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In the summer of 1944, when the Soviet counteroffensive began in Belarus and the area was taken over by the Soviets, the Kalinin unit, numbering some 1,200 of which 70% were women, elderly, and children, marched into Nowogródek. Following one final parade, they disbanded.

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The Bielski unit's partisans were primarily concerned with survival. Due to their poor equipment and training, they were not assigned main combat roles. Instead, its members operated field kitchens, hospitals, and bakeries and provided tailoring and cobbling services for Soviet soldiers.[12] Their main task, though, was forced requisitioning of food and other supplies from the local population.[12] The Bielski partisan group decided to prioritize saving Jews,[13] according to Tuvia Bielski "I would rather save one old Jewish woman than kill ten German soldiers".

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The four brothers Tuvia, Asael, Zusya and Aharon Bielski grew up in Eastern Poland, now Western Belarus, which had been annexed by the Soviet Union in 1939. They lived in the village Stankiewicze located between the towns Lida and Nowogródek. It had been the home of the Bielski family for three generations. They were the only Jewish family in a village that was populated by six families. They farmed the land and owned a mill. Their parents, David and Beila, had twelve children – ten sons and two daughters. Tuvia, the second-oldest child, was born in 1906.

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After their parents and other relatives were murdered in a massacre of around 5,000 Jews on December 8, 1941, the Bielski brothers fled to the Belarusian forest and set up a partisan unit with Tuvia Bielski as the commander. However, unlike other partisan groups, fighting the enemy was not their highest goal. Their primary objective was to rescue Jews and to offer them shelter and protection in the forest. The brothers did not only admit those who were able to fight, but every Jewish woman or man, no matter whether the person was young or old, healthy or sick, a fighter or a noncombatant. Tuvia Bielski explained that he “… would rather save one old Jewish woman, than kill ten German soldiers.”3

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In June, 1941 German troops invaded the Soviet Union. They were followed by Einsatzgruppen, killing squads, which rounded up the Jews, murdered them in mass graves and forced the remaining Jewish population into ghettos.

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https://www.yadvashem.org/articles/general/solidarity-bielski-brothers.html

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“There was something familiar about the forest, and in the worst case we could escape among the trees.”2

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“Don’t rush to fight and die. So few of us are left, we need to save lives. It is more important to save Jews than to kill Germans.”1
Tuvia Bielski

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Alan Dershowitz and Jewish Partisan Educational Foundation Bielski Brothers Tribute Dinner

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Bielski partisans, organization of Jewish partisans who fought Nazi Germany and its collaborators between 1942 and 1944 in occupied Poland.

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Established by brothers Tuvia, Asael, and Zus Bielski, the group conducted guerrilla operations and provided shelter and protection to some 1,200 Jews.

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The group was a group of Jewish people that had been planning to fight back against the Germans. Once the group had got any guns or ammunition they had fought back.