Few people may know that the 2008 film ‘Defiance’ was based on a true story. The university was honored to have the son of the main character, Zvi Bielski, speak to a crowded room in Schine Student Center on the night of April 26. Zvi’s father, Zus, passed away in 1995, but Zvi still gives moving and thrilling talks about his family and growing up. Bielski kept insisting that his family was ‘normal,’ despite the fact that they saved more than 1,200 Jews from imminent death in Nazi hands by smuggling them out of ghettos and into their community in the woods for more than two years. What differed about Bielski’s community from other dissidents’ attempts was that the Bielski brothers, Tuvia, Zus, Asael and Aron, accepted any Jews aboard, including women, children, the sick and the old.
Despite being plagued with a technical difficulty in showing a video, including a scene from the film, Bielski fielded questions from an audience of close to 200 people from the community and university before the problem was fixed. He shared touching memories of his father and how people he saved would constantly approach him wherever they traveled. Much to Zvi’s wife’s dismay, they often showered him in kisses, among blessings and praise. These stories were numerous among the four brothers. Zvi also told softer stories about his input into the production of the film, visiting the set and his travels to where the camp once was in Western Belarus.
The stories from Bielski’s day-to-day life really showed insights into his father and uncles. Zus, who owned a trucking company, once brought home two cub bears on their way to the circus. When Zvi opened their front door, to his father’s surprise, he was bitten on his butt — the audience was spared seeing the scar. Or, when Zvi recalled that every Saturday night his family would have huge gatherings with singing and dancing, all of the guests were saved from the Holocaust with help of the Bielskis.
Zvi’s mother also accompanied many of his stories. When Zvi and his brothers would prod their mother about the Luger she wore on her hip during the war, a gift from their father, she reminded them she never shot it, only polished it. After Zvi’s mother first agreed to a date with Zus in exchange for her parents being rescued from the same ghetto, its occupants were killed soon after her parents escaped.
However, Zvi stressed his father and uncles were no angels. They lead gorilla attacks on the Nazis and killed many people with stolen German weapons. They often left Nazi heads hanging on limbs as a sign to other Nazis. They tracked down German citizens known for turning in Jews to the Nazis and killed them. They even killed one of their own militants who refused to take a woman and child with him when the entire camp had to flee from the Nazis.
For the entire night, perhaps the best insight was when Zvi approached his father late one night with a simple question: ‘Do you have any regrets?’ Zvi paused for a moment and said his father simply said, ‘Not being able to save more people.’ With that, the courage, bravery and memories one family had to kill and save people alike will be remembered.
Evan J. Sherman
Junior Environmental Science and Forestry major
Published on April 27, 2010 at 12:00 pm
