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A group of partisans who fought with the Bielski brothers. (Tomer Appelbaum)
Last update - 00:00 30/04/2008
Holocaust Remembrance Day
Jewish partisans remembered; their story to hit the big screen
By Yossi Melman
Tags: Holocaust, Daniel Craig 

screens. The screenplay is based on a book, "Defiance: The Bielski Partisans," written by Dr. Nechama Tec, a sociologist from the University of Connecticut and herself a Holocaust survivor.

The Jewish partisans were remembered last night, a day before the Holocaust Remembrance Day, at a concert by the Ra'anana Symphony Orchestra. The event was organized by Holocaust survivors and their children. Gary Resnik, Itzke's son, arrived especially from New York.
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"Dad was reticent and always refused to talk to me about what happened," he said. "But one time he opened up his heart to me and told me briefly about his and his friends' doings. He was most comfortable in presence of his brothers in arms. They would occasionally meet, drink and reminisce."

Gary Resnik's visit here is not his first. He first arrived in the country 40 years ago to volunteer to serve in the Israel Defense Forces elite unit, Haruv.

"I came here because I heard there were pretty girls, but mostly because I wanted to be a Jewish fighter like my dad was," he said.

After the concert, Resnik met Jack Kagan who told him his father was "one of the most daring in the group." Kagan, a plastics producer from London, is almost 80, and was only 14 when he joined the Bielski partisans.

"I was in the Navahrudak ghetto," Kagan recounted. "It's a city in Belarus of which half its population of 12,000 people was Jewish. It's best known as the place where the Polish poet Adam Mickiewicz was born." Shortly after Operation Barbarossa, the Nazis concentrated Jews in ghettos and later labor camps. Kagan twice managed to flee the ghetto.

"The second time, two of my toes were amputated because of the cold," he said. His escape was enabled thanks to ghetto prisoners digging a tunnel dug that also allowed 230 others to reach the woods. "We heard about the Bielski brother hiding in the forest and we joined them.

The Bielskis were the sons of a family of farmers from a nearby village. Brothers Tuvia and Zus Bielski deserted their retreating units in the Red Army and joined their brother Asael who ran the family farm. They were tall, blond and sturdy. From the first instance, they refused to go to the ghetto or wear a yellow Star of David. They fled to the woods together with their families. In time, they were joined by hundreds of people.

During 1943, they formed a kind of shtetl in the heart of the woods; they dubbed it "Jerusalem of the woods." Villagers from nearby areas cooperated with them once they realized the Bielskis were more dangerous to them than the Nazis: When a local farmer turned in a group of Jews that came to ask for food, they retaliated by killing him and his family, and burning down his house.

In 1944, when the area was liberated by the Red Army, a group of 700 Jewish survivors emerged from the woods.

Asael Bielski was killed in the Red Army, but after the war the remaining Bielski brothers Tuvia and Zus made aliyah to Israel. They lived in the Tel Aviv suburb of Holon and worked as drivers. Tuvia eventually immigrated to New York where he died in 1987.

"He was a very modest man," Miki Bielski, his son, said. "He told me: 'You'll see that after my death I'll be more famous than during my life.'" And so it was. After his death he was brought rest in a military burial on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem.

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      1.   heros in europe, heros in Israel. true Jewish role models 09:13  |  don 30/04/08
      2.   Jewish Partisans remebered 09:38  |  Ros 30/04/08
      3.   Righteous Among the Nation 09:59  |  Ivan 30/04/08
      4.   premonition 10:13  |  Kacper Piotrowski 30/04/08
      5.   Ray Mears 10:53  |  me 30/04/08
      6.   Finally the untold story is being told. 10:58  |  Avima 30/04/08
      7.   Spanish saved more jews!! 13:07  |  Manolo 30/04/08
      8.   MORE MOVIES LIKE THIS ARE NEEDED. 13:09  |  petra 30/04/08
      9.   World need a 1948 nakbah movie 13:18  |  Manolo 30/04/08
      10.   Its become ever 13:28  |  Manolo 30/04/08
      11.   MANOLO NAQBA DOUBLE TALK for tried war of extermination and lost 14:19  |  PETER SM 30/04/08
      12.   Needed: film on Palestinian Partisans against War Criminals 14:43  |  Historian 30/04/08
      13.   Manolo 14:44  |  Michael 30/04/08
      14.   Manolo is right: holocaust stories same time as israeli crimes 14:47  |  Historian 30/04/08
      15.   No Nakba movie 15:02  |  W 30/04/08
      16.   HISTORIAN considering the Arabs got well over 80% of the mandate 15:18  |  PETER SM 30/04/08
      17.   HISTORAN .Jews were the natives Arab invaders arrived later 15:23  |  PETER SM 30/04/08
      18.   fakes and truhts 15:43  |  Manolo 30/04/08
      19.   Monolo, "Historian", Nakba/Holocaust 15:49  |  Reuben Jacobs 30/04/08
      20.   The partisans picture is a fake! 15:55  |  Manolo 30/04/08
      21.   What about a Rudolf Kartsner movie? 16:09  |  Manolo 30/04/08
      22.   W Here is an Arab eyewitness account for you on Dir Yassin 16:21  |  PETER SM 30/04/08
      23.   Manolo - #20 16:25  |  Reuben Jacobs 30/04/08
      24.   Michael 16:33  |  sweis Melbourne 30/04/08
      25.   Where were limits? 16:34  |  Manolo 30/04/08
      26.   MANOLO BENNY Morris on refugees. 16:41  |  PETER SM 30/04/08
      27.   The Bielski brothers 16:44  |  Lynn Sharon 30/04/08
      28.   MANOLO Time magazine may 3 1948 16:47  |  PETER SM 30/04/08
      29.   MANOLO Re the VALID comparison to Hitler 16:50  |  PETER SM 30/04/08
      30.   Belorussian partisans 17:13  |  Alex 30/04/08
      31.   The Hama Nakba Partisans movie has to be made too 17:18  |  Genuine Tosefta 30/04/08
      32.   A Lebanon Civil War Nakba Partisans movie must be made as well 17:20  |  Genuine Tosefta 30/04/08
      33.   A Darfur Nakba Partisans movie must be made 17:22  |  Genuine Tosefta 30/04/08
      34.   A S. Sudan Nakba Partisan movie is in order too 17:24  |  Genuine Tosefta 30/04/08
      35.   The Anfal campaign against Kurds Nakba Partisans movie has to be 17:26  |  Genuine Tosefta 30/04/08
      36.   An Iran-Iraq war Nakba Partisans movie should be made 17:27  |  Genuine Tosefta 30/04/08
      37.   Manolo, a better movie than you suggest 17:32  |  Sam 30/04/08
      38.   The Coptic, Yemen war, Algeria, Berber, Saharawi Nakba movies 17:37  |  Genuine Tosefta 30/04/08
      39.   Tears of Jihad Nakba movie will be a smash hit! 17:43  |  Genuine Tosefta 30/04/08
      40.   Manolo 17:43  |  Reuben Jacobs 30/04/08
      41.   The Sicaris/Bielski Commandos 17:52  |  Jeff 30/04/08
      42.   Tosefta 17:54  |  sweis Melbourne 30/04/08
      43.   Reuben Jacobs, Tec`s book is much better than Duffy`s 17:58  |  Genuine Tosefta 30/04/08
      44.   sweis Melbourne yo do not know what Nakba means 18:11  |  Genuine Tosefta 30/04/08
      45.   Manolo, another question 19:07  |  Jake 30/04/08
      46.   Time for the old timers to 19:09  |  Mark Lincoln 30/04/08
      47.   Yom Hashoah 22:59  |  Lynn Sharon 30/04/08
      48.   Tosefta 23:56  |  sweis Melbourne 30/04/08
      49.   sweis Melbourne, I take my hat off to you 05:53  |  Genuine Tosefta 01/05/08
      50.   Tosefta 08:14  |  sweis Melbourne 01/05/08
      51.   Unknow story 08:18  |  marie glowacki 01/05/08
      52.   Polish GLOWACKA, they are survivors that your relatives wanted 10:07  |  Genuine Tosefta 01/05/08
      53.   marie Glowacki 10:08  |  sweis Melbourne 01/05/08
      54.   There was no GLORY in murdering defenceless civilians 07:28  |  marie glowacki 02/05/08
      55.   LOOK WHO`S GREEDY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 08:43  |  marie glowacki 02/05/08
      56.   Polish GLOWACKA you cannot hide that you hate Jews no matter what 18:19  |  Genuine Tosefta 02/05/08
      57.   your hatred is shameless 07:25  |  marie glowacki 03/05/08
      58.   Polish GLOWACKA repeats what it listens to like a parrot 08:03  |  Genuine Tosefta 03/05/08
      59.   Hatred against Poles 02:23  |  marie glowacki 06/05/08
      60.   Antipolonism 02:28  |  marie glowacki 06/05/08
      61.   Bielski Partisans were murderers of civilians 18:59  |  david 11/05/08
      62.   Polish GLOWACKA represents Radio Maryja therefore inconsequential 08:41  |  Genuine Tosefta 13/05/08
      63.   Avoid demonizing anyone who is trying ...................... 06:30  |  Marie Glowacki 16/05/08
      64.   Polska Glowacka I couldn`t care less about your Christian crap 05:24  |  Genuine Tosefta 13/09/08
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