Zus Bielski grew up with eleven siblings on their parents’ farm in Stankiewicze (Poland, today Stankevichy, Belarus) auf. When the Wehrmacht occupied the region in June 1941, Bielski suffered persecution because he was Jewish. His parents and two of his siblings were murdered. Zus Bielski hid in the forests near Navahrudak with his brother Asael. Their brothers Tuvia and Aron Bielski soon joined them, as well as other relatives. The brothers procured weapons and helped numerous Jews escape from the nearby ghettos. In the forest they formed a partisan unit under the leadership of Tuvia Bielski. Jews who did not actively fight remained in the forest camp and were protected and cared for by the partisan unit. About 1,200 Jews, mostly women, children, and the elderly, survived with the protection of the Bielski brothers.
The Red Army liberated the area around Navahrudak in July 1944 and the forest camp and partisan unit were disbanded. Zus emigrated to Palestine in 1945 and he and his family later lived in the United States.
Zus Bielski and his wife Sonia in the forest camp, 1944. Source: Yad Vashem Archives, Jerusalem
Zus Bielski and his sister Estell, 1945. Source: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington D.C., courtesy of Bielski Family, 92150
Tuvia Bielski with his daughter (back row, 2nd and 3rd from left), his wife Leah and his son (front row, 5th and 6th from left), his brother Zus (back row, 4th from right), his cousin Yehuda (back row, far right), and other surviving members of the Bielski group, Israel, 1948. Source: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington D.C., courtesy of Yehuda and Lola Bell Collection, 97696
