The pros and cons of various hostage deals continue to be debated and rejected while our hostages are languishing, dying, and being murdered. Just this week, three elderly gentlemen were found dead. As a Holocaust researcher and daughter of a Bielski partisan, in recent days I find the echoing in my ears: “I would rather save the life of one old Jewish woman than kill 10 Nazis.
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It is more important to save Jews than to kill Germans.” For those who are not familiar with the Bielski partisans, the Bielski partisan leaders were three of the 12 children of David and Beila Bielski, mill owners, farmers, and the sole Jewish family living in the tiny village of Stankiewicze between Lida and Novogrudok in pre-war Poland, present-day Belarus. Following their escape from German-occupied Stankiewicze in early 1942, the Bielski family began wandering through the nearby forests.
By spring and summer, as they were joined by small groups of friends and relatives who escaped from the nearby Novogrudok ghetto, the core of the makeshift partisan detachment headed by Tuvia Bielski was established. Over time, the group obtained arms and began to carry out missions against antisemitic peasants and Nazi collaborators. When plagued by heightened dangers and difficulties in supplying the camp over the winter of 1942-1943, the unit was forced to divide into five groups in the Novogrudok area.
While some tried to abandon the unarmed groups of partisans, Tuvia issued an order forbidding anyone t.