The Bielski partisan leaders split the group into two units, one named "Ordzhonikidze", led by Zus, and the other "Kalinin", commanded by Tuvia. Fighting on the Soviet side, they took part in fights between Polish and Soviet forces. On 1 December 1943, they helped the Soviets disarm a group of Polish partisans. According to records kept by the partisans, the Bielski fighters from both units claimed to have killed a total of 381 enemy fighters, sometimes during joint actions with Soviet groups.
In the summer of 1944, the Soviets began to fight back against the Nazi occupiers in Belarus, and took over the area. At this pint, the "Kalinin" unit, which included 1,230 men, women and children, came out of the forest and marched into Novogrodek.
Even though they have previously worked and cooperated with the Soviets, relations between the Soviets and the Bielski partisans got worse quickly. The NKVD started interrogating the Bielski brothers about the rumours of loot they had reportedly collected during the war, and about their failure to "implement socialist ideals in the camp". Asael Bielski was conscripted into the Soviet Red Army and fell in the Battle of Königsberg in 1945. The remaining brothers escaped Soviet-controlled lands, emigrating to the West. Tuvia's cousin, Yehuda Bielski, was sought by the NKVD for having been an officer in the pre-war Polish Army. However, with Tuvia's help, he managed to escape to Hungary, then to Israel.
After the war, Tuvia Bielski returned to Poland, then emigrated to present-day Israel in 1945. Tuvia and Zus eventually settled in New York, where they ran a successful trucking business. When Tuvia died in 1987, he was buried in Long Island, New York. However, a year later, surviving partisans in Israel got his body to be exhumed (taken out of the ground). He was given a hero's funeral at Har Hamenuchot, the hillside graveyard in Jerusalem. His wife, Lilka, was buried beside him in 2001.
The last living Bielski brother, Aron Bielski, emigrated to the US in 1951. He changed his name to "Aron Bell." The remainder of the Bell family now lives in upstate New York and California. Aron lives in Florida. None of the Bielskis ever sought any praise or reward for their actions.
Yehuda Bielski, their first cousin and fellow partisan, moved to Israel to fight in the Irgun.
Stankiewicze (Stankevichi) no longer exists. It was at , just off Route P11, approximately halfway between Biarozauka and Navahrudak.
Some of the members of the Bielski partisans (but not the Bielski brothers themselves) have been accused of war crimes in the villages near them. In particular, Bielski partisans have been accused of being involved in the 1943 Naliboki massacre of 129 people, committed by Soviet partisans. Some witnesses and some historians say that members of the Bielskis' unit were at the massacre. However, former group members and other historians, say this is not true. They say that the partisans did not arrive in the area until several months later.
The Polish Institute of National Remembrance has been investigating the massacre since the early 2000s. As of April 2009, it has not issued official findings. However, some historians working at the Institute have written in other publications that the Bielski brothers had not been involved in the massacre.
Two recent English language books have focused on the Bielski story: "Defiance" (1993) by Nechama Tec, and "The Bielski Brothers" (2004) by Peter Duffy. The group is also mentioned in numerous books about this period in history. A new book (January 2009) in Polish by two reporters from Gazeta Wyborcza, "Odwet: Prawdziwa historia braci Bielskich" ("Revenge: The True Story of the Bielski Brothers") focuses on the larger political and historical context in which the partisans operated, specifically the fighting between Polish and Soviet resistance groups in the Kresy (former Eastern Poland) region. "Fugitives of the Forest: The Heroic Story of Jewish Resistance and Survival During the Second World War", by Allan Levine (first published 1998, 2008 reissue, by Lyons Press), tells the story of Jewish fighters and refugees in forests across Europe, including the Bielski partisans. "With Courage Shall We Fight: The Memoirs and Poetry of Holocaust Resistance Fighters Frances "Fruma" Gulkowich Berger and Murray “Motke” Berger" tells the story of two Bielski Brigade fighters before, during and after the War.
In 2006, the History Channel aired a documentary titled "The Bielski Brothers: Jerusalem in the Woods", written and directed by filmmaker Dean Ward.
An episode of the BBC series "Who Do You Think You Are?" featured UK television personality Natasha Kaplinsky discovering that her great uncle Ytsak Kaplinski was a member of the Bielski partisans. He survived the war and emigrated to South Africa.
The BBC series Ray Mears's "Extreme Survival" featured an episode about the Bielski partisans.
The feature film "Defiance", co-written, produced and directed by Edward Zwick, was released nationwide on 16 January 2009. It stars Daniel Craig, Liev Schreiber, Jamie Bell, and George MacKay as Tuvia, Zus, Asael and Aron Bielski respectively. It opened to mixed reviews and raised questions about the roles various groups played during the war.
Roman dictator
A dictator was the senior magistrate of the Roman Republic. They were regularly appointed from the earliest period of the Republic down to the Second Punic War.
Dictators had the full authority of the state to deal with a military emergency or to undertake a specific duty. The right of the Tribune of the plebs to veto his actions was extremely limited. However, to prevent the dictatorship from threatening the state itself, limitations were placed on his powers. A dictator had a clear sphere of authority. He had to resign once his task was done, or after six months.
After the Second Punic War, no dictators were appointed for over a century. Then the idea was revived by Sulla, and later by Caesar. Sulla was a tyrant, and Caesar was murdered soon after becoming dictator.
The office was formally abolished after the death of Caesar, and not revived under the Empire.
Vargas tragedy
Vargas tragedy is one of the worst disaster that struck the Venezuelan country's Vargas state on 15 December 1999. It was a result of heavy downpour of rain, flash floods and mudslides that followed on 14-16 December 1999 which killed 10,000*30,000 peoples.This disaster led to an complete collapse of the infrastructure of the state of Vargas.
Many towns were swept away to the ocean due to the floods.Whole towns like Cerro Grande and Carmen de Uria completely disappeared. As much as 10% of the population of Vargas perished during this event.The coastal area of Vargas has long been subject to mudslides and flooding: geologically similar catastrophes occurred with regularity. The most recent major flood was in 1951, however that event did not cause as much damage.
In a 52-hour span during 14, 15 and 16 December 1999, of rain (approximately one year's total rainfall for the region) was measured on the north-central coast of Venezuela at Simón Bolívar International Airport in Maiquetia, Venezuela. These heavy rains included of accumulation in just one hour, between 6 and 7 AM on the 16th; precipitation on both the 15th and 16th exceeded the 1,000-year probability rainfall event. Even so, the coast received much less rain than some regions upstream.
The disaster caused estimated damages of USD $1.79 to $3.5 billion. The death toll was considered to be between 10,000 and 30,000—the exact number of casualties is difficult to determine as there was no reliable census data, especially about shanty towns and small communities that were completely wiped out; moreover, only some 1,000 bodies were recovered, with the rest swept to sea by the mud or buried in the landslides. More than 8,000 homes and 700 apartment buildings were destroyed in Vargas displacing up to 75,000 people.
Charrat