Bielski Otraid: Film Analysis

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When thinking of the word resistance, one gets a picture of a small, weak group of people using guns to fight against a powerful evil. Although this is a correct interpretation of resistance, there are more forms, such as spiritual and cultural resistance, that can be equally devastating to the cause of the powerful evil. A major example of all of these forms of resistance is the Bielski Otraid, subject of the 2008 film Defiance, as they actively resisted the Germans in these ways, become the physical embodiment of Jewish resistance as they drew parallels with the resistance shown by the Jewish people. The Jewish people demonstrated all of the forms of resistance, from the physical resistance seen in the armed revolts seen in multiple ghettos and some death camps, and the spiritual resistance through the attempted continuation of normal life in the ghettos and the acceptance of faith while at the death camps. The most obvious form of resistance that the Bielski Otraid participated in was armed …show more content…

The Jews that were in the ghettos were led by a group of Jewish leaders known as the Judenrate, who communicated with the Nazis and were in charge of education and distributing food. For the majority of the ghettos, the Judenrate decided that they needed to do everything that they could to keep the people’s faith alive, in a similar way to Tuvia Bielski. They had the children continue their religious education and they also decided to hold religious ceremonies during important times of the Jewish year, although this mostly depressed the Jewish people as it reminded them of the life that they once had. By doing these actions it shows the similarities between the actions of the Judenrate and Tuvia Bielski in terms of spritiual resistance, displaying the theory that the Bielski Otraid served as a representation of the resistance of the Jewish

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