exclusively according to the “orders” of their commanders. The detachment needed Jews of strictly defined professions and specialties.

For example, doctors. But that's not all either. Mainly surgeons and traumatologists. Jews who are well versed in weapons, served in the Red Army, etc. Sometimes Lazar received a note in which the name of a person with a certain, very necessary specialty was immediately named. The boy had no right to bring a random Jew. Even his mother and adult sister with her two-year-old son.

One day, the young partisan learned that another “action” was taking place in the ghetto in the very near future. The guy threw himself at the feet of the chief of staff, begging him to accept his family into the detachment. But he flatly refused. He even stated that they were unnecessary ballast for the detachment. After this incident, Lazar escaped from the detachment. I wandered through the forest for some time. And then he joined the Belsky detachment.

Tuvier Belsky eventually got tired of the attacks of his fellow partisans, and one day he invited the secretary of the Baranovichi underground regional party committee, Major General Vasily Chernyshev, to visit the base of his detachment. He was one of the few fiery internationally trained revolutionaries in Belarus. The Secretary General saw well-equipped and camouflaged underground dugouts - dugouts with three rolls.

Not only did people live in them, but they also housed various workshops: shoemaking, sewing, weapons, leather, as well as an underground hospital. The general was even given leather uniforms and excellent chrome boots made in the camp’s workshops.

There were 60 cows, 30 horses, and some other animals in the camp. The people here were not only completely self-sufficient, but also helped other units. After visiting the Belsky detachment, Chernyshev ordered to stop all talk about the liquidation of the “family camp.”

The combat wing of the Belsky detachment was relatively small. A little over 150 fighters. They were commanded by Zusya, brother of Touvier Bielski. But this, essentially a combat company, fought well. She successfully participated in battles with German troops during anti-partisan operations.

She was responsible for many derailed German trains with weapons. The detachment's saboteurs burned and blew up bridges, damaged communication lines, and launched attacks on police stations. They were afraid of the Jewish partisans like fire.

The family camp of Belsky’s detachment was a real, albeit nomadic, village. With its bakery, cattle, cattlemen and butchers. There was also a soap factory and a bathhouse, as well as a hospital. And the name of the nomadic village was appropriate - “Forest Jerusalem”.

All this considerable economy was serviced by professionals: cooks, tailors, blacksmiths, mechanics and mechanics. There were also excellent musicians - klezmers - who played on holidays and at weddings. And even a synagogue, where Rabbi David Brook, liberated from the ghetto, conducted services.

And here is another document that I dug up. In March 1944, the inhabitants of the family camp of the Belsky detachment collected and donated 5,321 rubles, 1,356 German marks, 45 dollars, more than 250 gold and silver coins, and about 2 kg of scrap gold and silver to the country's defense fund.

In general, when compared with other partisan formations, the combat activity of the Belsky detachment was not very significant. But it must be taken into account that the detachment had practically no material support from the mainland.

During the entire existence of the detachment, they received a quote from a document stored in the museum of the partisan movement of Belarus: “2 (two) machine guns, 2500 rounds of ammunition, 32 grenades and 45 kg of TNT.” True, the Belsky brothers did not ask anything from the Soviet command, and therefore could afford to remain fairly independent.

In July 1944, the Bielskis led more than 1,200 Jews they had rescued from the forest. Asael Belsky, together with his combat detachment, joined the ranks of the Red Army. TO with great sorrow, he died in battles on the outskirts of Berlin just shortly before the Victory. Tuvia and Zus survived and moved with their families to Poland, and from there to Israel.

Jewish partisan detachment of the Belsky brothers. ..Forest Jews - the Belsky brothers Three brothers - Tuvya, Asael and Zus - saved as many Jews as the world famous Oskar Schindler. The partisan detachment, led by the eldest of the brothers, destroyed almost as many enemies in battles with the occupiers as the heroes of the uprising in the Warsaw Ghetto. For many years, materials about their exploits were only mentioned in a few books published outside the USSR. Who would allow former USSR write about heroic deeds Jews who left for Israel after the war?!..

In 2008, the military drama “Defiance” (English: “challenge, resistance”) was released on movie screens. As you know, the plot of the film is based on real events that occurred in Belarus during the Second World War. Three Jews - the Belsky brothers - created a Jewish partisan detachment that operated in Nalibokskaya Pushcha in 1941-44. On the way to the forest The Belsky family in the 19th century. settled in the village of Stankevichi, located between Lida and Novogrudok, not far from Nalibokskaya Pushcha. The Belskys belonged to a small stratum of Belarusian Jewish peasants. Since Jews did not have the right to own land in the Russian Empire, they rented small plots from their neighbors and later built a water mill. During the First World War, they survived the German occupation, then the area in which they lived went to Poland. In the fall of 1939, the Belskys became Soviet citizens. The Soviet government, of course, nationalized the mill. Of the eleven children of the Belsky family, the eldest son, Tuvia, born in 1906, stood out noticeably. Having graduated from Jewish and Polish schools, he knew Russian, Belarusian, Polish, Yiddish and Hebrew. Thanks to German soldiers during the occupation of 1915-18. I also learned German. Being called to conscript service into the Polish army, Tuvia rose to the rank of non-commissioned officer. At the time of the annexation of Western Belarus to the USSR, he was the owner of a store, which was later nationalized. The younger Belsky brothers - Asael and Zus - were drafted into the Red Army. When mass deportations of “alien elements” from Western Belarus began to Siberia, Tuvia Belsky, fearing arrest, got a job as an accountant in Lida.

Tuvia Bielski in the Polish army, late 1920s After the occupation of Belarus by the Germans, the brothers Asael and Zus, who escaped encirclement, were forced to hide with their neighbors and in the forest, not far from their parents’ farm. The two younger Belskys, Yakov and Abram, were shot by the Germans after their arrest. Tuvia, taking advantage of his excellent knowledge of languages, disguised himself as a peasant, hid in the outskirts of Lida: his wife Sonya remained in the ghetto there. In December 1941, the younger Belsky, Aron, returning from the forest after meeting with his brothers, saw a Nazi van taking his parents away from the farm. He managed to warn his older brothers, who from another farm took Taibe’s sister, her husband, child and mother-in-law into the forest. On December 7, the Bielski parents, as well as Sila, his wife Zusya, and her newborn daughter were shot along with 4 thousand other local Jews. After wandering for months on the brink of death, the older brothers - Tuvia, Asael, Zus - and the teenager Aron gathered all their surviving relatives in the forest. In June 1942 Tuvia led his wife Sonya and her family out of the Lida ghetto. Later they infiltrated neighboring ghettos and took out more distant relatives. Sholom, partisans! At first, there were not even 20 people in the Belsky detachment. As for weapons, there is only one pistol with an incomplete clip. Tuvia Belsky was elected commander of the detachment. For a year, until August 1942, “the detachment did not have a permanent base and maneuvered through the forest in order to be undetected and elusive.” Good knowledge of the area and connections with the local population allowed the Belskys to avoid clashes with the Germans. In August 1942, they managed to establish contact with the Novogrudok ghetto and organize the transfer of people from the ghetto to the detachment, which in a short time grew from 80 people to 250. In the autumn of 1942, the Belsky detachment began combat activities: together with neighboring partisan detachments, several attacks on cars, gendarmerie posts and railway sidings, a sawmill at the Novelnya station and eight agricultural estates were burned. In addition to captured weapons, the Belsky detachment also gained a certain authority among the partisans. Tuvia Belsky has proven himself to be a decisive and experienced commander. All this undoubtedly played a role in the official recognition of the Belsky detachment by the leaders of the Soviet partisan movement. In February 1943, the Belsky detachment was included in the partisan detachment “October” of the Lenin Brigade.

The Belsky brothers In the spring of 1943, due to the fugitives from the Lida ghetto, the Belsky detachment grew to 750 people and was allocated to a separate partisan detachment of the Kirov Brigade, which was still commanded by Tuvia Belsky. Asael became the deputy and commander of the detachment’s combat wing, Zus led intelligence and counterintelligence. Aron, the younger brother, was a liaison with the ghetto, other partisan detachments and the local population. Under the name “Partisan detachment named after. Kalinin" Belsky detachment was based in Nalibokskaya Pushcha until the expulsion of the Germans from Belarusian soil. During the occupation, the detachment survived more than one blockade. In January, February, May and August 1943, the Germans launched punitive operations to destroy Tuvia Bielski's camp. However, thanks to the skillful actions and exceptional ingenuity of the commander, each time it was possible to save people with minimal losses. In July 1944, the Belsky brothers led more than 1,200 Jews they had rescued from the forest. Asael Belsky, together with a combat detachment, joined the Red Army and died at the front shortly before the Victory. Tuvia and Zus and their families moved to Poland, and from there to Israel. One of the main sources of information about the Bielski partisan detachment is its fairly detailed history, written by Tuvia Bielski after the liberation of Belarus, in September 1944, for the Belarusian Headquarters of the Partisan Movement (BSPM) and stored in the National Archives of Belarus. Another valuable source is the memories and testimonies of the partisans of the Belsky detachment and other detachments that operated in Belarus during the war. In 1949, Tuvia Belsky published a book of memoirs, “The Jews of the Forest,” in Israel. Alas, the Belskys’ feat did not receive recognition in the Jewish state. In search of a better life, the brothers moved to the USA in 1955, where many years later American researchers became interested in them. In 1993 Professor of sociology at the University of Connecticut Nechama Teck published the book Defiance. The Bielski Partisans (“Resistance. Bielski Partisans”). It was on the basis of this book that the script for the film, filmed in Lithuania, was written. The book is based primarily on the memories of members of the Belsky detachment, as well as their relatives. In 2003 American journalist Peter Duffy published book The Bielski Brothers with the long subtitle "The True Story of Three Men Who Fought the Nazis, Built a Village in the Forest, and Rescued 1,200 Jews." Duffy's book is based mainly on archival materials, incl. Belarusian

“Saving a Jew is more important than killing a German” The peculiarity of the Belsky detachment was that it was replenished exclusively by Jews who fled from the ghettos of Lida and Novogrudok. Everyone was accepted into the detachment - women, children, old people, without refusing help to anyone. This went against the practice of Soviet partisan units, which, as a rule, accepted only combat-ready men into their ranks (often only if they had weapons). In general, such harsh tactics can be considered justified. Near the bases of the partisan detachments there were so-called “family camps”, where family members of the partisans lived - women, children, old people. These camps greatly reduced the mobility and secrecy of partisan formations. The “family members” had to be protected, fed, clothed, and treated. Where possible, women and children were airlifted to the Soviet rear or taken across the front line. But the vast majority of relatives of the Belarusian partisans, who were threatened with death, were forced to hide in the forests near the partisan bases, forming “family camps”, the protection and supply of which distracted the partisans from the main task - the fight against the occupiers. Therefore, it very often happened that people who came to the partisans were sent back to where they came from, citing the fact that they had a “combat detachment, not an almshouse.” For Jews this usually meant death, because they had nowhere to return. Turning to the local population for help was dangerous: German propaganda incited anti-Semitic sentiments, and people who sheltered Jews faced the death penalty. The situation was aggravated by anti-Semitic sentiments among Soviet partisans. The memos to the leaders of the underground regional committees noted: “...Parisan detachments do not help them [the Jews], and they reluctantly accept Jewish youth. There were facts when partisans from N.N. Bogatyrev’s detachment, having taken away the weapons of those who came, sent them back, because anti-Semitism in the partisan environment is quite developed...” “...Some partisan detachments accept Jews, some shoot them or just drive them away. So, Grozny has plenty of Jews, and Zotov has plenty of them too. But neither Markov nor Strelkov accept Jews...” Twelve-year-old prisoner of the Minsk ghetto Leonid Okun was a guide of the partisan detachment named after. Parkhomenko. In his memoirs, he talked about the partisans’ tactics against ghetto prisoners: “I was lucky enough to lead about 50 people from the ghetto to the partisans. I brought people out mainly according to the instructions of the partisans. The note indicated what specialty the partisans needed, and sometimes the name was immediately given. They demanded the removal of doctors of a certain specialty, as well as people who understand weapons, former soldiers of the Red Army, etc. I made a mistake once. I was told to take Dr. Livshits out of the ghetto, so I brought Dr. Livshits, a woman gynecologist with two children, to the partisans, and the partisans needed a surgeon, a man, Dr. Livshits. They yelled at me! And if shortly before this incident the partisans agreed that I would bring my mother and my sister’s family out of the ghetto to them, then because of this mistake they didn’t even talk to me about my family that day. They answered briefly: “Then you’ll take me out!” But this “later” did not come...” Forest Jerusalem In the Belsky detachment, armed fighters made up less than a quarter of the total number of people. The commanders of other partisan detachments believed that the Belskys should get rid of what they considered to be an enormously expanded “family camp” and intensify sabotage and combat activities. But Tuvia Belsky invited the secretary of the Baranovichi underground regional party committee, Major General Vasily Chernyshev, to visit the base of his detachment. He saw well-equipped and camouflaged underground dugouts, in which not only people lived, but also various workshops were located: shoemakers, sewing, weapons, leather, as well as an underground hospital. The general was presented with leather uniforms and boots made in the workshops of the camp. He learned that there were 60 cows and 30 horses in the camp, and that people here were not only self-sufficient, but also helping others. After visiting the Belsky detachment, Chernyshev stopped all talk about the liquidation of the “family camp.” The combat wing of the detachment - over 100 people under the command of Zusya Belsky - successfully participated in battles with German troops during anti-partisan operations; the detachment's demolition bombers derailed German trains, burned and blew up bridges, and damaged communication lines.

Partisans of the Belsky detachment In Nalibokskaya Pushcha there was not just a family detachment, it was a real, albeit nomadic, village: with a bakery, with its own cattle, cattlemen and a butcher, with a soap factory and a bathhouse, a hospital and a school, there were blacksmiths and potters, cooks and tailors, there were even musicians who played on holidays and at weddings. There was also a synagogue where Rabbi David Brook, liberated from the ghetto, conducted services. In March 1944, the inhabitants of the family camp of the Belsky detachment collected and transferred to the country's defense fund 5321 rubles, 1356 German marks, 45 dollars, more than 250 gold and silver coins, about 2 kg of gold and silver scrap. In general, when compared with other partisan formations, the combat activity of the Belsky detachment was not very significant. But it must be taken into account that the Belskys had practically no material support from the mainland: during the entire existence of the detachment, they received “2 (two) machine guns, 2500 rounds of ammunition, 32 grenades and 45 kg of tolu.” The Belskys did not demand anything from the Soviet command and remained quite independent. Tuvia considered his main task to be saving as many Jews as possible. Having organized the escape of a group of ghetto prisoners from Lida, he addressed them with the following words: “Friends, this is one of the happiest days of my life. These are the moments I live for: look how many people managed to get out of the ghetto! I can't guarantee you anything. We are trying to survive, but we could all die. And we will try to save as many lives as possible. We accept everyone and refuse no one: neither the elderly, nor children, nor women. There are many dangers awaiting us, but if we are destined to die, at least we will die as people.” On two fronts Being a good diplomat, Tuvia Belsky supported a good relationship with the local population and neighboring partisan detachments. Moreover, according to Okun’s recollections, “They were definitely afraid of Belsky. Belsky’s detachment had “sharp teeth” and selected thugs, Polish Jews, who were not distinguished by excessive sentimentality. Belsky’s demolitions were generally considered aces of sabotage and enjoyed great respect and authority among the partisans.” The local population was also afraid of Belsky's partisans. At first, in 1941-42, local peasants often passed on information about Belsky’s detachment to the Germans. But several brutal reprisals against informers forced the peasants to cooperate with the partisans, and not with the occupiers. Belsky's partisans did not hesitate to destroy informers and collaborators. One day, a local peasant handed over to the Germans a group of Jews who came to ask him for food. The partisans killed the peasant himself, his family and burned his house. In general, the topic of the relationship between Belsky’s partisans and the local population is complex. National contradictions were also mixed here with the traditional antagonism of “peasant partisans”. A memorandum to the authorized representative of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, Chernyshev, dated November 10, 1942, states: “The population of Jews here [in Western Belarus] does not like them, they don’t call them anything other than “Jews” (in fact, in Polish language the word “żyd” does not have a negative connotation – “Historical truth”). If a Jew enters a hut and asks for food, the peasant says that the Jews have robbed him. When a Russian comes along with a Jew, everything goes well.” The Belsky detachment required a large amount of food daily. In the history of the detachment, Tuvia Belsky notes: “According to the permission of the regional committee, the detachment obtained potatoes in the area from those people who dug up their potatoes, but moved from the Pushcha to the area where the German garrisons were located... Meat and other products, such as grain, fats, etc., were mined in the area, from police families or in villages located near German garrisons. It often happened that a certain amount of food had to be taken through fighting, because in the villages the Germans often organized an armed self-defense... Uniforms and shoes were also obtained from the local population.”

Jewish partisans True, according to Belsky, the peasants willingly went to meet the partisans, because “Since the Stalingrad campaign, the population’s attitude towards the partisans has radically changed for the better.” Polish public organizations accuse the fighters of the Bielski detachment of participating, together with Soviet partisans, in punitive actions against local Polish self-defense units. According to the Commission for the Investigation of Crimes against the Polish People, in May 1943, Bielski’s fighters took part in a punitive action against the Polish population of the town of Naliboki, whose self-defense unit did not want to join the partisans. However, it is worth understanding that the Home Army fighters also mercilessly destroyed Soviet Jewish partisans who were captured by them. For example, in the fall of 1943, such a fate befell partisans from Zorin’s detachment. In May 1944, a clash between the Belsky detachment and the Akovites occurred - six Akovites were killed, the rest retreated. And other nationalities The official reference book “Partisan formations of Belarus during the Second World War,” published by the Institute of Party History in 1983, says nothing about the Belsky brothers or their detachment. There was no place even for Jewish partisans: in the directory they are hidden in the column “other nationalities,” although among these “other nationalities” Jews constituted the absolute majority. The reasons for the hushing up of the history of the Belsky brothers (as well as the participation of Jews in the partisan movement in general) in the USSR after the war are quite obvious: firstly, in the wake of anti-Semitism and the fight against “cosmopolitans” (which meant primarily Jews) in the late 40s gg. mention of Jewish partisans was impossible. And later, who would have allowed the USSR to write about the heroic exploits of Jewish partisans who emigrated to Israel after the war?! Secondly, the activities of the Belsky detachment did not fit into the scheme of the Soviet partisan movement at all. The Belsky slogan “It is better to save one Jew than to kill ten German soldiers” was radically at odds with Soviet slogans that called for destroying the Germans by any means, regardless of losses. The Jewish family partisan detachments and camps that existed in Belarus during the war had no analogues in any European country. And although on the scale of the entire partisan movement, the official number of participants in which in Belarus exceeded 370 thousand, the number of Jewish partisans is relatively small, all these people fought heroically and did everything in their power for the Victory, and their exploits are worthy were not forgotten. Source #BelskiePartisans

BROTHERSBELSKIE

In the official history of the partisan movement in Belarus during the Second World War, as in Soviet Belarus, and in the now independent Republic of Belarus, not a word is said about the three Belsky brothers, who not only made a significant contribution to the fight against the German invaders, but also saved over a thousand doomed to death. Only the archives have preserved documents about their unprecedented struggle against the occupiers. These three brothers (Tuvya, Asael and Zus) saved as many Jews as the world famous Oskar Schindler. The partisan detachment, led by the eldest of the brothers, destroyed almost as many enemies in battles with the occupiers as the heroes of the uprising in the Warsaw Ghetto. For many years, materials about their exploits were mentioned only in a few books published outside the USSR. Who would have allowed in the former USSR to write about the heroic exploits of Jews who left for Israel after the war.

Peter Duffy once came across a reference on the Internet to the so-called Forest Jews. He became interested and discovered that the descendants of these heroes lived not far from him in Brooklyn. Interviews with them and aging veterans of the Belsky detachment, published and unpublished memoirs, materials from Belarusian archives and the Yad Vashem archive in Israel formed the basis of this interesting book.

Asael

The book begins with the history of the Belsky family, whose ancestors in the 19th century settled in the small village of Stankevichi, located between the cities of Lida and Novogrudok not far from the famous Nalibokskaya Pushcha.

During the First World War they survived the German occupation, then their area was transferred to independent Poland. In the fall of 1939, after the division of Poland between Stalin and Hitler, the Bielskis became citizens of the USSR.

Zus

Tuvya Belsky was born in 1906. After the German attack on the USSR, Tuvya did not obey German laws, did not register, or wear a yellow six-pointed star. When the executions of the Jewish population began, Tuvya and his two brothers went into the forests. The Germans shot my father, mother and younger sister. Miraculously, 12-year-old Aron escaped execution and soon joined the elders. The Bielski brothers went into hiding when the Gestapo Einsatzkommandos arrived in the area for the “final solution of the Jewish question” (under this euphemism the Nazis hid the complete extermination of the Jewish population). The brothers began to make their way into the ghettos of Lida, Novogrudok and other cities and towns, calling on them to escape from them. So gradually from not large group A detachment of several dozen people was born that began to fight the Nazis.

Tuvya

Tuvya considered his main task to be to save as many Jews as possible. Having organized the escape of a large group of prisoners from the Lida ghetto, he addressed them with the following words: “Friends, this is one of the happiest days of my life. These are the moments I live for – look how many people managed to get out of the ghetto! I can't guarantee you anything. We are trying to survive, but we could all die. And we will try to save as many lives as possible. We accept everyone and refuse no one, neither the elderly, nor children, nor women. There are many dangers awaiting us, but if we are destined to die, at least we will die as people.” Tuvya's detachment joined the general partisan movement in the occupied territory. Only a quarter of the detachment were armed fighters. The majority consisted of women, old people and children. When the secretary of the Baranovichi underground regional party committee, Chernyshev, visited this family camp, he saw well-equipped and camouflaged underground dugouts, in which not only people lived, but also various workshops were located: shoemakers, tailors, weapons, leather workers, as well as an underground hospital. The camp contained 60 cows, 30 horses, its people were not only self-sufficient, but also helped others. The partisan detachment of the Belsky brothers successfully participated in battles with German troops during anti-partisan operations; the detachment's demolitionists derailed German trains, burned and blew up bridges, and damaged communication lines. When the Germans decided to destroy the detachment, about which there were already legends, about a thousand people moved deep into the forest to a small island among the swamps. They walked in silence, even the children did not cry. The dense forests on this island completely protected from aircraft. In the morning, the Germans reached the empty camp, followed the fugitives and, approaching the swamp, tried to pass it, but could not. They stood around this swamp for three days, trying to find passages to the island, and then left the forest.

The squad is preparing for battle. 1943

In the summer of 1944, as a result of Operation Bagration, the German group in Belarus was surrounded and defeated. And in July 1944, the surrounding residents were surprised to see how Tuvya Belsky’s detachment, stretching almost a kilometer, appeared from the depths of the Pushcha. Its national composition left no doubt. And this after German propaganda claimed that Belarus was “Judenfrei,” that is, completely cleared of Jews. Soon Tuvya was called to Minsk, where he compiled a full report on the activities of his detachment. Peter Duffy found this report in the archives of the Republic of Belarus and quotes its most significant parts in the book. After the war, the brothers and their families went to Poland. But the hostile attitude of the population forced them to move to Palestine. In the mid-50s, Tuvya and Zus with their families, as well as Aron, moved to the United States. They settled in Brooklyn, and Tuvya became a truck driver, the second brother, Zus, became the owner of several taxis. Shortly before Tuvia's death, in the summer of 1986, the people he saved rented a luxurious banquet hall at the Hilton Hotel in New York. When 80-year-old Tuvya Belsky appeared before the crowd, 600 people stood up as if on cue and greeted him with thunderous applause. One by one, people came up to the podium and spoke about Tuvya's heroic deeds. He died in December 1986. Tuvya Belsky was buried in a Jewish cemetery on Long Island, but a year later, at the urgent request of the association of partisans, underground fighters and participants in the ghetto uprisings, he was reburied with military honors in Jerusalem in the cemetery where the most famous heroes of the Jewish Resistance rest.

Partisan detachment of Tuvya Belsky.

1944

Zus died in 1995. Aron now lives in Miami.

Peter Duffy's book is not the only publication dedicated to the Belsky brothers. Ten years ago, Nechama Teck, a professor of sociology at the University of Connecticut, published Defiance. The Bielski Partisans. And if Duffy’s book is mainly based on documentary data, then Nechama Tek’s book is based on the memories of members of this detachment and relatives of the Belskys. Both books complement each other and resurrect the little-known story of the heroic resistance of Jews during the Second World War. They are eloquent evidence that Jews, placed in inhumane conditions, were not dumb, resigned victims; they fought in partisan detachments in Nazi-occupied territory, led underground activities, rebelled in ghettos and German extermination camps. These books are a worthy monument to those who did not kneel before their enemies and defended their lives, honor and dignity with weapons in their hands, as well as to those who gave their lives to save others.

The words of Tuvya Belsky, which Peter Duffy and the author of these lines cited as an epigraph, turned out to be prophetic. The heroic deeds of the Belsky brothers received, unfortunately, only posthumous fame.

Monthly literary and journalistic magazine and publishing house.

Tuvya was the eldest of 11 children of the Belsky family. The Belskys' ancestors settled in the village of Stankevichi in the 19th century, located between the Belarusian cities of Lida and Novogrudok, not far from Nalibokskaya Pushcha. In this village, the Belskys were the only Jewish family. Since Jews in Tsarist Russia did not have the right to own land, they rented small plots from their neighbors. In addition, the Belskys built a water mill. When, at the end of the 19th century, the tsarist government banned Jews from owning any enterprises in the villages, the Belskys found a man who was legally listed as the owner of the mill.

During the First World War, a small unit of German occupation forces was stationed in an empty house in the village, and Tuvya, a lively boy who reminded the German soldiers of their children, often interacted with them. After the Germans left, it turned out that Tuvya had learned German quite well. So, to his Belarusian language and Jewish education, received in a cheder in a neighboring village, German was also added. After the war, the area went to Poland, Tuvya studied at a Polish school, then served in the Polish army, where he rose from a private to a non-commissioned officer. Returning from the army, he got married, receiving a small store as a dowry. After Western Belarus joined the USSR in 1939, Tuvier inevitably had to improve his knowledge of the Russian language, and as a result he spoke six languages: Russian, Belarusian, Polish, German, Yiddish and Hebrew.

Shortly before Germany attacked the USSR, the Soviet authorities began to carry out an action to identify bourgeois elements in the annexed regions and expel them to Siberia. Tuvya's store was nationalized, and he, fearing reprisals, left the small town where he had previously lived, settling in the city of Lida as an assistant accountant.

However, soon after Germany attacked the USSR, the Germans occupied this entire area. Anti-Jewish actions immediately began: ghettos, and then the extermination of Jews. Tuvya did not obey German orders: he did not register, did not wear a yellow six-pointed star. A large number of friends among the local population, knowledge of the German language, and atypical appearance for a Jew saved him from many checks. But the executions of the Jewish population began, Tuvya’s two brothers, Yakov and Abram, died. Tuvya's father told his son to go into the forest. Two more of his brothers left with him - Asael and Zus, who were drafted into the Red Army even before the start of the war, and then, having escaped the encirclement, managed to get home.

Partisan detachment in Nalibokskaya Pushcha

Over time, traitors were found who reported the Belskys to the German authorities. The parents were arrested and tortured to make them confess where their three adult sons had gone, but they said nothing, and soon, on December 7, 1941, the Nazis shot the father, mother, younger sister and wife Zusya with their newborn daughter. 4,000 local Jews died that day. Twelve-year-old Aron miraculously escaped execution and soon joined his older brothers. At first, the Belskys hid with peasant friends, but soon realized that their salvation lay in the dense forests of the Nalibokskaya Pushcha.

The brothers managed to bring some of their relatives into the forest, who formed the backbone of the future detachment. In December 1941, it consisted of 17 people, the weapon was one pistol with an incomplete clip. Tuvya Belsky was elected commander.

Tuvya Belsky considered his main task to be the salvation of as many Jews as possible. For all their hatred of the Nazis, the Bielski brothers proceeded from the principle: it is better to save one old Jewish woman than to kill ten German soldiers. The brothers acted as follows. They made their way into the Jewish ghettos of Lida, Novogrudok, and other cities and towns and persuaded Jews to flee into the forest, helping them in this. Most often, Tuvya himself was involved in such actions. Getting out of the ghetto was difficult and dangerous; many died along the way. Those who survived were often not accepted into other partisan detachments, citing the refusal as their lack of weapons. Women, children and the elderly, who were considered a burden, especially often found themselves in difficult situations. But no one was expelled from the Belsky brothers’ detachment. To those who arrived, Tuvya said: “I can’t guarantee you anything. We are trying to survive, but we could all die. And we will try to save as many lives as possible. We accept everyone and refuse no one, neither the elderly, nor children, nor women. There are many dangers awaiting us, but if we are destined to die, at least we will die as people.”

Forward, into battle!

By August 1942, the Belsky detachment had grown to 250 people and began to represent a serious fighting force. Everyone was forced to take it into account: both the Germans and the Soviet partisans in the surrounding areas, and at first the detachment’s main source of food was the surrounding population, who called the detachment nothing more than “forest Jews” and who began to fear collaborating with the invaders in view of the inevitable punishment from Jewish partisans, of which there were examples.

In the Belsky detachment, one of Tuvya’s brothers became his deputy and led the armed defense, the other was responsible for intelligence and counterintelligence, and the third - the younger Aron - was a liaison with other partisan detachments, the ghetto and those who helped the Jews escape from the ghetto and reach the partisans. Weapons were obtained in battles with the occupiers and their accomplices.

The Belsky detachment began its combat activities in the fall of 1942 and established itself so well that it soon received official recognition from the leaders of the Soviet partisan movement. In February 1943, the Belsky detachment was included in the partisan detachment “October”.

The “Forest Jews” lived in dugouts, forming an entire village called “Forest Jerusalem.” The detachment had a bakery, a forge, a tannery, a bathhouse, a hospital and a school. Cattlemen and shoemakers, potters, cooks and tailors worked here. The mill, bakery, and sausage factory were constantly working. The detachment even played weddings conducted by Rabbi David Brook, fortunately they had their own musicians. Believers could go to a makeshift synagogue where Jewish holidays were celebrated. Those who were not involved in combat operations repaired weapons and provided a lot of services to the Soviet partisans, receiving ammunition, food and medicine in return. But the partisans themselves largely provided themselves with food - for example, 8 hectares of wheat and barley were sown, and there was a huge potato field.

The demolitions of the Belsky detachment were considered the best saboteurs and were highly respected among the partisans. But relations with the partisans did not always work out in the best possible way, because other partisan detachments were reluctant to accept Jews fleeing the ghetto. There were cases when they were sent back to certain death. However, no one risked offending the members of Tuvya Belsky’s detachment - the brothers could immediately put more than a hundred fighters under arms, ready to protect their own from any attacks.

After the size of the Belsky detachment grew to 750 people in the spring of 1943, it was given the name Ordzhonikidze, and it became part of the Kirov partisan brigade. It became easier with weapons - they were now supplied to the partisans from the “mainland”, and it became possible to send the seriously wounded there by plane. Tuvya’s detachment, together with others, began to be on duty and guard the partisan airfield. Thanks to the establishment of connections with the “mainland,” the inhabitants of “Forest Jerusalem” were able to transfer 5,321 rubles, 1,356 German marks, 50 dollars, more than 250 foreign gold and silver coins, and 46 pieces of scrap gold to the country’s defense fund.

The Germans attacked their camp several times. The detachment retreated, but always put up tough armed resistance. The “forest Jews” withstood the most brutal attack on the eve of the liberation of Belarus: on July 9, 1944, retreating German units attacked the partisans, dozens of people were wounded, and nine people died. The next day, the Red Army entered the area of ​​Nalibokskaya Pushcha.

Soon Tuvya was called to Minsk, where he compiled full report about the activities of your squad. Asael, along with part of the detachment, joined the Red Army and died in Germany shortly before the end of the war. His wife Khaya, whom he met in the detachment, was in her last month of pregnancy at that time.

Instead of a heroic title - emigration

After the war, Tuvya and Zus began working in Soviet institutions. But Tuvya soon felt that he was about to be reminded of his “bourgeois” past. At that time, former Polish citizens were allowed to repatriate to Poland. That's what the brothers did. But the hostile attitude of the local population forced them to move to Palestine, they lived in Ramat Gan and Holon. After the creation of the State of Israel, Tuvia and Zus took part in the War of Independence.

But even in Israel, Tuvya Belsky did not feel entirely comfortable. He worked as a taxi driver, barely earning a living. Therefore, in the mid-50s, Tuvya and Zus with their families, as well as Aron, decided to move to the USA.

The children grew up, grandchildren appeared, and Tuvya himself grew old in obscurity. But his former subordinates, those whom he once saved from certain death, remembered his heroic past. In gratitude to Touvier, in the year of his 80th birthday, they held a banquet in one of the fashionable hotels in New York. 600 people stood and applauded his appearance in the main hall - in a tailcoat with a rose in his buttonhole. When those present congratulated the hero of the day, remembering his heroic past, tears were seen for the first time in the eyes of the seemingly iron Tuvia.

In December 1986, at the age of 81, Tuvya Belsky died. At first he was buried in a Jewish cemetery on Long Island, but then, at the urgent request of the association of partisans, underground fighters and participants in the ghetto uprisings, the ashes of Tuvya Bielsky were transported to Jerusalem.

Zus died in 1995. Aron may still live in Miami.

The memory of heroes cannot be erased

In the post-war Soviet years in Belarus, the activities of Jewish partisans were hushed up, and the name of Tuvya Belsky, the commander of the largest Jewish partisan detachment, was consigned to oblivion. Thus, in the official directory “Partisan formations of Belarus during the Great Patriotic War (June 1941 - July 1944),” published in 1983, there is no mention of either the Belsky brothers or their detachment. The participation of Jews in the partisan movement was hidden behind the phrase “other nationalities.” Although at least 1,650 fighters fought in the 14 Jewish partisan detachments and groups of Belarus alone, in total there were from 10 to 15 thousand Jews in the partisan detachments of Belarus, while more than 130 Jews were commanders, chiefs of staff, and commissars of partisan detachments and brigades. The Belsky detachment is not mentioned in the one-volume encyclopedic book “Belarus in the Great Patriotic War(1941 – 1945),” published in 1995. However, outside the USSR they knew about the Belsky detachment. Many books have been written about their fate, including the memoirs of Tuvya Belsky entitled “The Jews of the Forest,” published in Jerusalem in 1949, translated into Hebrew. Three films were also made about the Belsky brothers - two documentaries (UK, USA) and a feature film (Hollywood).

Permanent exhibitions dedicated to the activities of the partisan detachment of the Bielski brothers exist in a number of museums, in particular at the Holocaust Memorial Museum (Washington), at the Florida Holocaust Museum, at Yad Vashem, and more recently at the Museum of History and Culture Jews of Belarus" (Minsk).

Of the people saved by the Belskys, 29 people were alive at the end of 2008. The descendants of those saved number tens of thousands of people. They now live in Belarus, the USA, Israel, Great Britain, Brazil, and Australia.

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