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Story of Bielski Brigade retold in Solon visit
(by Sue Hoffman - January 21, 2010)
Story of Bielski Brigade retold in Solon visit
By SUE HOFFMAN
An estimated 20,000 people are walking the earth because of the bravery and dedication of the Bielski Brigade, a group of Jewish guerilla fighters who rescued fellow Jews from execution by the Nazis during World War II.
The 2008 movie "Defiance" tells the story of how Alexander "Zus" Bielski and brothers, Tuvia and Asael, led some 300 resistance fighters in the woods surrounding the tiny village of Stankevich in former Polish lands that were then part of Belarussia.
Their efforts, which included nonstop guerilla warfare against the Nazis, saved 1,200 Jews. For nearly three years, starting in 1942, the Bielskis lived in the forest, welcoming all of the Jewish refugees who wanted to come. In addition to collecting weapons they had captured from the Germans, they built shelters and a school.
Robert Zelwin, of Solon, has long known the story, which took place nearly 70 years ago. "I've known it since I was a little boy," he said.
Mr. Zelwin's parents, the late Sam and Ida Zelwin, who lived in the Cleveland area for over 50 years, had been part of the Bielski Brigade. They joined the brigade after the Nazis invaded the Polish city of Novogrodek, where Sam Zelwin had been working in his family's meatpacking business, and Ida was a teacher. Mass killings by the thousands were taking place in the town when the couple fled to the forest.
The couple was wed on Feb. 12, 1942, in the forest a few months after they escaped from Novogrodek. They were married nearly 63 years.
Over the years Robert Zelwin and his siblings learned many details of how their father and other partisans stole food and weapons, derailed Nazi supply trains and blew up bridges, while their mother hid with the other women in the forest.
Mr. Zelwin, his sister, Ileen Boro, also of Solon, their brother, Harry Zelwin, of Beachwood, and their families were in the audience last week when Zus Bielski's son, Zvi, was guest speaker at the Chabad Jewish Center of Solon. It was the first time they had met him, Mr. Zelwin said.
Zvi Bielski, of New York City, had been invited to share the story as part of the Chabad's 18th anniversary celebration in Solon.
Eighteen is a special number for Jews, Rabbi Zushe Greenberg said. With each of the Hebrew letters having a corresponding number, the numbers eight and 10 spell the word "chai," which means "life," he said.
Rabbi Greenberg told the audience of some 500 people that it took time for him and his wife, Miriam, to get Chabad started, but once it was established, it grew and grew over the years. "When we turned 13, we celebrated it in this beautiful building," he said about the synagogue on Harper Road. "It was a bar mitzvah present."
Mr. Bielski's presentation was also a special gift. While his father died in 1995 at age 83 in Brooklyn, N.Y., the story of the Bielski Brigade has lived on.
"We did not consider ourselves victims of the Holocaust," Mr. Bielski said. "It was completely the opposite. Dad was a guerilla fighter in World War II."
The fact that 14 members of the Zelwin family and their relatives were in the audience was not unusual, Mr. Bielski said. At a congregation in New Jersey, people jumped up from their seats and said they had been in the forest with his father. At Duke University in Durham, N.C., a student gave him a bottle of vodka, saying his grandparents had been saved by the Bielskis. "It was overwhelming," he said.
Mr. Bielski heard the story of his parents' heroism when he was 7. He said they never considered themselves heroes, even though they helped save 1,200 Jews.
"To him, he wasn't really a hero," Mr. Bielski said about his father. "He couldn't believe more didn't do the same thing.
"The brothers were vicious when they had to be," he said. They killed Nazis and informers, but cultivated a special relationship with the Russians because of their strength and bravery.
"The goal of the Bielski group was to save as many Jews as they could," he said. What they accomplished was "the largest rescue of Jews by Jews in World War II."
His father's goal was to train boys to fight, Mr. Bielski said. His uncles' goal was to save everyone they could. They did both. Their brigade of fighters grew strong as more Jews sought refuge in the forest.
Mr. Bielski showed scenes from the movie, directed by Edward Zwick and starring Daniel Craig as Tuvia and Liev Schreiber as Zus.
A memorable scene was when the 1,200 Jews were fleeing in the swamp from thousands of Nazis, who set out to attack them. One part they didn't show, Mr. Bielski said, was when his father confronted a man who was going to leave a woman and her child behind.
Decades later, in Israel, a woman sitting in a cafe jumped up and grabbed his father by the shirt and nearly fainted, he said. She asked him to wait while she made a telephone call. A few minutes later, a taxi pulled up with her daughter and her four children. The woman and her daughter were the ones Zus Bielski had saved in the swamps fleeing the Germans, and they would never forget him.
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