Fugitives of the Forest: The Heroic Story of Jewish Resistance and Survival During the Second World War

I bought this book thinking it was the "Bielski Brothers" book that the movie was based on. It isn't, though they are mentioned repeatedly. Instead this is probably the best written overview of the evolution of the Jewish partisan movement in the east I have read. It is not limited to the Jewish participation; the author mentions frequently the Soviet Red Army and the Polish AK among others. The descriptions of life in the forests and the toll it took on the people as they struggled to survive is excellent. To be a Jew in those days meant that even when you successfully escaped the ghetto, you were still fighting those who should have been your allies. In reading this, the SS and German Police operations against them were seen in a new light for me. Hunted like deer, starving, women and children in tow, they found the forests of the east providing scant security. They fought back, despite the handicap of the lack weapons, and little official support from the Soviets. This a book about the survival of a people beset on many levels; Soviet policy, local hostility, and German determination to kill everyone of them. A good read for those interested in this subject.

Fugitives in the forest covers so much more than the now famous Bielski brothers. It is a detailed discussion of the Jews and how they hid in the forest, how they interacted with the Polish gentiles and the escaped Soviet POWs and later the Soviet Partisans. This little publicized aspect of the Holocaust (until the movie Defiance brought it to the big screen) illustrates how Hitler was willing to spend manhours, manpower, resources and time to fight the dreaded Jews instead of focusing on the war. It is hard to believe that so few actually survived the forests and what they had to endure. It is also frightening to think that if Hitler hadn't been so set on eliminating an entire race of people he might have actually had a better chance of winning WW II. If you are at all interested in the Jews and their struggle or are a World War II buff I highly recommend this book. Although at times the names seem to run together and that so many of the recollections of massacre are the same, it is a riveting story that kept me glued to the pages til the very end and has wetted my appetite for even more facts from the eastern front.

It May Be A Good Book But Its My Fault I Am More Fiction Then Non Fiction I Still Have Might Read It Yet.