Charlie Rose

condor147  04/17/2009 05:42 PM Report

i have to agree with landaverde my mother was in concentration camp in world war 2 i never asked her much about it but she told me one time and never spoke about it again when i was in the army i was stationed in germany and when you go to aushwitz you get the feeling to this day and see ghosts of all the peopel who died there i felt a since of great sadness of a crime to this day most people say did not happen

landaverde  02/03/2009 12:52 AM Report

When second world war started and Soviets entered Poland (Sept 17 1939) Tuvia Bielski accepted soviet rule and became a local official. That means that the Polish authority figure he replaced was either killed or sent to Siberia. Approx 20,000 Polish officers and authority figures in eastern Poland were seized and murdered in places like Katyn, Kozielsk, Ostashkow, etc. All together approx 2 million Polish citizens from Soviet-occupied part of Poland, including Jews, were sent to Siberia, only 120,000 ever left Soviet Union. Jewish collaborators played major role in these people demise as soviet informers and spies. Many of them joined communist party and NKVD. It is possible that Germans wanted Bielskis primarily as collaborators, not Jews - in 1941, after Hitler attacked Soviets, special Gestapo commandos were dispatched to seek any soviet collaborators and execute them, and their families, as communists, while other Jews were being sent to ghettos. Bielskis' band never attacked any German troops, not even mentioning tanks - they were hiding and escaping from them avoiding any contact. Tuvia himself admitted that to his interviewer Nechamie Tec, author of books about holocaust. They did collaborate with Soviet partisan groups - made up of army stragglers and saboteurs with appointed military leadership, but the extent of their ”partisanship” was attacking local population and robbing tem of their livelihood. The biggest "battle" they were ever known for was pogrom of town Naliboki with mostly Polish population. Together with Russians Bielski’s partisans killed 128 people, including women and children.

I encoutrage everybody to verify data stated above and challange me. You don't have to believe me, just seek the truth. This film however is full of lies and misinterpretations. It offends the memory of victims of both Polish and Jewish holocaust to show such propaganda in place of actual historical facts.

By the way - there were four Bielski brothers. The fourth one Aaron Bielski still lives as Aron Bell in Palm Springs Florida. Right now he's under house arrest awaiting trial and facing 90 years imprisonment for scheming his neighbor, a 90-year old Polish lady for approx 250,000 dollars. Was it because of that he was not mentioned in the movie?

bellemillo  01/18/2009 02:16 PM Report

A masterful portrayal of this amazing story of courage and heroics. How wonderful that the story of the Bielski brothers has finally gotten the recognition it deserves. Daniel Craig and Liev Schreiber, in particular, did such a superb job in portraying the complicated characters of Tuvia and Zus. Thanks to Edward Zwick for persevering in bringing the Nechama Tec's book to the screen.

bellskee  01/15/2009 01:13 PM Report

Where was the world when for years Hamas has used missiles against a civilian population; nowhere. Where was the world when the Nazis and their friends killed millions of civilians; nowhere. The Bielskis quickly realized after their families have been butchered that they must act. The Israelis slowly realized after years of enduring countless missiles that they must act.

Finally the Defiance movie about my father Zus Bielski and his brothers is out to mass audiences January 16, 2009. Its a true story and because of these Bielskis 20,000 people are now alive who would not have been because of the Nazis, Poles, Bellorussian and the rest who believed that the best Jew is a dead one.

Ed Zwick shines some light on the exploits of the Bielski brothers who took no crap from anyone growing up and kept the same attitude during WWII. Anyone challenging their existence was dealt with harshly and without remorse. As naturalistic events unfolded in the forests of Belarus, family and Jews gravitated towards them until by war's end they saved 1237 Jews. They maintained order in their Jerusalem in the Woods by love and force, as needed. Spellbinding, although the real life brutal exploits were a thousandfold, it took the genius of Ed Zwick to condense the Bielskis everyman heroes into an entertaining movie.

REMant  01/14/2009 06:04 PM Report

Partisan or guerrilla groups formed across Europe immediately upon invasion. Helen MacInnes wrote her third novel about it, While We Still Live, published in 1944, to this story bears a curious resemblance. They were all laudable, depending on which side you were on. And all were dealt with harshly, not unlike what we are seeing in the Near East today. I do not know what should make this particular instance any more significant overall unless it is intended as propaganda.