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Will to Survive

Former Jewish partisan Aron Bell discusses the Bielski brothers' determination to save Jewish lives during the Holocaust.

Video Length

00:37

Subject

History
Social Studies

Language

English — US

Updated

May 13, 2016

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You're afraid. You know that you have to survive. You might have to fight the Nazis to survive, right? But nobody is torturing you. No one can tell you what to do. So I guess, the idea came because they were real human beings. Datario was a real human being. If 10 will survive, why wouldn't survive 20? If it's not enough to go 20 miles after food, so you go 30. You go 40. But it's better than to go to the slaughterhouse. Is it not?

Former Jewish partisan Aron Bell discusses the Bielski brothers' determination to save Jewish lives during the Holocaust.

Credit:

© 2016 Jewish Partisan Educational Foundation, www.jewishpartisans.org

1) Website use only

Collection

Find interview transcripts, historical overviews, and primary source documents about a particular Jewish partisan or country.

Russian partisans, one of them photographer Faye Schulman, gathering together in the forest, Naliboki Forest, Belarus, December 1944. The Molotava Brigade was a partisan group made up mostly of escaped Soviet Army POWs. The woman pictured is Faye Schulman, a Jewish woman who fled into the Naliboki forest with her camera equipment and joined the Molotova Brigade. For two years in the forest she photographed the partisan's activities, worked as medical aid and participated in the partisans raid's.

Unit

Explore the stories of Jewish partisans that stood against Nazi oppression, genocide, and antisemitism during World War II.

Russian partisans, one of them photographer Faye Schulman, gathering together in the forest, Naliboki Forest, Belarus, December 1944. The Molotava Brigade was a partisan group made up mostly of escaped Soviet Army POWs. The woman pictured is Faye Schulman, a Jewish woman who fled into the Naliboki forest with her camera equipment and joined the Molotova Brigade. For two years in the forest she photographed the partisan's activities, worked as medical aid and participated in the partisans raid's.

Lesson

Students view the film, analyze a primary source from the Oyneg Shabes archive, and consider why it matters who tells the stories of the Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto.

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Assessment

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Mini-Unit

Explore the impact of the Holocaust and World War II on Jewish communities in North Africa in this 3-lesson mini-unit.

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Lesson

Students connect themes from the film to Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's concept of “single stories," and then consider what it would take to tell more equitable and accurate narratives.

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Mini-Unit

Invite students to reflect on why it matters who tells our stories as they view a documentary film about the profound courage and resistance of the Oyneg Shabes in the Warsaw ghetto.

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Lesson

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Lesson

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Lesson

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