A Truly Amazing Story!!!
This is an absolutely amazing and touching story. The will to live that the people in the Bielski Camp had is truly inspiring. Nechama Tec tells this true story with such attention to detail and such passion. This book is an absolute must read, it is a piece of history that everyone should know about.

A breathtaking and touching book!!

Riveting Story
This was among the six books my dad loaned me recently. It's about time there is a book about Jews saving other Jews! This book is a deep and thorough study of the partisans who have managed to escape the ghettos, camps and imprisonment and formed a group to survive till the war was over. It is an insightful look into a history of a group of people that one do not hear much of.

The author has relied heavily on personal interviews ~~ which definitely made this book interesting. However, this book was either translated choppily or written choppily because it was very hard to follow in some cases ~~ as the stories skipped back and forth and it got confusing following it. That is why I rated this a three ~~ I literally had to skip chapters because it was repetitive and sometimes, too drawn out. It was not written in a way to capture your attention ~~ if you have an imagination, this book only serves to enhance it because the stories are enlightening, terrible and wonderful ~~ depending on what it is. And after drawing it out for several hundred pages, the ending was rather chopped.

It is about time though that the world hears of Jews saving other Jews during this horrible blight on history. I think the stories are enlightening and provoking. The stories all rate a five star ~~ as they were personal and sometimes, intimate. The three Bielski brothers endured a lot to keep the Jews from starving to death as well as keeping order in a camp filled with women, children and men.

If you are studying the Holocaust and the Jews, please read this book. In spite of its' choppiness, it is still a good read and a good lesson to be learned. Everyone should read this and remember those who have fought to stay alive in that terrible time.

6-22-06

This Book is Absolutely Amazing
In her book, "Defiance: The Bielski Partisans", Nechama Tec depicts an amazing tale of Jewish resistance and rescue on the eastern front during World War II. At the pith of this movement was one Tuvia Bielski, the commander of the large Jewish partisan outfit that roamed the Belorussian woods, constantly trying to avoid contact with the Germans. Tuvia, along with his brothers Asael and Zus were responsible for the salvation of over 1200 Jews, many of whom were elderly, female, or juvenile. Taking in such refugees in an extremely volatile environment was a huge risk. Without Tuvia's willingness, or determination to take on such risks, many of these people would have otherwise perished to the Nazi barbarity that was ubiquitous in the region. As a professor of sociology, the author Nechama Tec offers a unique perspective on this historical phenomenon. Her expertise brings into focus the social dynamic of partisan camps in World War II.

Rather than succumb to the popularly accepted view that Jews were passive victims who simply laid down and allowed the Nazi aggressors to do their bidding during the Holocaust, Tec attempts to elucidate the under-documented, untold side of the story. That is, despite the widespread annihilation and extermination that Jewish citizens faced in Europe, there were pockets of resistance to the Nazi menace that deserve laudatory recognition. Tec takes the sentiment that there is a necessity to educate people on the unmentioned and tries to fill in the gap she believes is left by mainstream historians. Her effort to do so indeed deserves the very same laudatory recognition that she sets out to bestow upon the Bielski partisans.

Tec makes the interesting suggestion that, contrary to popular belief, the Eastern European Jewish population was chock-full of resilient human beings. Human beings who were not only perfectly capable of surviving harsh physical conditions of the Belorussian woods, but also endowed with enough self respect to openly defy and resist the malevolent psychological conditions brought about by the Nazi occupiers.

The evidence that Tec employs is abundant. She relies heavily on personal interviews with people who lived in, and survived with Tuvia Bielski's partisan group. Obviously, such interviews can be considered primary text evidence, and are therefore integral to any comprehensive historical study. However, the question of the reliability of such sources needs to be raised. Having conducted the interviews nearly fifty years post hoc, Tec leaves the question of their accuracy wide open. Many times, in the years that pass after a traumatic event, people who have lived through that event have a tendency to romanticize it. This skepticism is in no way meant to take away from the tremendous effort and commendable activity of the Bielski partisan organization. It is merely a suggestion that the facts offered by the various interviewees need to be taken with a grain of salt. The accuracy of the overall picture is not what should be questioned, only the minute details. Despite the possibility of these petty hair-splitting ambiguities, the nature of the evidence that she employs makes her argument a believable one.

As one tarries along the path that is the study of the Second World War, one continually stumbles upon certain recurring themes. Perhaps one of the most intriguing of these themes is the duality of hope. Hope was such a major factor in so many peoples' lives during this turbulent time in Eastern Europe, regardless of their religious beliefs. There is no doubt that hope for freedom, hope for equality, hope for a better life, and hope for a liberated post war Europe was the underpinning of the exemplary actions of the Bielski partisans. Such hope supplied this sui generis group of Jews with something to live for, something to long for. However, hope has a darker side as well, a side that many choose to ignore. At the very same time that hope was motivating the Jews to defy, resist and survive, it was providing legitimacy to the atrocities committed by Nazi collaborators. If hope was drawn on a continuum, the Bielski partisans, as limned in Nechama Tec's "Defiance", should be placed on one extremity, epitomizing the good that can come from hope. On the opposite extremity should be the various collaborators depicted in Tadeusz Borowski's "This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen". These people absolutely epitomized the evil and nefariousness that hope can breed. When studying the Holocaust it is important to understand that hope is not always a virtuous attribute. It is essential for one to comprehend the paradoxical qualities of hope during this pestilent period of Nazi occupation.

Overall, Nechama Tec does a wonderful job recounting this story. Her sociological perspective helps to illuminate the organizational dynamics of partisan groups in Nazi occupied Eastern Europe. This organizational understanding is not always available from strictly historical authors. From a Jewish standpoint, it is particularly difficult to read her book, and not swell up with pride when learning about the messianic determination of Tuvia Bielski to save his people. Perhaps messianic is a bit too strong of a word for this situation. Still, Tuvia's work was highly meritorious. If one word could be used to describe the manner in which Jews are portrayed by mainstream History it would be compliance. If one word could be used to describe the manner in which Jews are portrayed by Nechama Tec it would be, and is Defiance. Her title is an apt one indeed. Ultimately, her work is a must read for anyone wishing to broaden their understanding of the Holocaust, Jewish history, or European history. Thusly, her book is recommended with the highest amount of adulation.

The Jew's who fought back
This book tells the largely unkown story of the Bielski Partisans. The only Jewish partisans that fought against the Germans in WWII. There are 30,000 Jews alive today from the 1,200 that were saved and fought with them in the forests. To get into the group, one had to kill a German by hand to get his weapon! This book relates the absolutely true story, that showed what happened when Jews were not victims, but organized, guerilla fighters.

review from a Bielski
Being the son of Aron Bielski the youngest of the 12 Bielski children I must say Ms.Tec did a wonderful and accurate job.Since Defiance was published there has been a great amonut interset raised on the Bielski Brothers.The book is informative and suspensful, it tell stories previously only known to the family and members of The Bielski Brigrade.