In June 1941, Germany launched a surprise attack on the Soviet Union. It wasn’t long before thousands of Jews in Belarusia were rounded up and placed in ghettos.
Three brothers — Tuvia, Asael and Zus Bielski — refused to go. They escaped into the thick woods and created a haven that eventually saved over 1,200 Jews.
Their story is told in a remarkably moving documentary, “The Bielski Brothers: Jerusalem in the Woods,” airing on the History Channel on Sunday, Nov. 12.
The film mixes archival footage and interviews with survivors and their families. Not surprisingly, their memories of the time are vivid and poignant despite the years. One survivor, for example, will never forget what it was like when the Jews were rounded up and herded into the ghetto:
“Whenever I talk about it, I hear their voices shouting, ‘Help me. Save me.'”
Another woman remembers one day a rumor spread throughout the woods that a dead horse was lying in a field. She and her mother rushed to the location, but only the animal’s guts remained. She recalled how good the guts tasted after they were cooked. “It wasn’t beneath us. We were only sorry we couldn’t get there earlier to get some meat.”
The Bielskis had a reputation for being tough guys before the Nazis invaded. Anti-Semites in the area knew to stay away from their family. Their personalities didn’t change after the Nazis came. They didn’t think they’d survive the war, but were prepared to die fighting.
But, at first, fighting the enemy wasn’t their main objective. All they wanted to do was save Jews. Tuvia frequently said, “I’d rather save one old Jewish woman than kill 10 Nazis.” The word got out and soon reaching the Bielskis’ forest was the goal of every Jew in the region.
There was no alternative. In December of 1941, more than 5,000 Jews were taken to a large pit and shot. “The ones who got the bullet were lucky; the others had to suffocate,” one of the survivors said.
It didn’t take long for the Bielskis’ people to become more offensively oriented. They killed collaborators and let people know there’d be a penalty for spilling Jewish blood.
They also began to work with Russian partisans, disrupting German supply lines. All these activities drew the attention of the Nazis, who discovered several Bielski camps. It was the final camp, in the Naliboki Forest, that became known as Jerusalem in the Woods. It included a school for children, a theater and a synagogue for observant Jews.
In July 1944, the war on the Russian front over, the Bielskis led a procession of more than 1,200 men, women and children from the woods to safety. Today, there are approximately 20,000 descendents of those survivors.
The film is seamless. The comments and footage flow as though it was all written in advance. This is a story that deserves to be told and filmmaker Dean Ward has done an excellent job.
“The Bielski Brothers: Jerusalem in the Woods” airs 4 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 12 on the History Channel.