# data[].attributes.body
Born in the small town of Kamionka, Poland, on December 11, 1922, Frank was 16 years old when the German army invaded the western and central parts of Poland. His family was among the Jews living in the town. They were merchants, his grandmother owned a grocery store, and his father bought grain from farmers in the area, selling it in nearby towns and in the city of Lublin.

# data[].attributes.body
In October 1942, when the Jewish councils were forced to carry out Nazi orders informed the Jews of Kamionka that they were going to be “resettled” in a ghetto in Lubartow, Frank escaped and hid in a bushy area outside of town. He tried to help any Jews he could. Frank soon learned that Kamionka’s Jews had not been relocated to the ghetto in Lubartow. A farmer told him that the Germans had put them on trains to some other, unknown destination. Frank realized that everyone he knew and the rest of the Jewish community, were on their way to dying.

# data[].attributes.body
Frank despritly fled to the forest. In the woods, he discovered an camp of more than 100 Jews in small bunkers dug into the ground and padded with straw. At first the forest seemed like a haven, but he soon realized the camp was in constant danger and began to organize a defense unit. Early one morning, German soldiers, acting on information given to them by Polish spies, attacked the camp in the forest.

# data[].attributes.body
Frank escaped the attack and was one of the very few of the jews that did. They fled to more suecluded farming towns were they were fed. Him and the other jews living in the farming town joined forces with refuges from another town his alliance grew to 60 fighting jews. Soon after, 28 more men ascaped from a prisoner of war camp and joined his alliance. In September 1943, the unit began working with Armia Ludowa, a communist-led Polish partisan group.

# data[].attributes.body
Franks platoon went on fighting off Nazis and ambushing there patrols. Frank said “I’m very proud of what I did all those years”. Also “The reality was we had nothing to lose, and our way to survive was to fight.”

# data[].attributes.body
Armia Ludowa provided Frank’s unit with much-needed food and ammunition from their Soviet allies. Previously armed with old rifles and handguns, the group was able to obtain explosives, hand grenades, land mines, machine guns, submachine guns, mortars, anti-tank guns, and all the ammunition they needed. Just 21, Frank was the youngest platoon commander in the expanded unit and even was selected to escort the future prime minister of Poland to a secret meeting with Soviet high command.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Frank Blaichman in Polish partisan uniform, 1945

Photographed by Mitch Braff in January of 2003

Frank Blaichman was born in the small town of Kamionka, Poland on December 11, 1922. Frank was 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 livelihoods.

Frank took great risks to help his parents and family survive these hardships. He rode his bicycle 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 wooded area outside of town. He stayed with a friendly Polish farmer and before joining other Jews hiding in a nearby forest. The threat of being discovered was constant in the forest, and Polish hoodlums beat any women that 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. At only 21, he was the youngest platoon commander in the unit and escorted the future prime minister of Poland to a secret meeting with the Soviet high command.

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

Frank's memoir, Rather Die Fighting, was published in 2009 by Arcade Publishing. Frank Blaichman passed away on December 27, 2018, at the age of 96.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Frank Blaichman in Polish partisan uniform, 1945 Photographed by Mitch Braff in January of 2003 Frank Blaichman was born in the small town of Kamionka, Poland on December 11, 1922. Frank was sixteen years old when the German Army invaded his country in 1939.