Bielski brothers movie
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Aron Bielski - Biography
Aron Bielski, later changed to Aron Bell, (born 1927) is a Polish-American Jew and former member of the Bielski partisans group, the largest armed rescuers of Jews by Jews during World War II. He was also known as Arczyk Bielski. The youngest of the four Bielski brothers, he is the only one still living (Asael died in 1945, Tuvia in 1987, Alexander 'Zus' in 1995).
Life with Bielski partisans
The Bielski family were farmers in Stankiewicze (Stankievichy) near Navahrudak, an area that at the beginning of the Second World War belonged to the Second Polish Republic, but in September 1939 was seized by the Soviet Union (see: Polish September Campaign and Soviet invasion of Poland (1939)), which was then allied with Nazi Germany. After German Operation Barbarossa, Aron's brothers created a notable resistance organization, the Bielski partisans group. Aron became a member of that group.
Nechama Tec who wrote a book about them had the following to say about Aron: "Occasionally in the forest he acted as a guide. Those I spoke to agree that his partici
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Jewish Partisan Community
Aron Bielski was born in 1927 on a farm in Stankiewicze, Poland, a rural area outside of Novogrudok. He was the youngest of ten brothers and two sisters. When the Nazis invaded the Soviet Union, three of his brothers Tuvia, Asael and Zus, all of whom were more than 15 years older than Aron, lived with their own families away from the Bielski farm. But Aron remained at home on the farm, helping his parents with chores.
In July 1941, the German army arrived in Stankiewicze and imprisoned the town’s Jews in the Novogrudok ghetto. The older Bielski Brothers refused to go into the ghetto and fled to the nearby forest, but Aron, and his parents Belia and David, remained at the farm. Two of Aron’s other brothers, Abraham and Yankel, were not lucky enough to make it into the freedom of the woods and were murdered in their village. Aron’s parents, David and Bella were murdered in a mass killing there in December 1941. A monument has been erected at the site of the mass murder.
Together the brothers formed a partisan group, composed entir
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Bielski partisans
Jewish partisan unit during World War II
The Bielski partisans were a unit of Polish Jewish partisans who rescued Jews from extermination and fought the German occupiers and their collaborators around Novogrudok and Lida in German-occupied Poland (now western Belarus). The partisan unit was named after the Bielskis, a family of Polish Jews who organized and led the community.
The Bielski partisans spent more than two years living in the forest. By the end of the war they numbered as many as 1,236 members, most of whom were non-combatants, including children and the elderly. The Bielski partisans are seen by many Jews as heroes for having led as many refugees as they did away from the perils of war and the Holocaust.[1] However, as their relations with the non-Jewish population were strained and occasionally violent, their wartime record has been the subject of some controversy in Poland.[2]
Background
Before World War II, the Bielski family had been millers and grocers[3] in Stankiewicze (Stankievichy), near Novogrudok, a
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