Revised january 30, 2009 a tangled web

.

229 Silverman, From Victims to Victors, 253.

230 Ibid., 211.

231 Ibid., 215.

232 Account of Boris Green (Greniman), in Kowalski, ed., Anthology on Armed Jewish Resistance, 1939–1945, vol. 1 (1984), 538–39. Greniman is not the only one to display amnesia about key triggering events. There is no mention of the treacherous disarming and massacre of Burzyński’s unit anywhere in Isaac Kowalski’s four-volume anthology containing more than 2,500 pages. Greniman does recall, however, an assault carried out by his unit on the small town of Kobylnik, near Lake Narocz. Most of the houses were burned to the ground because their owners had taken abandoned Jewish property. Ibid., 541. Other sources do not corroborate Greniman’s claim of being an organizer of the “Revenge” unit. See Arad, Ghetto in Flames, 450.

233 N. [Noah] N. Shneidman, Jerusalem of Lithuania: The Rise and Fall of Jewish Vilnius—A Personal Perspective (Oakville, Ontario: Mosaic Press, 1998), 113. Shneidman estimates that there were “well over 300” Jewish partisans in the Voroshilov brigade and thus made up at least one-fifth of its numerical strength. Ibid., 111.

234 Nachum Boneh, ed., Pinsk sefer edut ve-zikaron le-kehilat Pinsk-Karlin, 3 volumes (Tel Aviv: Former Residents of Pinsk-Karlin in Israel, 1966–1977); translated into English as History of the Jews of Pinsk (Internet: ), Part Two, Chapter 5 (“In the Various Partisan Units”).

235 Chackiewicz, “O rozbrojeniu formacji AK w Nalibockiej i Naroczańskiej puszczach w latach 1943–1944,” in Wołkonowski, ed., Sympozjum historyczne “Rok 1944 na Wileńszczyźnie,” 84, 87. Unit 51 of the Shchors detachment was reported to have about 100 armed Jewish members under the command of Lieutenant Iakov Fedorovich, a Jew from Homel, who “always had in mind the reawakening of Jewish consciousness” among the recruits and even spoke with them in Yiddish. See Nachum Alpert, The Destruction of Slonim Jewry: The Story of the Jews of Slonim During the Holocaust (New York: Holocaust Library, 1989), 238–39. A Jewish member reports that in the “large partisan detachment, ‘Shchors,’ made up of 1,000 people, there was a Jewish group comprising 130 Jews.” See the testimony of Mendel Szczupak, Archive of the Jewish Historical Institute (Warsaw), no. 301/49.

236 Tec, Defiance, 153. Confirmation of the participation of Jewish partisans in attacks on Polish partisans is also found in Polish sources. See Banasikowski, Na zew Ziemi Wileńskiej, 357–58.

237 Testimony of Jacob Greenstein regarding the disarming of Miłaszewski’s unit, in Tec, In the Lion’s Den, 183. See also Tec, Defiance, 115.

238 Yechiel Silber, “The Partisans of Sochaczew,” in A. Sh. Sztejn (Shtayn) and Gavriel Wejszman (Vaysman), eds., Pinkas Sokhatshev (Jerusalem: Former Residents of Sochaczew in Israel, 1962), 514ff.; translasted as Memorial Book of Sochaczew, Internet: .

239 Tec, In the Lion’s Den, 183–84. In an interview published in 1993 Oswald Rufeisen stated: “I spent the war in Eastern Poland where I joined the German police pretending to be a Pole. I did not see Poles there murdering Jews, although I did see Poles being murdered. Moreover, I saw Belorussians, Latvians, Estonians, and Ukrainians who murdered [Jews], but I did not see Polish units doing that. But that isn’t publicized [in Israel]. That’s the way it was and let them not tell me otherwise, I know how it was. I know why Poland was chosen [by the Germans as the place where the Jews were to be killed]. Not because it was anti-Semitic. The Polish nation was second in line. There was no one to witness these events: there was no Papal nuncio, no ambassadors, no observers from outside. … And it was easiest there because in Poland there lived 3½ million Jews. One didn’t have to transport them from somewhere else. Nor was it necessary to take the Poles into account, three million of whom also perished after all.” See “Jako chrześcijanin, a nawet jako Żyd,” Polityka (Warszawa), May 29, 1993.

240 Wertheim, “Żydowska partyzantka na Białorusi,” Zeszyty Historyczne, no. 86 (1988): 151; Tec, Defiance, 153; Smilovitskii, Katastrofa evreev v Belorussii 1941–1944 gg., 139. See also the following Polish sources: Chackiewicz, “O rozbrojeniu formacji AK w Nalibockiej i Naroczańskiej puszczach w latach 1943–1944,” in Wołkonowski, ed., Sympozjum historyczne “Rok 1944 na Wileńszczyźnie,” 81; Boradyn, “Stosunki Armii Krajowej z partyzantką sowiecką na Nowogródczyźnie,” in Boradyn, ed., Armia Krajowa na Nowogródczyźnie i Wileńszczyźnie (1941–1945), 122; Krajewski, Na Ziemi Nowogródzkiej, 422–23; Boradyn, Niemen–rzeka niezgody, 155. There is considerable uncertainty surrounding the circumstances of this incident. Even after a thorough field investigation, a joint Polish-Soviet commission, which included Anatol Wertheim, a Jewish member of the Zorin unit, could not locate the bodies or ascertain the culprits. See ibid. (Boradyn); Siemaszko, “Komentarze,” Zeszyty Historyczne, no. 86 (1988), 168; Boradyn, ed., Armia Krajowa na Nowogródczyźnie i Wileńszczyźnie (1942–1944) w świetle dokumentów sowieckich, 83–88 (which contains the complete joint report); Krajewski, Na Ziemi Nowogródzkiej, 423. The Jewish partisans had ventured into an area that was, according to an agreement between the Home Army and the Soviet command, off limits to “economic” actions by the Soviets. See Boradyn, ed., Armia Krajowa na Nowogródczyźnie i Wileńszczyźnie (1942–1944) w świetle dokumentów sowieckich, 87 n.177. Despite warnings from the Polish partisans stationed in Dubniki to leave the area, the Jews proceeded to plunder in nearby Sobkowszczyzna. The villagers summoned the Polish partisans for assistance. The Polish partisans dispersed the Jewish marauders but they returned to Dubniki to reclaim the horses and wagons they used for their raids. They were then detained and, allegedly, shot somewhere outside the village, perhaps during an attempted escape. One of the Jews managed to flee and returned to his base with the news. Ibid., 83, 85. It is unclear whether Nurkiewicz was personally responsible for the execution of the Jewish pillagers, even though he was charged with that crime in Communist Poland in 1959, and sentenced to death (later commuted to a lengthy prison term). According to another source, a lancer by the name of Karpowicz, also sentenced to death by the Communist authorities after the war, may have been responsible for the execution. See Boradyn, Niemen–rzeka niezgody, 155. Characteristcally, relying solely on Jewish accounts summarized in Tec’s Defiance, German historian Bernhard Chiari focuses on this incident as “typical” of Polish-Jewish relations and ignores entirely the earlier massacre of Poles in Naliboki and the Narocz forest. See Chiari, Alltag hinter der Front, 283–84. Tellingly, the incident in Dubniki was not even raised during the interrogation of the Polish partisan leaders captured in Naliboki forest on December 1, 1943. See Boradyn, Niemen–rzeka niezgody, 167.

241 Boradyn, Niemen–rzeka niezgody, 85–86, 132, 134.

242 Krajewski, Na Ziemi Nowogródzkiej, 422–23; Boradyn, Niemen–rzeka niezgody, 152. Sometimes Polish partisans administered a thrashing to recidivists caught pilfering in areas under their control and confiscated their spoils. Sulia Wolozhinski Rubin, a member of Bielski’s Jewish partisans, recalled: “Boris’ [Rubizhewski] brother [Izaak or Itsek] and a few others were caught in some partisan village area, their guns were taken away and held by the Poles and their commander Milashevski [Miłaszewski]. Our leader called for me and another fellow who spoke Polish well, and asked us to go to the Polish base and persuade the Poles to release our people. It was hoped that my knowledge of the language plus the fact that Krasicki [this name is not found in Polish sources—M.P.], Milashewski’s adjutant, knew me well, would pull us through. … We passed a few Russian posts, exchanged greetings and, after an hour, came to a completely unknown part of the woods where the first Polish post let us pass. We had to pass two more. They were all tough looking fellows, yet they had all the grandeur of their uniforms including very shiny boots, brass buttons and elegant manners. We were very politely given an escort who took us to a regular house where Milashevski and his wife lived. The leader was polite as I presented our case. … He confirmed he had our men who had ‘trespassed his territory’ and would not tolerate such goings on. He was called outside … In the room with me was a pretty blonde girl who introduced herself as Halina, the commander’s wife. I don’t know how it came upon me but I had the feeling that she, too, was a Jewess. During the course of our conversation she admitted it and asked me for secrecy. … She was going to help all she could. … When Milashevski returned, Halina took him aside and whispered quite a bit. When he turned to me, he smiled, warned again about his ‘territory’, wrote a paper of release, shook hands with me and went out. … As I came out of the house, Izaak [Boris’ brother] and the other two fellows plus their rifles (but minus the ammunition) were sitting inside the buggy. They looked haggard after the ordeal … We started toward our company … Courtesy was given to us till the end and we came to the last post … There was Milashevski himself on a horse. He stepped down, once more kissed my hand, the Polish way, complimented me on my language and manners, and I was given an open invitation to visit any time …” See Rubin, Against the Tide, 142–44. (There is no independent confirmation that Miłaszewski’s wife was Jewish.) As mentioned earlier, Soviet reports refer to Itsek Rubezhevskii [Rubizhewski] as a rapacious plunderer who was caught repeatedly in the act. Another Jew who wrote in glowing terms about the warm and hospitable reception he and two other Jews received from everyone at the Polish partisan base in Derewno (Derewna), under Miłaszewski’s command, was Anatol Wertheim, who eventually joined Zorin’s detachment. See Wertheim, “Żydowska partyzantka na Białorusi,” Zeszyty Historyczne, no. 86 (1988): 137–40.

243 Hersh Smolar, The Minsk Ghetto: Soviet-Jewish Partisans Against the Nazis (New York: Holocaust Library, 1989), 126.

244 As noted earlier, permission to carry out this operation was sought on November 4, 1943, by Platon (Vasilii Chernyshev), who headed the Soviet partisans in the Baranowicze district, and was given by General Ponomarenko, the first secretary of the Belorussian Communist Party and chief of general staff of the partisan movement in Western Belorussia, on November 14, 1943.

245 Walczak, 13. Brygada Armii Krajowej Okręgu Wileńskiego, 54–55. For an account of the murder of a captured Polish underground member, in September 1943, by a Soviet partisan group led by Berek Alterovich, and additional murders of civilians commited by Alterovich, see Zygmunt Błażejewicz, W walce z wrogami Rzeczypospolitej: Partyzanckie wspomnienia z Wileńszczyzny i Podlasia (Zwierzyniec and Rzeszów: Obywatelskie Stowarzyszenie “Ostoja”, 2003), 12–13, 45–46.

246 Duffy, The Bielski Brothers, 246. According to Soviet reports, the March 5 assault by the Kirov and Chapayev Brigades claimed 31 Polish fatalities, whereas Polish reports acknowledged only 7 deaths. There is a significant discrepancy in Soviet losses as well (between 6 and 12). See Boradyn, Niemen–rzeka niezgody, 262.

247


^ Kagan and Cohen, Surviving the Holocaust with the Russian Jewish Partisans, 264–65. According to the Soviet register reproduced on pp. 186–87, in 1943 one quarter of the Kirov Brigade was Jewish. The April 9 assault is not noted in Boradyn’s detailed register. See Boradyn, Niemen–rzeka niezgody, 266.

248 Arad, Ghetto in Flames, 459. There were four units composed mostly of Jews fighting under Soviet command in Rudniki forest.

249 “Operations Diary of a Jewish Partisan Unit in Rudniki Forest, 1943–1944,” in Yitzhak Arad, Yisrael Gutman, and Abraham Margaliot, eds., Documents of the Holocaust: Selected Sources on the Destruction of the Jews of Germany and Austria, Poland, and the Soviet Union (Jerusalem: Yad Vashem, 1981), 463–71. The assault on Koniuchy, where at least 40 civilians were killed, is described and discussed in detail later in the text. The assault on Niewoniańce occurred on April 27, 1944: two families of Home Army members—consisting of eight people—were murdered and their farmsteads burned to the ground. See Krajewski, Na Ziemi Nowogródzkiej, 511. Jewish authors refer to these assaults as “anti-German military missions.” See Tec, “Reflections on Resistance and Gender,” in Roth and Maxwell, eds., Remembering for the Future, vol. 1, 559; Tec, Resilience and Courage, 281.

250 Lazar, Destruction and Resistance, 194.

251 Cohen, The Avengers, 114.

252 Interview with Harold Zissman, May 24, 1995, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Archives.

253 Account of Zalman Uri Gurevitz in A. Meyerowitz, ed., The Scroll of Kurzeniac (Internet: www.jewishgen.org/yizkor/kurenets/); translation of Megilat Kurenits: Ayara be-hayeha u-ve-mota (Tel Aviv: Former Residents of Kurzeniec in Israel and the U.S.A., 1956). Compare with Wołkonowski, Okręg Wileński Związku Walki Zbrojnej Armii Krajowej w latach 1939–1945, 210, 217.

254 Wołkonowski, Okręg Wileński Związku Walki Zbrojnej Armii Krajowej w latach 1939–1945, 239. For additional examples of captured Polish partisans being brutally murdered by Soviet partisans see Boradyn, “Stosunki Armii Krajowej z partyzantką sowiecką na Nowogródczyźnie,” in Boradyn, ed., Armia Krajowa na Nowogródczyźnie i Wileńszczyźnie (1941–1945), 116, 133; Boradyn, Niemen–rzeka niezgody, 198–99. Tellingly, one of the issues raised by the Soviets in their discussions with the Home Army was why Polish partisans did not kill disarmed German soldiers. The Poles replied that they respected international law, which forbade the killing of prisoners of war; since the Poles did not have camps to detain German soldiers, they had no choice but to release the Germans after disarming them. See Boradyn, Niemen–rzeka niezgody, 231. Jewish sources confirm that the Soviets did not respect the rules of war: “Standing orders were to shoot all German prisoners except officers, who were interrogated and then transferred to the partisan head of the region, General Platon.” See Tec, Resilience and Courage, 331.

The same pattern prevailed elsewhere in Poland. For example, a Jew who fought with the Soviet partisans in the Biała Podlaska area recalled: “White Polish partisans appeared in the forests and they fought us with greater hatred than they fought the Germans. We fought back and gave them the treatment they deserved. … We too killed them when we caught them. Once when our troop was returning from a sabotage operation, and passing close by a village, they shot at us from an ambush. … We decided to teach them a lesson and make an example of them … At night some of our troops surrounded the village and set it on fire. Any one [sic] trying to escape was shot and killed. No one survived from this village and no house remained standing. The partisans [sic] war was a war of life and death. We took no prisoners—anyone captured was killed following interrogation.” Account of Shneor Glembotzky, in Alufi and Barkeli, “Aishishuk”; Its History and Its Destruction, 77.

255 Kagan and Cohen, Surviving the Holocaust with the Russian Jewish Partisans, 266.

256 For example, Paul Sack, a Jew from Głębokie who joined the Soviet partisans, recalled that, on one occasion, his battalion killed 36 captured German SS soldiers. See The “1939” Club, The Legacy of the Partisans, Internet: