“The Three Heroic Brothers”
Three brothers risked their lives to provide a safe haven for Jewish people. Before World War II the Bielskis lived in a village called Stankevich where they were the only Jews living there. Their parents and other relatives were murdered during a massacre. After this tragic event the three brothers left to the Belorussian forest. They decided to help save Jews, and by the end of the war they saved 1,200 Jews.
The Bielskis life before war was challenging. They were the only Jews living in a small village: “The Bielski home stood separate from the main section of the community…The Bielskis were the only Jews in town” (Duffy 1). The three brothers Tuvia, Asael, and Zus lived with their grandparents on a farmland in the forest. Being the only Jewish people in town they were alright with it. Their neighbors did not have a problem with them being around. Once the family got settled in “…the tsar issued another string of anti-Jewish decrees, including one that made it illegal for Jews to buy, sell, manage, or lease rural property” (Duffy 2). The tragedy between the Jews and the Germans were beginning, but the tsar were slowly taking their rights away from the Jews. Since Jews were not allowed to own their own property the Bielskis had to try to keep their home from being taken away. They lived in a forest on a farmland, so that means they took care of the farm, and knew their way around the forest surrounding their home. The brothers did have an education, but they didn’t learn everyday it varied. They sometimes go to a local school or they would be homeschooled. They were smart guys and understood three different local languages which would be useful for them later on. Although Tuvia was not that interes...
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...to get caught otherwise they would be executed. The Nazis would drive them to a ditch outside of the ghetto, and made them take their clothes off and face the ditch and shoot them.
Works Cited
Anflick, Charles. Resistance: Teen Partisans and Resisters Who Fought Nazi Tyranny. New York: Rosen Pub., 1999. Print.
Duffy, Peter. The Bielski Brothers: The True Story of Three Men Who Defied the Nazis, Saved 1,200 Jews, and Built a Village in the Forest. New York: HarperCollins, 2003. Print.
Levy, Patricia. Survival and Resistance. Austin, TX: Raintree Steck-Vaughn, 2001. Print. The Holocaust.
"The Bielski Partisans." United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. United States Holocaust Memorial Council, 10 June 2013. Web. 16 Apr. 2014.
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Henia Konopko was my grandmother. The Belski brother’s mission included saving children, and because of that I am alive. 1200 might seem like a small number in the comparison of the world’s population today. In fact bsjfgskf notes that the Beilski partisan is the largest number of Jews saved by other Jews during the Holocaust. Additionally, the magnitude of what the Bielski’s accomplished is seen in the descendants and all those who they saved. They saved my grandmother and because of that nine people are alive today! In fact historian’s estimate the number alive today because of their tremendous efforts to be sgkegv 20,000, and that number continues to constantly grow. The brothers choose not just to fight back, but to make a difference. Gdwkujsgf Bielski is noted saying how his proudest accomplishment is this. Yet, the brother never received fame and glory during their lifetime, even though in reality they should be recognized and memorialized in a hall of fame all their
“The Holocaust: 36 Questions & Answers About the Holocaust.” 36 Questions & Answers About the Holocaust. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Feb. 2014
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A Lucky Child by Thomas Buergenthal is a memoir about his time as a Jewish child in multiple ghettos and death camps in and around Germany during World War II. The author shares about his reunions with family and acquaintances from the war in the years between then and now. Buergenthal wished to share his Holocaust story for a number of reasons: to prevent himself from just being another number, to contribute to history, to show the power and necessity of forgiveness, the will to not give up, and to question how people change in war allowing them to do unspeakable things. The memoir is not a cry for private attention, but a call to break the cycle of hatred and violence to end mass crimes.
"Jewish Resistance". United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, n.d. Web. 19 May 2014.
Because of the location, enduring friendships, and athletic ability of the Belicki family, they were able to successfully aid twenty-three jews to escape the horrific persecution by providing shelter in the woods, even after two close encounters with those living nearby. After the Nazi party liquidated a nearby ghetto, only a handful of its inhabitants escaped. In June 1943, twenty-three Jews — several of them children and teenagers — arrived at the doorstep of the Belicki farm. Despite German law, which prevented any interaction between Jews and Aryans, the Belicki family continued their previous relationships with Jewish neighbors and friends. Genko, Julian’s father, could not bear to stand idly while previous friends were persecuted, so
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in which it branched. Over the past few decades, the survivors of the Holocaust retold their stories time and time again, stories which would forever be marked into history; However, there is so much more to this disastrous event than what appears upon its surface. There are so many untold—often times completely ignored—stories, documents, and truths that are hardly brought into light. This is why I want to partake in this in this rare event. I want to be able to hear the stories untold, read the documents unread, and so much more. Additionally, I want to be able to educate others on the Holocaust—much more than what their teachers can read out of the small, unforgiving section in their textbooks.
Buergenthal, Thomas. A Lucky Child: A Memoir of Surviving Auschwitz as a Young Boy. New York: Little, Brown, 2009.
The Silber Medal winning biography, “Surviving Hitler," written by Andrea Warren paints picture of life for teenagers during the Holocaust, mainly by telling the story of Jack Mandelbaum. Avoiding the use of historical analysis, Warren, along with Mandelbaum’s experiences, explains how Jack, along with a few other Jewish and non-Jewish people survived.
Engelhardt, I. (2002). A Topography of Memory: Representations of the Holocaust at Dachau and Buchenwald in comparison with Auschwitz, Yad Vashem and Washington DC. Presses Interuniversitaires Européennes.
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...caust." United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. United States Holocaust Memorial Council, 10 June 2013. Web. 07 Apr. 2014.