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A newer photo of Frank Blaichman.

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Frank Blaichman was a Jewish boy, born on December 11, 1922. Frank's grandmother owned a grocery store and his father made a living by buying grain from nearby farmers then selling to nearby towns. In September 1939 the Germans came to Poland and started to transfer them. In the beginning he helped his family get food, he would go out on the streets even though he wasn’t allowed and he didn't wear the Star of David. He could have easily been killed but he still did it to get his family food.

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He went into a forest and there were 100 Jews in an encampment, one day Polish spies gave the German information that told them where they were hiding. 22 of the 100 survived, Frank was one of the lucky Jews. Frank realized that the forest didn't offer them much protection, so they started to seek shelter in a little more secluded villages. On the way there they hid in farmers houses, while they were there the farmers gave them cooked meals.

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Then                           Vs                         Now
(Sadly he died at the age of 96)

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Frank Blaichman - Departing his family in October 1942

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This is Frank with his friends, the date is unknown.

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Born in the small town of Kamionka, Poland, on December 11, 1922, Frank Blaichman was just sixteen years old when the German army invaded his country in 1939. Following the invasion, German officials issued regulations intended to isolate the Jews and deprive them of their livelihood.

Frank took great risks to help his parents and family survive these hardships. With a bicycle, he rode from the neighboring farms to nearby cities, buying and selling goods at each destination. He refused to wear the Star of David armband and traveled without the required permits, but his courage and fluent Polish ensured his safety.

When word spread that the Jews of Kamionka were to be resettled in a nearby ghetto, Frank hid in a bushy area outside of town. He stayed with a friendly Polish farmer and then joined other Jews hiding in a nearby forest. In the forest, the threat of being discovered was constant and Polish hoodlums beat any women who left the encampment. Frank encouraged the men to organize a defense unit. He obtained firearms by posing as a Polish policeman, using an overcoat he had found.

After a German attack on the partisans' encampment killed eighty Jews, the survivors left the forest to hide with sympathetic farmers. Always on the move, they killed German collaborators, destroyed telephone lines, damaged dairy factories, and ambushed German patrols.

Frank's squad joined a larger all-Jewish unit, with strong ties to the Polish underground and Soviet army. They were responsible for protecting 200 Jews living in a forest encampment. Only 21, he was the youngest platoon commander in the unit and escorted the future prime minister of Poland to a secret meeting with Soviet high command.

He says

"I'm very proud of what I did all those years....The reality was we had nothing to lose, and our way to survive was to fight."

Frank Blaichman's memoir, Rather Die Fighting, was published in 2009 by Arcade Publishing.

Primary resources by the Jewish Partisan Educational Foundation. © 2018 Jewish Partisan Educational Foundation. All Rights Reserved. For more information, go to www.jewishpartisans.org.

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Frank Blaichman (Jewish Partisan Educational Foundation biography)

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Born in the small town of Kamionka, Poland, on December 11, 1922, Frank Blaichman was just sixteen years old when the German army invaded his country in 1939. Following the invasion, German officials issued regulations intended to isolate the Jews and deprive them of their livelihood.

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If he hadn't done that many Jews might have been caught trying to flee and if they didn't destroy the factories the Germans would have had food to keep fighting. They also hunted down spies, if they hadn't done that the spies could have found people hiding Jews. Frank was almost killed because a spie saw that they were hiding in the woods and told the Germans. That's why they hunted down the spies and probably killed them. Finally if his group didn't take down telephone lines the Germans would have been able to communicate to each other.

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Early in 1943 Frank and 60 other members joined forces with refugees from the town Markuszow. His group hunted down Poland spies in the area, destroyed dairy factories, telephone lines, and they ambushed German patrols. His group had helped a little with ending the Holocaust.