Defiance

Fighting in the dense forests of eastern Poland and Belorussia, Jewish partisans represented a heroic form of resistance in the midst of the Holocaust. Refusing to submit to the Nazi terror, one such group - the Bielski Otriad - performed the largest armed rescue operation of Jews by Jews in World War II. Written by a Holocaust survivor, this study offers a riveting history of this remarkable group and its struggle to survive - and even to create a miniature forest village - in the midst of adversity. Detailing the life of Tuvia Bielski, their independent and charismatic leader, the account shows how the quest for self-preservation was transformed into a story of compassion, altruism and rescue.