Tale of brothers who saved Jews in WWII to be made into a movie

The Bielski brothers were a loud, brash bunch but one thing they were not, and that was braggarts.

Even when newspaper headlines declared them heroes and books were written about them saving 1,200 Jews from the Nazis, relatives said, they hardly ever talked about it.

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Paramount Pictures

Daniel Craig (center) stars as Tuvia Bielski and Alexa Davalos as Lilka in ‘Defiance,’ set to come out in December.

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On those rare occasions when the talk turned to that time during World War II, the stories fell from the lips of their children and other relatives.

In either case, David Bell’s ears always perked up. He loved hearing his great-uncles’ stories but to a little boy they always seemed unbelievable. It wasn’t until he read a book about them escaping Nazi-occupied Poland, building a village in the forest and saving fellow Jews that he realized it was all true.

Here’s the thing that Bell has yet to wrap his head around: The brothers’ story will soon play on the big screen in Edward Zwick’s “Defiance,” scheduled for release in December.

“It’s kind of surreal,” said Bell, a Dunwoody podiatrist.

Their story begins in the summer of 1941, about the time the Nazis marched into Belarus and began forcing Jews into ghettos.

Tuvia, Zus and Asael Bielski decided to take up arms and protect themselves and others. They fled into the forest, where they built a community, infirmary and school.

David Bell said they led the largest armed rescue operation of Jews by Jews in World War II.

In a telephone interview from his home on Long Island, N.Y., Bell’s father Louis described his uncles as kind and loving.

“You wouldn’t have known they were heroes,” said Louis, who shortened his name to Bell when he migrated to the U.S. from Poland shortly before the war.

“They behaved like anyone else.”

Uncle Asael, he said, was drafted into the Russian military and killed just days before the war ended. The other two, Tuvia and Zus, came to the United States, settling in Brooklyn, N.Y. Tuvia was a truck driver. Zus owned and operated a gas station for many years.

Because they were able to save 1,200, Louis said, more than 20,000 Jews exist today.

Tuvia’s son told him people used to come to his home and say things like your father saved my life, Louis said.

David Bell, who moved here from his native New York in May, will return home this weekend along with relatives from all over the world for a special screening of the film at the Museum of Jewish Heritage — A Living Memorial of the Holocaust.

“It’s nice they’re getting the recognition,” he said. “It’s just kind of hard to believe.”

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