Rating: 
Summary: Amazing
Review: "Wow" is the only word I can use to describe this book. It is unreal to me that more people do not know about this story because it is just so amazing. To think that three men succeeded in hiding an army of 1,200 Jews for two and a half years in a Nazi controlled forest and managed to evade capture and death brings chills. I have had classes on the Holocaust in school, I have read the books, I have even been to the death camps and forests of Eastern Europe. But nothing has touched me as much as this book.
Rating:
Summary: An Uplifting Book
Review: As with all books that touch on the holocaust in any way this is a hard boook to read. It is the story of three Jewish brothers from Belorus who determine to resist the Nazis and save as many Jews as they can. The oldest brother, Tuvia, is adamant that it isn't enough to fight the Nazis but it's more important to protect all the jews he can, regardless of their fighting ability "I'd rather save one old Jewish woman than kill ten Nazis".The beginning of the book deals with the early lives of the brothers. Right from the start these brothers refuse to conform the sterotype of the cowed, passive European Jew. They challenge anti-semitism wherever they come across it. At the start of the 2nd World War Belorus is occupied by the Russians and the Jews are relatively safe. The Nazi invasion brings the relentless persecution and murder of the Jewish population that is always so harrowing to read about. I never stop marvelling at how merciless the killers are when faced with defenceless Jewish civilians. I never stop wondering how these fathers and husbands and sons gunned down old men and women, mothers clinging to their babies, children clinging to their parents; that they were apparently unmoved and didn't see the faces of their own loved ones being herded towards death pits. How does one lock down one's humanity so completely? Whilst I believe it is important to know about the Holocaust and remember what human beings are capable of I find books on the subject depressing. There is no hope in these books. From the start the reader knows that only a handful of people will survive the chillingly efficient murder of a whole race of people. This book was different. There was hope for the lives I was reading about. Incredibly the brothers brought almost 1200 Jews safely through the war, the great majority of those were non-combatants. Whilst there were losses along the way they were remarkably few. This is an extraordinary story. I think we all need to know that there is hope against even the most overwhelming odds, sometimes we just need to dare to fight back.
Rating:
Summary: Timely and Appropriate
Review: At this time when Mel Gibson's "Passion" is being studied for anti-semitism, it is timely and appropriate for the Bielski Brothers to be on the world stage. Peter Duffy's book does not do what the current movie does. Duffy doesn't depend on emotion or violence to manipulate a concept. He delivers the story --objectively from a humanitarian perspective. The Bielski strength, courage and compassion speak volumes on the Jewish resistence to Naziism at its ugliest. Peter Duffy's writing style is quite in line with this message of sacrifice and survival.
Rating:
Summary: Timely and Appropriate
Review: At this time when Mel Gibson's "Passion" is being studied for anti-semitism, it is timely and appropriate for the Bielski Brothers to be on the world stage. Peter Duffy's book does not do what the current movie does. Duffy doesn't depend on emotion or violence to manipulate a concept. He delivers the story --objectively from a humanitarian perspective. The Bielski strength, courage and compassion speak volumes on the Jewish resistence to Naziism at its ugliest. Peter Duffy's writing style is quite in line with this message of sacrifice and survival.
Rating:
Summary: Fast-Paced, Action-Packed, Human
Review: Excellent telling of the heretofore under-reported story of WWII anti-German partisans who faced a double danger. Unlike many other partisans, these partisan's could not go home for food, clothing or shelter. While some other partisan's could go to their homes and, upon encountering German authorities, whip out authentic identity papers to prove they belonged in their homes, the main subjects of this story risked being subjected to murder simply because of what they were. Encounters with Germans had to be avoided, except with a gun. In addition, the partisans who are the central figures of this history included infants, toddlers and elderly people.
The leader of these partisans was a true HUMAN hero.
Author Peter Duffy gives us a well-researched and EXCITING history of what he describes as the largest Jewish partisan group in the German-occupied part of the Soviet Union. Nothwithstanding the purported error reported by reviewer Charles Chotkowski (who does NOT refute Duffy's principal contention in the portion of the book Chotkowski criticizes that the Polish AK partisans targeted Jews), Duffy clearly has researched this material extensively, including sources close to non-Jewish anti-German partisans.
Like what the excellent "Behind Enemy Lines," by Marthe Cohn, does for France, author Duffy provides very interesting portraits of the non-Jewish residents of Belarus.
A great work. Too bad such a well-written, accessible book were not written 30 years ago when most of these partisan's were still alive.
Congratulations, Peter Duffy, on bringing this story back to life.
Rating:
Summary: mm soo good!
Review: Great book! I can't wait for the movie in 2006! :) I also recommend Lala's Story and Survival in Auschwitz!
Rating:
Summary: To the anti-semitic Canadian Poles
Review: I read the Bielski Brothers book written by Peter Duffy, I found it fascinating and truthful, I was there. And how dare you to write a review like that. The Bielski Brothers were great heroes, they protected us from people like you. I was there and I should know. The Bielski's detachment was near Huta in May 1943 therefore he was not in position to be in Naliboki. Sholem Zorin was near Koidenovo and not in Pobeda detachment. As far as food missions was concerned, territory to take food from was allocated by the Russian headquarters. We were armed and had to get food to survive. I can understand your thoughts. How dare the Jews pick up arms and take food from the Polish farmers. We were over 1,000 in Naliboki forest, your type expected us to hide there and die from hunger, and freeze in the winter. Our camp was not a luxury camp. The danger was everywhere from people like you, anti-Semites that have tried to kill all the Jews. When the Germans occupied Novogrudok, the local police was formed by Poles. You robed the Jews in the small towns even before the Germans entered. Now with out evidence you are shouting that the Jews have made a pogrom against Poles. You don't even want to wait for the inquiry to finish. This is a document sent by a Russian Commandeer to Moscow. Jewish Question.
To the Plenipotentiary of the Central Committee of the
All-Union Communist Party (of Bolsheviks) of Belorussia and to the representative of the General Staff of the Red Army Revolutionary
Committee, Comrade Platon. Report 10.11.42 Jewish question.
There are many Jews in partisan detachments, not a few of them are excellent fighters trying to avenge brutal murdering of Jews by the fascists. According to the commanders of some of the brigades regarding this question, who are not right, separate Jewish detachments must not be set up. The population here doesn't like Jews, they don't call them otherwise than 'zhidy'. If a Jew calls at a house and ask for food, the peasant says that he has been robbed by Jews. When a Russian comes together with a Jew, everything goes smoothly. The Orlyanski detachment "Struggle" from the Lenin Brigade consists of 80% Jews. There were cases that when a Jewish group went for food products to the other bank of the Neman, it was disarmed, the confiscated weapons were given to the peasants, and they all together gave them a terrible beating, shouting: "Without Jews we will save Russia". Many Jewish families hide in the forest, there are a few armed people among them. These Jews burst into villages and grab the first thing that comes to hand. There are detachments where Jews are not accepted.
This document was found in the Minsk National archive.
This should explain to you the situation. About Naliboki you one report accuses the Stalin brigade, the Stalin brigade had 1404 partisans 554 Russian, 544 Byelorussian, 103 Ukrainians, 140 Jews, 19 Poles and 44 others. Yet the claim was that the Jews from the Stalin brigade were the killers. In one of the writing you accused Bielski of robbing the Poles with 200 tons of potatoes, 3 tons of cabbages, 5 tons of sugar beets, 5 tons of various grains. That is also a lie. The Germans burned Naliboki some of the men were killed other were taken to Germany. After the German retreat in the "Herman" operation., Bielski partisans took the harvest from the ground and put it away for the winter reserve.
Rating:
Summary: Wow!!
Review: I so appreciated this book. I couldn't put it down. After reading the major negative review on this page, all I can say is WAKE-UP. The Jewish people have been scapegoats since the beginning of time. I am sick of those who believe in revising history to make it fit into the Politically Correct views of our society today. What is that quote about lavish bath houses and luxury about???? Don't make me laugh--how much more ludricous can you get? It has been the same through the ages--if the Bielski Brothers had only one pot to cook in for 1,000 people it would have been too much to own in someone else's eyes. It didn't matter what they did, they were damned if they did and damned if they didn't. Thankfully, the spirit to survive flourished in this group.
Frankly, if the brothers stole from the Polish people, well so be it. Survival was the key. If they hadn't been in the process of being hunted down and mass murdered, maybe they wouldn't have needed to hide in the forests and live in the dirt just to survive!! After reading in this book and others about the executions happening on the edges of mass graves--stripped naked and shot point blank, THAT makes me sick. What makes that any less tragic than partisans hunting for food and retaliating against those who would report their hiding places to the German authorities???? Desperate times call for desperate measures. It was war for goodness sake. What should those partisans and groups of Jewish people have done?? Hooray for Peter Duffy for printing the truth instead of trying ot revise it to make the PC liberals feel better about life.
Rating:
Summary: Very accurate depiction.
Review: My mother and brother spent some time in the Bielski brothers camp after escaping a "selection" in the Lida Ghetto. My mother just finished reading this book and remarked that all of the details are amazingly accurate. Obviously Peter Duffy verified and cross-referenced all of the stories he heard from the various survivors, even after so many years have passed. Duffy glorifies no one, but depicts the situation, the conflicts, the characters just as they were. This is really a more miraculous story than "Shindler's List".
Rating: 
Summary: Much Ado About Very Little
Review: Should really be titled the true story of three men who ran away from the Nazis and hid in the woods. Its true that they defied the Nazis but mainly just by staying alive. No mean feat, certainly, and neither is the rescue of 1200 other humans. But as a tale of war, or even resistance, it leaves much to be desired. The story this purports to be remains to be told.
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