Partisans

This is coolbert:

We have all seen the various movies and TV documentaries about the Nazi "Final Solution" to the "Jewish Problem".

Genocidal massacre on what can only be termed an apocalyptic scale.

Jews, civilians, not resisting, being herded naked into pits and shot.

Persons, docile, compliant to a fault, non-resisting, "sheep-like"! A very grim and disturbing scene.

NOT ALL Jews of eastern Europe, however, behaved in such a manner. Some fled to the forests, joined or formed guerrilla bands, and waged partisan warfare against the Germans.

Most notably among these bands and groups was the Bielski partisans.

"The Bielski partisans (the official name was changed several times) was the largest group of the Jewish partisans in the course of the World War II who fought against the Nazi German occupiers and their collaborators in the area of Navahrudak and Lida in present-day Belarus."

Jewish partisans fighting strictly as Jewish partisans, and not incorporated into the much larger Soviet-controlled partisan movement.

"The group's commander was . . . Tuvia Bielski (1906-1987), a Polish army veteran and graduate of a Zionist youth movement . . . Hundreds of men, women, and children eventually found their way to the Bielski camp, which ultimately numbered over a thousand inhabitants, both civilians and fighters."



[Tuvia Bielski: above]

This would include all men, women, children. Fighters and non-fighters. The number of the former being much less than one thousand. That one thousand inhabitants includes EVERYONE.

A guerrilla band MUCH MORE than merely combatants. A SOCIETY of persons, sometimes called "family camps"! Gave refuge to all Jews that escaped Nazi persecution! Refugees, all of which, to the best of their ability, contributed to the "guerrilla society" and the war effort, in some manner, in a variety of ways!!

A "family camp" and guerrilla base for combat operations that included:

* "a kitchen"
* "a mill"
* "a bakery"
* "a bathhouse"
* "a medical clinic"
* "a quarantine hut"
* "Herds of cows"

With regard to the "herds of cows": "The partisans operated under constant threat of starvation. In order to survive, Jews had to put aside traditional dietary restrictions."

Please recall, from a prior blog entry, the legal opinion of Rabbi Akiva from the time of the Bar Kochba rebellion: "during time of war, all laws maybe set aside, except for murder and apostasy!!'

Non-combatants [the majority] of those persons in the Bielski partisan group, earned their keep by working in a variety of workshops, all devoted to the military effort. Workshops, providing needed clothing, weapons, articles of life needed for a partisan unit to exist and thrive.

Workshops where could be found and included:

* "tailors". Patch uniforms and mend clothing needed by the partisans and those living with them.
* "shoemakers". Shoes and boots made and mended for the partisans and those living with them.
* "leather-workers". Horses were an important part of warfare on the eastern Front during World War Two. Bridles, reins, harnesses, saddles, all had to be made of leather.
* "A metal shop". Repair damaged or captured weapons. Assemble new weapons from parts taken from inoperable
* "A tannery". Provide raw material for the leather-workers and the shoemakers.

The Bielski partisan unit was MUCH MORE THAN JUST A GROUP OF GUERRILLA COMBATANTS. AN ENTIRE SOCIETY OF PERSONS DEVOTED SOLELY AND WHOLLY TO THE WAR EFFORT, LIFE, BODY, MIND, SOUL!!!

[the communists in Vietnam referred to this as "people's war, peoples' army"!]

Please do not think that all was a bed of roses for the Bielski partisans. It was undoubtedly a rough, hard life, often so in the extreme. Ruthlessness was a necessity for survival. If you ran afoul of the partisans, something very bad was going to happen to you. Such is the normal nature of partisan/guerrilla/irregular warfare!!

"As revealed, for example, by interviews . . . the Bielski Partisans felt it necessary for their survival to be ruthless."

Ruthless behavior to include:

* "Collaborators who turned in partisans to Nazi authorities were executed after cursory investigation."

* "A group of German soldiers who surrendered to the Bielskis were summarily executed"

* "In at least one instance, Zus Bielski executed one of his own officers for leaving a civilian behind"

C'est le guerre dude!! Hey, no one said this is going to be easy!!

coolbert.