A film about these Jewish partisans -
Defiance (2008)
Crossroads amidst the forest Jerusalem
Tuvia wanted these ziemlankas [dugouts] to cover a wide area. He felt that by scattering them he would be spreading the risks. If the enemy discovered one bunker, the rest had a chance to remain unnoticed. Each bunker was large, accommodating thirty to forty people. One was to serve as a hospital.
Nechama Tec, Defiance. The True Story of the Bielski Partisans (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993), p. 119.
Road to the west part of Jerusalem in the forest
"...to stay alive. Now people idealize and exaggerate the motivations. Our aim was to survive. When we left for the forest we felt that it was close to the end and so we wanted to live. We did not plan to fight the Germans, we thought about staying alive."
Nechama Tec, Defiance. The True Story of the Bielski Partisans (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993), p. 66.
Jerusalem in the forest. The dugout in the former trench
Dov Cohen (then Berl Kagan), a partisan from the Bielski group:
The problem of providing sufficient supplies for a camp of over 1,200 Jews was also complicated. Fewer and fewer provisions could be found in the villages: the partisans would often come and take what they needed in the way of clothing, footwear and food, and the German authorities also imposed ever-growing taxes. Villages suspected of helping the partisans were burned down, and their inhabitants killed. It wasn’t easy, confiscating a farmer’s last bit of property – his one remaining cow, horse or pig, or the stock of flour he had prepared. Sometimes they resisted violently, forcing us to retaliate in kind.
Last fifty meters of road - impassable, are in the swamp
Tuvia Bielski:
"Why do you worry so much about food? Let the peasants worry. We will get what we need from peasants and let more Jews come."
Nechama Tec, Defiance. The True Story of the Bielski Partisans (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993), p. 62.
Logs left to rot by woodcutters
There are pits of Jewish partisans dugouts to the left.
Jack Shepsman left the Bielski camp and joined a non-Jewish Soviet partisan:
"I didn’t like it there a bit, we didn’t have any arms; I had gone there to fight, to do something, and they put me in the kitchen – I didn’t survive just for that! I had to take revenge for what the Germans had done. One day a group of very nice, fine boys came to the camp. I went over to them and told them I didn't want to be with the Bielskis, that I had no future to take revenge"
Lyn Smith, Forgotten Voices of The Holocaust: A new history in the words of the men, women and children who were there, (Ebury Press, Random House), p. 205.
Bielski Brothers partisan camp. Ferns on the path to partisan dugouts
Shmuel Geller about "his own experiences":
"Once I got a rifle, I was sent for food expeditions. First, I did not know how to do it. Therefore, they would have me stand guard while they were collecting food from the peasants. Later on I joined the others. During one of those expeditions I saw a woman’s fur coat. My wife could use such a warm coat. I turned to the Polish peasant, ‘Will you allow me?’ For an answer the Pole cursed me and took away the coat.
Next to me stood a butcher from Nowogródek. He swore at the peasant, promising him a beating.
The butcher looked at me with anger and said, ‘You miserable intellectual, you don’t ask permission from the peasant! Did they ask permission when they were robbing Jews?’ … The warm fur coat was soon on the butcher’s wife. … Eventually I learned not to ask for permission."
Nechama Tec, Defiance. The True Story of the Bielski Partisans (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993), p.p. 198, 199
Tuvia Bielski:
"Don't rush to fight and die. So few of us are left, we have to save lives. To save a Jew is much more important than to kill Germans."
Nechama Tec, Defiance. The True Story of the Bielski Partisans (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993), p. 112.
Farther to the west are swamps
Partisan food collections, known as "bambioshka" [sic], took place at night. From the Bielski otriad [unit], "Every night one or two groups were sent out to bring food. A group consisted of ten or twelve armed men. One of these men acted as the leader. Some of the participants had to be familiar with the side roads and the particular villages. Of course, one had to select people that first of all were not afraid and second of all to whom the peasants would give food."
Nechama Tec, Defiance. The True Story of the Bielski Partisans (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993), p. 117.
West part of Jerusalem in the forest. In pit of Jewish partisans dugout
When a group reached a village it would first collect provisions from the richest [of the poor!] farms. As one partisan explains, this was possible because "In each village we had a peasant, usually himself poor, he would give us information about the other peasants. This way we knew what each had, how many horses, cows, etc. Such a peasant we called ‘legalshchyk.’ We took nothing from him. Sometimes we would give him some of the booty. Some of the rich peasants tried to hide their products … we would search and if this was the case, we took more from them."
Nechama Tec, Defiance. The True Story of the Bielski Partisans (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993), p. 117.
In the midst of two rows of pits of dugouts
Toward the end of 1942 horse-drawn wagons, confiscated from farmers, were used for food expeditions. When a group left a village, it had to subdivide and prepare the goods on the way back to the camp. For example, cows had to be killed and cut into manageable portions. All this had to be done quickly. At dawn a group was expected to be back at the base – daylight was the partisans’ enemy.
Nechama Tec, Defiance. The True Story of the Bielski Partisans (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993), p.p. 117, 118.
Jerusalem in the forest. Bielski Brothers partisan camp
The iron barrel was the kitchen of the Jews from the Bielski Brothers partisan camp.
Guides lead hapless Jews here to show "Jerusalem in the forest".
In fact, the "Jerusalem in the forest" ends here, there begin swamps farther to the west.
The very partisan camp occupied a much larger area, up to 1,200 Jew could simultaneously live in it.
And this is more similar to the stove of moonshakers, than the artifact of seventy years old
Jerusalem in the forest. Row of pits of Jewish partisans dugouts
Food expeditions were both risky and unpredictable. One never knew if all those who set out would return. Nor did one know what they would bring back. Some items were chronically in short supply, especially bread. It was impossible to find enough; people longed for bread and continuously talked about it.
Nechama Tec, Defiance. The True Story of the Bielski Partisans (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993), p. 118.
View from the pit of Jewish partisans dugout
"Fondly, some gave to this forest camp the name Bielsk, while others called it Jerusalem."
Nechama Tec, Defiance. The True Story of the Bielski Partisans (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993), p. 186.
Three mushrooms
Three mushrooms one on one
The length of the knife is 24 cm (
Spyderco Resilience C142GP)
Found on the site of the former dugout of partisan camp
Jerusalem in the forest. The dugout in the former trench
"If someone tells you that when he went to the partisans he was motivated by a desire to take revenge, that is incorrect. All of us left the ghetto in the hope of staying alive. We hoped just for a chance. And if not to survive, at least one wanted to die differently from the way most Jews were dying. Not to be shot in a mass grave and not to go to a concentration camp. I think that these motivations were similar for all who ran away from the ghetto. They did not leave to fight, they left to live."
Zorach Arluk in Nechama Tec, Defiance. The True Story of the Bielski Partisans (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993), p. 66.
Another expeditions:
Jerusalem in the forest in Puszcza Nalibocka,
Jerusalem in the forest of Puszcza Nalibocka,
Jerusalem in the Forest in Puszcza Nalibocka,
Wyspa. Location of the Jewish partisans base during the punitive operation Hermann
Instead of epilogue:
Jerusalem in the forest for tourists in Puszcza Nalibocka
