A Scary Intervention

Rating: 10/10 (9 October 2009)

In the movie Defiance, directed by Edward Zwick, Jewish brothers in Nazi occupied Europe, escape into the Belarusian forest. In their journey through the forest, they run into Russian resistance fighters. These Jewish and Russian forces endeavor to build secret villages in the forest holding around a thousand non-combatant Jews. There are two leaders ruling the secret Jews, Tuvia and Zus Bielski. Very strong leaders, they do a well job building and moving their villages as German forces catch on their trail. Zus ends up running into the Russian resistance fighters and ends up joining their group. As Tuvia gets caught in heavy German resistance, his lost brother comes out from the woods to help defeat the Germans as they rejoin together.
During this time in history, the Holocaust was occurring and the Germans were after the Jewish. The horrific things that were occurring in the concentration camps absolutely terrified the Jewish population to the point to were they would to anything to escape the Germans. What the Germans attempted to do better in the concentration camps was, to put it all together, wipe out the entire Jewish race. It is clear why all these Jewish refuges did anything and everything to escape persecution.
The technique the resistant Jewish and Russian forces used were simple: establish a settlement in the middle of the woods while having a strong civilian militia. By building these villages off of main German routes, it allowed the resistant forces to get good position. When German forces found out about these secret societies, they went on pursuit. The resistant forces would have to move, and move fast at that to deeper parts of the woods traveling miles. Once losing contact with the German forces, they would all get to work on building their new village. Everyone worked-- no excuses. The winters were extremely tough and if everyone did not do their part in the community, the village would suffer extremely. Food was rationed; therefore there was hardly enough to for the whole village. After the winter, the process started all over again. This movie really interested me because it was based on a true story. Everything that was going on during that time period was one of the most horrific acts of violence this planet has ever seen. For these Jewish escapes, it was a matter of life or death with every chance they took. To be able to live through the harsh weather of the winters was unbelievable. I took strength, community, dedication, and hope to survive on the run from the Germans.