Children…

”Then he says in Russian:
‘Comrades, this is the most beautiful
day of my life because I lived to
see such a big group come out of
the ghetto!… I don’t promise you
anything, we may be killed while we
try to live. But we will do all we can
to save more lives. This is our way,
we don’t select, we don’t eliminate
the old, the children, the women. Life
is difficult, we are in danger all the
time, but if we perish, if we die, we
die like human beings.’”
MOSHE BAIRACH, MEMBER OF THE BIELSKI FAMILY CAMP
Partisans in the forest
Tuvia Bielski was a young Polish Jew who decided to go underground
when the Germans occupied his country. Eventually, he
gathered a group of comrades in the forests of western Belorussia.
Bielski decided that the group should not only defend itself, but
also actively assist other Jews who were suffering and try to convince
them to join what became known as the Bielski partisans.
By liberation in 1944, up to 1,200 men, women and children
were living under the fighters’ protection. Their policy of saving
Jews before attacking Germans contributed to the group’s survival.
There were other similar family camps in the forests of the
German-occupied eastern parts of Poland and western parts of the
Soviet Union. In the quote on the left, Moshe Bairach recalls what
Bielski said when they first met him in the woods.
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