HaLiegh's Blog

The book continues to get more in depth as we see the brothers become exceedingly violent because, as stated in the book, they felt that was the only way they could survive. The brothers continue to live in the woods surrounding the nearby villages of Lida and Novogrudek. The German soldiers are seemingly becoming less humane as they continue on with the mass killings. They no longer conceal the fact that they slaughter thousands of people in less than 24 hours. They no longer dig the burial trenches out in the woods, but now right off the main roads. They become more cruel as we see them randomly choose to murder an entire town out of spite. These horrible actions are portrayed well through the authors writing. He displays the emotions of each and every person throughout this book, and I feel as though that may help the reader get more invested in this book and what it stands for.

As we continue this story, we begin to see that it follows the three main brothers of the Bielski family. Tuvia, Aseal, ans Zus are the three eldest boys in the family and the only members left. The mill that their father had run all their life had been taken over by German soldiers. Both of the Bielski parents had been killed, both dying from severe injuries given by beatings. The brothers have started living in the woods on the outskirts of their home town of Novogrudek. They have successfully accumulated weapons and ammunition from Russain soldiers and have continued to keep a group of over 25 Jews safe. In the later chapters we fins that mass murders are becoming more common in the Jewish cities. The ghettos are becoming more abundant and more families are being separated. The few Jews that do manage to escape are forced to return when they are left out in the cold. The Nazis' have instilled such fear in the gentiles and Belo-russian civilians that they turn down former friends shelter and food.

Further into this book we begin to get exact dates of when the Judenrat are being killed. Typically in the masses, the families are separated and the working Jews are sent to the new Novagrudek ghetto. This small portion of land is given up in order to keep them well enough to continue their work. The other Jews are shipped off in trucks and taken to the outskirts of town. Some are beaten, others are stripped down and machine-gunned to death. One woman who manages to survive returns to the ghetto and tells of the horrific scenes she had to endure. New German leaders are put into power over the small town and they recommend blocking all the streets out of town. This creates a panic and the thousands of Jews who attempt to escape are shot. We see families continue to struggle through these times with  minimal food in the ghetto. 

So far, this book has been very informative, but in a very interesting way. It has informed me in multiple ways of how the Jewish community was treated in the beginning of WWII and how the violence had grown during the entire event. This book will tell you all about a small town near Poland, and how a family gets betrayed by friends they had known for years. I believe this book is going to become very suspenseful and hopefully, continues to be as well written as it has been.