Defiance cover art

Defiance

The Bielski Partisans

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Defiance

By: Nechama Tec
Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
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About this listen

 The prevailing image of European Jews during the Holocaust is one of helpless victims. But in fact, many Jews struggled against the terrors of the Third Reich.

This is the riveting history of one such group: a forest community numbering more than 1,200 that carried out the largest armed rescue operation of Jews by Jews in World War II. Nechama Tec reconstructs the amazing details of how these men and women of all ages - hungry, largely unarmed, and exposed to harsh winter weather - managed not only to survive but to take on the dual role of fighters and rescuers. Under the guidance of their charismatic leader, Tuvia Bielski, they smuggled Jews out of heavily guarded ghettos, led retaliatory raids against Nazi collaborators, and offered protection to all Jewish fugitives who could find their way to them.

©1993 Nechama Tec (P)2008 Blackstone Audio, Inc. World Survival Holocaust Middle East Russia

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Critic reviews

"One of the most elevating and inspiring stories in the chronicle of death and despair that is the Holocaust....an accomplished and startling work of Holocaust documentation." ( Los Angeles Times)
"An exciting story of rescuers and fighters - a story that should have been documented years ago....Defiance will no doubt engender further interest in the subject of Jewish partisan activity." ( Social Education)
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I thoroughly enjoyed the narrator (which isn't always the case) and the subject matter. Having studied the Holocaust for many years, this was a different perspective in that they fought back. I appreciated the depth of the details and highly recommend this work.

Goes much further than the film could ever go

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account to what it was like during World War II as part of a partisan living in the forests and the surrounding areas and the things that they had to do to survive. The narrator was excellent.

An excellent....

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I downloaded this expecting it to be like the movie. I was wrong, it is more factual & more characters come into play that we do not see in the movie. In today… we can not imagine the horror & sadness that these people witnessed & saw. I loved this book & loved the narrator. Thank you :)

Hope & Love

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Beautifully narrated, this book does not whitewash the life of those who took refuge in the forest community led by the Jewish brothers, made famous by the film, Defiance. It seems to give a well-rounded picture of what happened and includes some opinions of those who were critical of their leader.
I was particularly struck by how useful an analysis it provides of the leadership qualities needed to inspire hope in a hopeless situation.
And I appreciated the way the narrator changed his voice ever so slightly to differentiate between quotes from male and female members of the group.

Excellent collation of eye witness accounts

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I found this listen hard going and tedious. i did eventualy get to the end. I wad expecting a griping account instead the book reads more like a school refrence book. Lots of names numbers and unessacery accented pronunciations.

Hard going.

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