The Bielski Brothers (book)

The Bielski Brothers (book)

The Bielski Brothers is a non-fiction book by Peter Duffy published in 2003. It tells the story of Tuvia Bielski, Alexander "Zus" Bielski, and Asael Bielski, three Jewish brothers who established a large partisan camp in the forests of Belarus during World War II, and so saved 1,200 Jews from the Nazis.

The book describes how, in 1941, three brothers witnessed their parents and two other siblings being led away to their eventual murders. It was a grim scene that would be repeated endlessly throughout the war. These brothers fought back against Germans and collaborators, waging a guerilla war against the Nazis in the forests of Belarus.

By using their intimate knowledge of the dense forests surrounding the Belarusan towns of Novogrudek and Lida, the Bielskis evaded the Nazis and established a hidden base camp, then set about convincing other Jews to join their ranks. The Germans found them in the forest once but they were not able to get rid of them. As more and more Jews arrived each day, a robust community began to emerge, a "Jerusalem in the woods."

After two and a half years in the woods, in July 1944, the Bielskis learned that the Germans, overrun by the Red Army, were retreating back toward Berlin. More than one thousand Bielski Jews emerged—alive—on that final, triumphant exit frometer Duffy, The Bielski Brothers : The True Story of Three Men Who Defied the Nazis, Built a Village in the Forest, and Saved 1,200 Jews, Harper Perennial, 2004, ISBN 0-06-093553-7

At the end of the war, with Soviet control of Belarus becoming increasingly oppressive, Tuvia Bielski and his remaining brothers fled to Romania, traveling on to Mandatory Palestine and eventually to the United States. One brother, Asael, had been drafted into the Soviet Red Army and was killed in action at Marlbork in 1944.