The Bielski Brothers - Essay Example

I. Introduction In the dangerous, life-threatening surroundings of the woodland, the Jews fought back hard. Merely some attained a certain amount ofindependence. This was the case for the Bielski brothers, the organizers of a Jewish partisan society called the Bielski otriad, which is a Russian word for a partisan indifference (Rohrlich 1998). The Bielski brothers were peasants who belonged to a marginalized group of Jews. They are the only Jews in Stankiewicze, which is a remote village, and they were incredibly poor and inadequately educated. Familiar with the way of life in the countryside, they became self-sufficient. In 1941, the Bielski brothers, namely, Tuvia, Asael and Zus, declined to surrender to the Nazi fear. Informed by their Belorussian colleagues that they will be detained because of their previous alliance to the Soviet officials, they ran away. For protection, the three brothers separated. The three brothers tendered their services to the Belorussian peasants in exchange for food and shelter (Rohrlich 1998). The three brothers are Jews who, from the very start, declined to become ghetto prisoners. II. From Resistance to Rescue In 1942, the resolve of the Bielski brothers to resist the Germans in a more mobilized and organized manner was strengthened when news of their parents, relatives and friends’ murder reached them. They agreed to organize an independent Jewish partisan. In order to accomplish this, they needed armaments. A gun ruled respect; a gun guaranteed food and protection. Before long the three brothers, with the assistance of non-Jewish colleagues, obtained a gun. Afterwards in the summer of 1942, with more than thirty adherents, they established a partisan unit and assigned Tuvia Bielski, the oldest brother, as its leader (Friedman & Friedman 1980). A talented, enigmatic leader, Tuvia Bielski embark on to counterbalance the surrounding perils through combining forces with the various partisan clubs, particularly the leading Soviet partisan detachments. This collaboration expanded to food collection and to multiparty military activities. Various partisan groups were appointed to different communities from which they would sequester provisions. Farmers or peasants were the primary providers. Confronted with heavily armed men, the peasants were left no choice but to give a portion of their scarce provisions. At the same time as food was gathered independently by each group, assaults on Germans and their partners, for the objective of gathering weapons and goods, for destructive activities such as blowing up roads and bridges, were carried out collaboratively by partisans from the different units (Friedman & Friedman 1980). Tuvia Bielski took over full command over internal and external strategies and over every organizational negotiation of the otriad. He maintained that all Jews, disregarding their sex, age, wellbeing or any other attributes, would be admitted into the group. The strategy confronted internal resistance which noticed in this measure a danger to the survival of the group. With this resistance Tuvia disputed that big mass implied greater power and greater security. He never moved from this place. On the other hand, at the same time as Germans sped up the process of Jewish annihilation, he turned out to be more resolute to rescue lives (Tec 1994). Finally, due to his powerful character and charisma, Tuvia was able to persuade numerous of his adherents of the necessity to save the lives of as many Jews as possible. II. A Holocaust Survivor Account Jack Kagan was just a young boy when the Germans invaded Poland and he was 14 years old when he managed to escape from the ghetto concentration camp, through a passageway dug by inmates, in the midst of a rain of bullets, in 1943. He became involved with a faction of Jewish freedom fighters lending a hand to the Russians in driving away the Germans and he moved to London two years after the war to raise a family of his own and become a wealthy businessman. He was only 12 years old the time the German SS attacked Novogrodek in Belorussia in 1941. His neighbors and friends were regularly killed in groups by the invading Wehrmacht fighters. The worse is yet to come. His relatives and other loved ones were rounded up, and massacred in the forests near Peresika. Jack belonged to a fortunate group of Jews who evaded death because his parents were experienced and trained workers and, in 1941, he, together with his family became slaves in a ghetto. Jack Kagan was just a young boy when the Germans invaded Poland and he was 14 years old when he managed to escape the ghetto concentration camp in 1943. The escape was facilitated by the Bielski brothers. Source: "MIDLAND: War Survivors Horror Story." The Birmingham Post (2006): 5. III. Conclusions Undoubtedly, regardless of what association the Bielski detachment is measured up to, it appears to have had thus far did a good job in the resistance and the rescue. A great deal of the glory for this triumphant defense and salvation of lives belongs to Tuvia Bielski, the group’s charismatic leader. Possibly the Bielski otriad and its gifted leader can function as an example demonstrating the relationship between self-preservation and the self-sacrificing protection of human lives. In periods of unrest among the remains of a long-existing society, those who are self-sufficient and detached from the mainstream culture are probable to glimpse hope in a rather dire and hopeless situation. Threatened by overwhelming elements of annihilation, those harboring hope will focus more strongly than others on eluding death. When this resistance gives way to a guise of victory, self-preservation creates space for concern about the safety and lives of others. While initially these others are wings of one’s being, such as family members, with the passing of time and with more victory, they emerge to take account of friends. Nourishing themselves on their own accomplishment and obtaining more advocacies, the defenders and the defended eventually come to include people endangered by obliteration and death. Each turns out to be transformed from a potential sufferer to rescuer, obscuring the dividing line between the protector and the protected. What had started as an idealistic shine of hope became an opportunity to survive, a collaborative attempt. Possessed with confidence and hope for a better future, people who are self-sufficient and liberated from social restrictions can more effortlessly share their hopes, their potentialities, and their victory to the less hopeful and less inventive. This sharing generates its own reality, which is a reality that resists the life-threatening situation and death. And hence, in periods of upheaval, when traditional, recognized leaders fail, the inexperienced, the self-sufficient who are liberated from customary limitations have the chance to improve their leadership capabilities and their means of survival. Originally endowed with hope and a sense of self-respect, they eventually transform these hopes into real advantages and benefits. Victory may usher them into the status of leadership and influence. Hope, self-sufficiency, freedom, skill to mobilize and organize, and the ensuing success result into more opportunities and grander accomplishments. When the unrests show indications of going back to earlier social realities, the capabilities of the independent inspirational leader turn out to be outmoded. Partly through altering circumstances, partly through their own capability to blend into these circumstances, such leaders are battered down. Even though the leaders recoil, the value of their accomplishment remains. In times of difficulties and fear, a brave soul surfaces to protect the weak and the defenseless. It is in the history of humankind to set aside self-preservation for the good of many. The Bielski brothers showed to the world the inherent goodness of the humanity in the face of evil. As leaders of a woodland village committed to the protection and preservation of life, Tuvia Bielski bestowed upon the Jewish people priceless gifts of hopes, opportunities and their valuable lives. References Dinnerstein, Leonard. America and the Survivors of the Holocaust. New York: Columbia University Press, 1982. Friedman, Philip & Friedman, Ada June. Roads to Extinction: Essays on the Holocaust. New York: Jewish Publication Society of Americ, 1980. Greenspan, Henry. On Listening to Holocaust Survivors: Recounting and Life History. Westport, CT: Praeger, 1998. "MIDLAND: War Survivors Horror Story." The Birmingham Post (2006): 5. Rohrlich, Ruby. Resisting the Holocaust. Oxford: Berg Publishers, 1998. —. Resisting the Holocaust. New York: Berg, 2000. Tec, Nechama. Defiance: The Bielski Partisans. New York: Oxford University Press, 1994. Read More