Aron Bielski (born July 21, 1927), later changed to Aron Bell, is a Polish-American Jew and former member of the

Bielski partisans The Bielski partisans were a unit of Jewish partisans who rescued Jews from extermination and fought the German occupiers and their collaborators around Novogrudok and Lida in German-occupied Poland (now western Belarus). The partisan unit ...

, the largest group of Jewish armed rescuers of Jews during World War II. He was also known as Arczyk Bielski. The youngest of the four Bielski brothers, he is the only one still living ( Asael died in 1945, Tuvia in 1987, and Alexander ">Zus"in 1995).

Life with the Bielski partisans

The Bielski family were farmers in Stankiewicze near Navahrudak in present-day Belarus, an area that at the beginning of the Second World War belonged to the

Second Polish Republic The Second Polish Republic, at the time officially known as the Republic of Poland, was a country in Central Europe, Central and Eastern Europe that existed between 1918 and 1939. The state was established on 6 November 1918, before the end of ...

. In September 1939, it was seized by the Soviet Union, which was then allied with Nazi Germany. After the Germans launched Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union, Aron's brothers created a notable resistance organization, the

group, of which Aron became a member. Nechama Tec, who wrote a book about them, had the following to say about Aron: "Occasionally in the forest he acted as a guide. Those I spoke to agree that his participation and impact on the life of the Bielski otriad partisan detachmentwas minimal, almost nonexistent." While Nechama was not able to interview Aron, he was interviewed by

Peter Duffy Peter Duffy QC (25 August 1954 – 5 March 1999) was a British barrister. Educated at Wimbledon College, London, he read law at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, where he received a first class degree. He went on to Queen Mary College, Lon ...

in Duffy's book. That author, in the second authoritative book about the Bielski partisans, mentions Aron about 30 times and lists him as one of the important sources for the book. Duffy also interviewed Bell for the article "Heroes Among Us" (2000), published in '' The New York Times''.

Later life

After the war, Bielski returned to communist-dominated Poland but soon afterward emigrated to the British Mandate of Palestine. In 1954, he settled in the United States, where he joined his surviving brothers and their families.

Legacy

English actor George MacKay portrayed Aron in the film ''

Defiance Defiance may refer to: Film, television and theatre * ''Defiance'' (1952 film), a Swedish drama film directed by Gustaf Molander * ''Defiance'' (1980 film), an American crime drama starring Jan-Michael Vincent * ''Defiance'' (2002 film), a ...

'' (2008). MacKay was then sixteen years old, approximately the same age as was Aron during the period depicted in the film.

References

External links

* Gary Stern
For Pound Ridge man, the new movie "Defiance" is the story of his family
The Journal News, January 21, 2009 * * Piotr Głuchowski, Marcin Kowalski

''(Aron Bell Erased)'', Gazeta Wyborcza, 008-06-16 {{DEFAULTSORT:Bielski, Aron 1927 births Living people People from Lida District Belarusian partisans Soviet partisans 20th-century Polish Jews Jewish partisans Holocaust survivors