Participants:
Series Code: TIJ
Program Code: TIJ004124S
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00:28 In the year 1941, the Jews at least in Europe
00:32 were being massacred by the thousands. 00:35 Amid the chaos, carnage, and bloodshed, three brothers 00:39 managed to escape certain death and take refuge in the dense 00:43 forests they have known since childhood. 00:46 There they began their desperate battle against the Nazis, 00:51 the brothers turned a primitive struggle to survive 00:55 into something far more consequential. 00:58 A way to avenge the death of their loved ones by saving 01:03 thousands of others. 01:04 At first, it was all that they could do to survive 01:08 and stay alive but gradually as whispers of their daring 01:13 exploit spread, they began to attract others 01:16 men and women, young and old willing to risk everything 01:21 for the sake of even a moment's freedom. 01:25 As the brutal winter descended they worked to create 01:29 a community and to keep faith alive when all humanity 01:34 appeared to be lost. 01:35 Join me as we follow the exploits and explore the 01:40 fascinating Tuvia Bielski and his brothers, 01:45 Jewish partisans who dared to defy the iron fist of Hitler 01:50 and the Nazi regime. 01:52 This is an epic tale of family, honor, vengeance, and salvation. 02:16 It was early in 1943 at the Navagrahato Ghetto was buzzing 02:22 with whispers, there were rumors of an impending Nazi raid, 02:27 rumors that the ghetto would be liquidated which was a code 02:31 word for the mass murder of all Jews living inside its walls. 02:37 When war broke out between Germany and the Soviet Union 02:41 in June 1941, there had been over 6,000 Jews in Navagrahato. 02:46 In December 1941 all these Jews were forced into a ghetto. 02:52 Between July 1941 and May 1943 the Jews of Navagrahadik 02:59 were murdered in a series of Nazi raids dwindling the Jewish 03:04 population from over 6,000 down to less than 300. 03:09 This small bedraggled group of Jews were determined 03:14 to survive. As rumors of a final liquidation of the camp 03:19 increased, leaders in the community decided that they 03:23 needed to act in order to save themselves. 03:25 However, escape seemed like an impossible dream 03:30 the ghetto was guarded around the clock by a unit of 03:35 armed Nazi soldiers in addition the entire ghetto 03:39 was surrounded by two walls. Even if one or two of the 03:43 ghetto inmates could manage to make it past the guards 03:47 and walls and barbed wire, it was impossible for all of them 03:52 to escape. And the Nazi policy was to kill everyone left behind 03:58 in the even that a handful did manage to leave. 04:01 If the Jews of Navagrahato ghetto were to escape, 04:05 then they needed to make sure that no one was left behind. 04:11 Finally, they decided that their only option was to tunnel 04:16 out of the ghetto choosing the space under someone's bed 04:20 is the entry point of the tunnel. 04:22 A group of 50 diggers began to slowly shovel their way 04:27 under the ghetto, finally after months of digging and despite 04:32 months of challenges, the tunnel was ready. 04:35 On the 26th of September 1943 at 9:00 pm, the first Jews 04:41 slipped through the entrance to the tunnel and disappeared 04:45 into the depths of the earth. Realizing that something was 04:50 amiss, the guards sounded the alarm and began to open fire 04:54 indiscriminately. But by this time many of the evacuees 04:59 were emerging on the other side of the tunnel 05:01 outside of the ghetto walls breathing in their first taste 05:06 of freedom. One of them a young 14-year-old girl stumbled 05:11 into the dark moonless night, it was raining and the sounds 05:16 of gunfire or the barking of attack dogs surrounded her 05:20 in the distance, seeing a farm- house, she made a run for it. 05:24 She hid in the outhouse, sitting in there for hours to fearful 05:30 to sleep listening to the shouts and the gunshots and the 05:33 barking dogs. Finally at dawn when the activity had 05:37 died down, she decided to run to the forest, 05:41 she had heard of a group of Jewish resistance fighters, 05:45 partisans who lived in the forest defending themselves 05:50 against Nazi attacks, scavenging for food and above all else 05:55 refusing to bow to the tyranny of the Nazi regime. 05:59 After hours of wandering the girl stumbled onto the camp 06:03 in Naliboki Forest in western Belarus, she was welcome 06:08 with open arms, given food and a place to stay. 06:11 She had reached the campsite of the Bielski Otriad 06:16 a group of 1,200 Jews led by the Bielski brothers determined 06:22 to survive the war. 06:24 When the Nazis rose to power in 1933, their leader Adolf Hitler 06:33 only had two agenda items in mind, the first was to create 06:39 a German super state that dominated Europe in 06:42 the world, the second was to systematically eradicate the 06:47 Jewish race from the face of the earth. 06:50 Quietly he began to put in place measures to separate, 06:56 exclude, and expel Jews from every facet of German society. 07:02 Germans were ordered to boycott Jewish businesses and Jews were 07:07 systematically removed from civil service. 07:11 Then in November 1938 Herschel Grynszpan a Polish, German, Jew 07:18 living in France shot and killed Ernst vom Rath a German diplomat 07:23 living in Paris, Grynszpan was seeking revenge for the 07:28 the German treatment of Jews including his own family 07:31 who had been forced into exile in Poland. 07:35 Soon after vom Rath's death, Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi 07:41 minister in charge of propaganda ordered more violence 07:45 this took the form of what was later was known as the 07:49 Kristallnacht pogrom, or the Night of Broken Glass. 07:53 During Kristallnacht German Paramilitary troops 07:57 and Hitler youth units burned, looted, and vandaled 08:01 thousands of Jewish homes, store, and synagogues. 08:05 Soon after this 30,000 Jewish men were arbitrarily arrested 08:12 and sent to concentration camps. 08:14 Then on the 1st of September 1939, Germany invaded Poland 08:20 kicking off World War II, by June of 1940, Germany had 08:26 invaded and occupied Denmark, Norway, Belgium, Northern France 08:31 and the Netherlands. Then in June 1941 Germany launched 08:37 Operation Barbarossa and invaded the Soviet Union. 08:41 However Hitler's ever expanding empire held an increasing 08:46 number of Jews and they soon began to look for ways 08:49 to deal with what he referred to as the Jewish problem. 08:53 His deadly response became known as the final solution. 08:58 Jews across Europe were labeled with yellow stars and herded 09:03 into ghettos or shipped off to concentration camps 09:07 to be exterminated. 09:09 Today, we are familiar with the harrowing images 09:13 of emaciated Jews peering through wired fencing 09:17 and the leering smoke stacks of Death Camps like Auschwitz 09:21 were millions of Jews were murdered. 09:24 These images are deeply disturbing and give us a glimpse 09:29 into what the human heart is capable of at its worst 09:33 but one aspect of Jewish history during World War II 09:37 that is overlooked or more often unknown is the story of 09:42 Jewish partisans who defied the Nazi war machine. 09:47 Many of these partisans occupied the forests of Western Belarus 09:54 within the Soviet Union and the most successful of these groups 09:59 that saved the most Jewish lives during World War II 10:02 was the Bielski Otriad or the Bielski partisans. 10:07 The Bielski' s were a poor peasant family based in the 10:11 village of Stuncavridge in Western Belarus. 10:14 The father David Bielski owned a small mill farmed the land 10:19 and kept some livestock, his wife Biella gave birth to 10:24 twelve children, ten sons, and two daughters. 10:28 The Bielski s lived in a small two-room hut and were the only 10:33 Jewish family living in Stuncavridge. 10:36 On the first of September 1939, Germany invaded Poland 10:44 from the west, 16 days later on the 17th of September 10:49 the Soviet Union invaded Poland from the east 10:53 the military invasion lasted three weeks until on the 10:57 sixth of October, 1939, the entire territory of 2nd Polish 11:03 republic was divided between Nazi, Germany and the 11:07 Soviet Union. For many Jews in the eastern part 11:10 of the Polish Republic the arrival of the Red Army 11:14 was a welcome site, they were glad to see Soviets because 11:18 they would shield them from the far greater terror 11:21 of Nazi hatred towards Jews. 11:24 But their sense of relief was short lived, nine months later 11:29 in June 1941, Germany declared war on the Soviet Union. 11:35 The German onslaught against the Soviet Union was as 11:38 unexpected as it was sudden taking Soviet authorities 11:43 and civilians by surprise. To escape the Luftwaffe raids 11:48 Tuvia and Zus Bielski, David and Biela Beilsky's sons 11:53 fled to the family home in Stankiewicz with their families. 11:57 As the situation unfolded and the Germans gained 12:01 the upper hand, most Jews began to realize that time 12:06 was running out. 12:08 The first German Army unit rolled into Stankiewicz on the 12:14 first, of July 1941, they chose the Bielsky's farmland 12:19 to set up camp and set up their headquarters in the backyard 12:24 of the family's small home. At first, the Germans appeared 12:28 friendly but soon they issued orders demanding that 12:33 all Jews who were not permanent residents of Stankiewic 12:37 immediately evacuate the village on pain of death. 12:41 Tuvi and his brother Zus were forced to leave and return 12:46 to their respective homes. During this time Tuvia 12:51 went to the nearby town of Nowogrodek to visit his brother 12:55 Asael, while he was there, both brothers were arrested by the 12:59 Germans and forced into a labor camp. They managed to escape 13:04 in the dead of night and vowed that they would never allow 13:08 themselves to be captured by the Germans again. 13:11 As the Nazi reign of terror began to sweep over Russia, 13:17 Jews began to get a taste of what the western counterparts 13:22 had experienced. By the time the Nazis invaded the 13:25 Soviet Union, they had perfected their methods of Jewish 13:30 extermination. Determined to accelerate the process of 13:35 Jewish annihilation, they introduced specialized 13:39 killing units especially trained to murder Jews... 13:42 This group known as the Einzart's Group would follow 13:48 close on the hills of the advancing army. 13:51 They would encircle and trap large Jewish population centers 13:55 before their unsuspecting victims had a chance to figure 13:59 out what was happening and it was too late to escape. 14:02 In the massacres that followed this elite Nazi killing machine 14:07 was assisted by the German army and local collaborators. 14:12 By October 1941, Tuvia, Asael, and Zus Bielski began to 14:20 covertly began to move in and out of society. 14:23 They spent time with their families, picked up work 14:26 as casual day laborers on farms and would hide in the 14:30 surrounding forests when circumstances posed a threat 14:34 but they refused to settle into ghettos. 14:38 Ghettos were large enclosed districts where Jews were 14:44 isolated from the rest of society. 14:47 In order to place Jews in a ghetto Nazi authorities 14:51 would follow a familiar pattern, first Jews were identified 14:57 and separated from their non- Jewish counterparts, 15:00 often their property was confiscated and they were 15:04 refused employment. Once this phase was completed 15:09 they were rounded up and forced into ghettos where living 15:13 conditions were appalling, extreme overcrowding 15:17 in the confined area led to the outbreak of epidemics. 15:20 The abject poverty of the inhabitants led to starvation 15:25 and often death. Towards the end of 1941 the Bielsky farm 15:33 in Stankiewic was raided by the Germans, 15:36 the Bielsky brothers learned that their parents 15:40 had been arrested and taken to the Novogrudok Ghetto 15:43 along with Zus Bielsky's wife and baby daughter. 15:47 Then on the 7th of December 1941, there was a massive raid 15:53 at the Novogrudok Ghetto, 4,000 Jews were massacred 15:58 and among them were the Bielsky's parents and the wives 16:02 of two of the brothers, Tuvia and Zus. 16:06 This tragedy was a turning point for the Bielsky Brothers, 16:11 now more than ever they were determined to concentrate on 16:17 to find the German army and freeing themselves and those 16:21 who were dear to them from their clutches. 16:23 By March 1942 Asael Bielsky had gathered nine fugitive Jews 16:31 around him in the forest near Novogrudok, by then it was 16:35 impossible to work in exchange for food, this was because 16:40 the local non-Jewish population was terrified of the severe 16:45 punishment that would inevitably follow if they 16:49 were caught assisting or harboring Jews. 16:53 So, in order to gather food, Asael Bielsky's little group 16:58 began to venture out of the forest at dusk 17:01 with their guns in their hands visiting locals farmers and 17:05 and asking for food. Bit by bit they realized that a large 17:11 group of well-organized well- armed Jews was the best solution 17:15 to surviving the Nazi reign of terror. 17:18 As time progressed and German raids became more aggressive, 17:23 many Jewish fugitives became to realize that the forest 17:28 offered them more safety than hiding in sympathetic neighbors 17:33 homes. Then in May 1942, there was another mass murder 17:38 at the Leader Ghetto, Tuvia Bielsky urged his friend 17:43 Ulta Tickten who had survived the murder to prepare to leave 17:48 the ghetto with his family. The heavy security surrounding 17:52 the ghetto made it impossible for Tuvia to infiltrate it 17:57 however, he managed to orchestrate Tickten's escape 18:01 from outside the ghetto. Soon Tuvia and his small group of 18:05 fugitive Jews joined his brother Ascel's group and they fused 18:11 into a single unit. 18:12 The group began to increase in size as more and more Jews 18:17 escaped the surrounding ghetto's and joined them 18:20 finally around May 1942 they decided that they needed to 18:25 formally organize themselves into a partisan group. 18:29 Though they went under several different names, they were 18:33 always known as the Bielsky Otriad under the command of 18:38 Tuvia Bielsky, the oldest of the three brothers. 18:41 What made the Bielsky Otriad so unique was their willingness 18:46 to accept and integrated all Jews who came to them as 18:50 fugitives whether they were armed and able-bodied or not. 18:54 This meant that their group had a high percentage of 18:58 unarmed women, children and elderly people who were 19:02 protected and provided for by those who were able to fight. 19:07 Most Russian partisans cooperated in the forest 19:10 focused on armed conflict or sabotage against the Germans 19:15 but the Bielsky's focused more on saving lives. 19:19 Tuvia Bielsky insisted that self-preservation was 19:24 intricately linked to the preservation of others, 19:27 he believed that in working to save others 19:30 we inevitably save ourselves. Tuvia Bielsky often said 19:54 However regardless of their desire to stay away from 19:58 waging war against the Germans, the Bielsky Otriad was asked 20:03 to cooperate in anti-Nazi raids alongside Russian partisans in 20:08 the area. These joint military ventures began in the last 20:13 quarter of 1942 and continued well into 1943 20:18 Much of this involved sabotaging railway stations, bridges, 20:24 telephone lines and hacking supply trucks. 20:27 Then in July 1943 planned an attack to eliminate the partisans 20:34 hiding in the Naliboki Forest. The Bielsky Otriad had set up 20:40 a semi-permanent camp there and were in danger of being 20:43 captured and killed. 20:45 When they heard that the Germans were coming, they hastily 20:49 abandoned their camp and evacuated onto an island 20:53 in the middle of the swamp. The evacuation took a group 20:57 of nearly 700 Jews through dangerous terrain 21:00 but all of them managed to make it safely to the island. 21:05 After weeks of camping out in the swampland the partisans 21:10 managed to make it through German lines and evacuate the forest 21:14 finding shelter in nearby villages before eventually 21:18 making it back to the Naliboki Forest after the danger 21:22 had passed. Eventually the Bielsky Otriad grew to 21:28 twelve hundred people and by the autumn of 1943, 21:32 they organized themselves into a small shtetl or town with 21:37 workshops and a large communal kitchen. 21:40 By the end of 143 close to three million Polish Jews had been 21:45 slaughtered, this was about 90% of the pre-war population. 21:51 Then on the 6th of June 1944 the allied forces landed in 21:58 Normandy, France, and on the 23rd of June, the Red Army 22:03 opened its Great Offensive Operation targeting the 22:06 Bella Russian and Baltic France. As Serbia troops surged forward, 22:11 Jewish Partisans played their part in disrupting the arrival 22:16 of German reinforcements by destroying vital roads 22:20 and bridges. Then in July 1944 the Red Army swept victoriously 22:27 through Belarus, pursuing the retreating German Army 22:31 and liberating towns on the way. 22:33 But the war still continued to rage and the order came down 22:39 from Soviet authorities for the Bielski Otriad 22:43 to evacuate their camp and go to Novogrudok where they 22:47 would be issued with new identification papers and 22:50 relocated. 22:52 There, most of them were enlisted in the Red Army 22:55 and sent to the front where they died. 22:58 Asael Bielski was among these recruits and he died in 23:03 Marienberg, Germany, leaving behind his pregnant wife Chaja. 23:08 After the war Tuvia and Zus with their families 23:13 first settled in Israel and then later relocated 23:17 to the United States where they ran a trucking business. 23:21 Tuvia Bielsky was a unique man, in fact, there was no one else 23:26 quite like him. A Jewish resistance fighter for during 23:30 the height of Nazi power, not only defied capture 23:34 but saved 1,200 Jews from being murdered as well. 23:39 He died at the age of 81 in New York, leaving behind 23:44 his wife Lilca and three children. 23:47 The story of the Bielsky partisans is inspiring 23:52 because of its uniqueness, it's a singularity 23:55 and a normally otherwise predictable pattern of massacre 24:01 and victimization at a time when Jews were forced to 24:06 go quietly into the dark night of inhalation. 24:09 The Bielsky's defied the norm and raged against the Nazi 24:14 Killing Machine. 24:15 We live in a world besieged by another master of terror, 24:20 an invisible being that the Bible in Revelation 12:7 calls 24:26 the Devil and Satan. He's a master of cruelty 24:30 and suffering, destroying anyone who places themselves 24:34 in his power. But we can choose to part of a small group 24:40 that actively defies this reign by placing ourselves 24:44 under the better of another commander. 24:47 Listen to what Jesus says in John chapter 16:33. 25:08 Jesus offers us hope in a world besieged by uncertainty 25:13 and fear. Instead of going quietly into the dark night 25:17 of sin and hopelessness, Jesus lifts up the light of truths 25:21 and invites us to join His band of Partisans, resistance fighters, 25:27 determined to defy Satan's reign of terror and 25:31 stand in alliance with God's reign of Love and Hope. 25:35 And just as the Partisans experienced the joy freedom, 25:40 Jesus has promised us freedom too. 25:44 In Revelation 21:4, the Bible tells us. 26:03 We may live in a world besieged by hatred, violence, and 26:07 hopelessness, but Jesus offers us hope, not just for this world 26:12 but for eternity. 26:14 If you'd like to partner with Jesus today and find that 26:18 real hope, if you'd like to experience how God is with us 26:23 even during our darkest and most difficult trials, 26:26 then I'd like to recommend the free gift we have 26:30 for all our Incredible Journey viewers today. 26:33 It's a booklet Finding Courage To Meet Life's Challenges. 26:39 I'm sure you'll want to read this small booklet that explores 26:43 the big theme of Good vs. Evil in our world today 26:46 This booklet is our gift to you and is absolutely free. 26:51 I guarantee there are no costs or obligations whatsoever. 26:56 So, make the most of this wonderful opportunity 26:59 to receive the gift we have for you today. 27:03 Phone or text 0436.333.555 in Australia, or 020.422.2042 27:13 in New Zealand, or visit our website TiJ.tv 27:18 or simply scan the QR code on the screen and we'll send you 27:22 today's free offer, totally free of charge and with no 27:25 obligation. Write to us at GPO Box 274, Sydney NSW 2001 27:33 Australia, or PO Box 76673 Manukau, Auckland 2241 27:40 New Zealand. Don't Delay, call or text us now. 27:43 Be sure to join us again next week when we will share another 27:49 of life's journey's together, until then I invite you 27:53 to join me as we pray. 27:56 Dear Heavenly Father, Thank you for the hope 27:59 and assurance that you give us. 28:01 Thank you for being right there with us as we face our struggles 28:06 and challenges every day. 28:07 We reach out to you today and ask you to guide us on 28:12 life's pathway. Give us the strength to follow your leading. 28:16 We ask in Jesus name, Amen! |
Revised 2022-04-11