Asael Bielski
Encyclopedia
Asael Bielski (pronounced ah-soil) was the second-in-command of the Bielski partisans
Bielski partisans
The Bielski partisans were an organisation of Jewish partisans who rescued Jews from extermination and fought against the Nazi German occupiers and their collaborators in the vicinity of Nowogródek and Lida in German-occupied Poland...

 during World War II.

Early life

Asael was the third son of David and Beila Bielski, being about two years younger than his brother Tuvia
Tuvie Bielski
Tuvia Bielski was the leader of the partisan group the Bielski partisans who were situated in the Naliboki forest in pre-war Poland during World War II.-Life:...

 who later commanded the Bielski Otriad. The Bielskis were the only Jewish family of Stankiewicze, a small village in pre-war Poland, now Western Belarus located between Lida
Lida
Lida is a city in western Belarus in Hrodna Voblast, situated 160 km west of Minsk. It is the fourteenth largest city in Belarus.- Etymology :...

 and Navahrudak (both of which later housed Jewish ghetto
Ghetto
A ghetto is a section of a city predominantly occupied by a group who live there, especially because of social, economic, or legal issues.The term was originally used in Venice to describe the area where Jews were compelled to live. The term now refers to an overcrowded urban area often associated...

s during World War II). Asael was one of 12 children—10 boys and two girls. He was quieter and more reserved than his brothers, and was content to stay on the farm and around those he knew well.

With his older brothers leaving home and his father’s health deteriorating, Asael was becoming the new head of the household. As the male leader of the family, he had to arrange the marriage of his sister Tajba to an upper-class man named Avremale.

Avremale had a sister named Chaja who was a high school graduate, which was rare for the time and place. Hearing that Asael needed help with bookkeeping, Chaja offered to tutor him.

After the Soviet invasion of Poland
Soviet invasion of Poland (1939)
The 1939 Soviet invasion of Poland was a Soviet military operation that started without a formal declaration of war on 17 September 1939, during the early stages of World War II. Sixteen days after Nazi Germany invaded Poland from the west, the Soviet Union did so from the east...

, the Bielski brothers collaborated with the Soviets, which gained them hostility from the local Poles.

War

After Operation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa was the code name for Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II that began on 22 June 1941. Over 4.5 million troops of the Axis powers invaded the USSR along a front., the largest invasion in the history of warfare...

, Asael and two of his brothers, Tuvia
Tuvie Bielski
Tuvia Bielski was the leader of the partisan group the Bielski partisans who were situated in the Naliboki forest in pre-war Poland during World War II.-Life:...

 and Zus, went into hiding in nearby forests.

Asael formed a group of 13, and later were joined by his brothers Zus and Aron
Aron Bielski
Aron Bielski, later changed to Aron Bell, is a Polish-American Jew and former member of the Bielski partisans group, the largest armed rescuers of Jews by Jews during World War II. He was also known as Arczyk Bielski...

. Tuvia's group later joined Asael's larger group. Another addition to the group was Chaja. While before the war, Asael had had little to no chance of marrying Chaja due to their class and educational differences, during the war years, this was no longer the case. Before joining them, Chaja had lived in a ghetto at first, then fled, leaving her boyfriend there. She lived in an underground hiding spot near the home of a Christian peasant, along with her two nephews. While in hiding she became very sick and needed medicine badly, so Asael walked all the way to the nearest pharmacy—many miles away—in the snow to get her medicine. He stayed with her until he felt she was out of harm's way. Later he bought her a gun for protection, and this served as an engagement gift. The two were married shortly before the war's end.

After the Soviet occupation of the area, Asael was drafted into the Soviet Red Army
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...

, and 6 months later was killed in the Battle of Königsberg
Battle of Königsberg
The Battle of Königsberg , was one of the last operations of the East Prussian Offensive during World War II. In four days of violent urban warfare, Soviet forces of the 1st Baltic Front and the 3rd Belorussian Front captured the city of Königsberg...

 of 1945. He never lived to see his daughter Assaela, the child he fathered with Chaja.

Asael in history and in film

In the 2008 film Defiance
Defiance (2008 film)
Defiance is a 2008 World War II era film written, produced, and directed by Edward Zwick, set during the occupation of Belarus by Nazi Germany. The film is an account of the Bielski partisans, a group led by three Jewish brothers who saved and recruited Jews in Poland during the Second World War...

, Asael (portrayed by British actor, Jamie Bell
Jamie Bell
Andrew James Matfin "Jamie" Bell is an English actor. He is best known for his roles in the films Billy Elliot , King Kong , Hallam Foe , Jumper , Defiance , The Eagle and The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn .- Early life :Bell was born in Billingham, in the Borough of...

) is the third of four brothers, and seems to be about 20 years of age, or perhaps younger. In actuality, Asael was about 33 years of age (Born in 1908) at the time of the invasion, and was older than Zus (Born in 1912), which is contrary in the film. The film has been criticised in Poland due to its complete omission of all Polish aspects in the narrative even though the setting is on territory that was part of Poland before the war and inhabited by a large number of ethnic Poles. Specifically, Tuvia Bielski was a veteran of the Polish army and Polish partisans were also active in the forests of present-day Belarus, but the film only presents the roles of Jews, Russians and Germans. There was also controversy about the alleged involvement of the Bielski group in a massacre of Polish civilians
Naliboki massacre
The Naliboki massacre was the mass killing of about 128 Poles by Soviet partisans at the village of Naliboki in Nazi-occupied Poland on May 8, 1943....

 conducted by Soviet-aligned partisans in Naliboki
Naliboki
Naliboki is a village in western Belarus, Minsk Voblast.From 1386 to 1795 and 1918-1939 the village was located in Poland. During the times of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth it belonged to the family of the Radziwiłł magnates...

. The Bielski partisan group was the subject of an official inquiry by the Polish Institute of National Remembrance
Institute of National Remembrance
Institute of National Remembrance — Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation is a Polish government-affiliated research institute with lustration prerogatives and prosecution powers founded by specific legislation. It specialises in the legal and historical sciences and...

's Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation after witnesses testified that Bielski partisans were among the perpetrators of the Naliboki massacre; however, the investigation found no conclusive evidence linking the Bielski group to the crime.
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