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Tuvia, Zusya, Asael, and Aharon Bielski.

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The Bielski brothers grew up in western Belorussia in Stankiewicze village with their parents; David and Bella. In 1941, Germany invaded the U.S.S.R. with killing squads (Einsatzgruppen), who rounded up and mass murdered the Jewish. On December 8th, a mass murder of around 5,000 Jewish people took place, taking the lives of Bella and David. This is when the brothers decided to flee to a nearby forest and resist.

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In the forest, they set up a partisan unit, with Tuvia as commander. Their goal was not to kill Germans, but to save the Jewish. They sent scouts and fighters into nearby ghettos to try to convince inmates to escape with them to the forest.

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Surprisingly, this was not an easy task. Most people wanted to stay in their ghettos because they simply did not know how to live in the forest, and were afraid. They also knew that if one person was caught missing from a ghetto, everyone else would be exterminated.

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Eventually, lots of people were joining the Bielski brothers, and providing enough food for all of them was becoming a challenge. To acquire food, armed partisans were put into groups to collect food from the peasants. These peasants farmed food for the Germans, so it was also a challenge to find out which peasants were actually trustworthy and willing to help. Furthermore, the peasants were even struggling to farm enough food for the Germans, so partisans often had to resort to stealing.

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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.” - Tuvia Bielski

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In the first months of the unit's existence, they were constantly moving from forest to forest. During harsh winters, they tended to set up more permanent camps, but were still ready to evacuate if German soldiers came. February, 1943 was when their first evacuation took place. A police force had stumbled upon their refuge in Zabelovo forest, and they had killed a partisan. Tuvia ordered everyone to evacuate immediately and to go even deeper into the forest. The remaining refuge was destroyed and ransacked by the persecutors, and all the unit members were scattered.

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The partisan unit acted like its own civilization, and went through many phases of social development, adopting things like overall rules and social ranking. For example, the fighters were the most valued and privileged because they were crucial to the camp's survival. Women were excluded from doing things like gathering food and holding weapons. Many did not like this rule and rebelled against it.

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In April, the group finally reunited and set camp in Stara-Huta, a forest near Stankiewicze. It did not last long though, as the group was still attracting popularity, and that scared the members. They knew that the more popular they got, the more the chance of Germans finding them increased, so they moved camp once again. The camp's constant movement was also a problem for some members, as most of them were old, sick, and malnourished, so they couldn't move very fast or well.

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By 1944, the camp had reached over 1,200 members, which made it one of the largest partisan units in the U.S.S.R. It was also one of the largest rescues of Jewish people made by fellow Jewish. This shows that it is important to demonstrate resistance even in the face of adversity. These 4 brothers not only gave shelter to, but sustained and took care of over 1,000 Jewish people in a forest.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53dh7vh1FxA