Other Forces

Some fought back ...

Tuvia Bielski, overall leader of the Bielski brothers' Jewish partisan band, in uniform, from his period in the Polish Army, 1927-'29. Tuvia and his brothers would later lead a large Jewish partisan band in eastern Poland/western occupied Soviet Union, 1940-'44. Unlike Soviet-controlled partisan formations, the prime objective of the Bielskis was to rescue Jews in danger of elimination by the Germans and, of course, to survive themselves. Certainly, quite a number of Jews - and some Gentiles - owed their lives to the activities of the Bielskis, although these were not always appreciated by their Soviet partisan co-combattants or by the Soviet authorities.