Defiance is the story of the Russian Bielski brothers who lived in the woods with fellow Jews for years fighting the Germans as partisans. Two of the brothers survived and moved to New York where they operated a trucking company.

1200 survived the war surviving Russian winters, starvation, and combat with seasoned troops. Their children and offspring number over 10,000 today.

Jews were often showed in holocaust films as weak sheep shuttled helplessly off to slaughter. The story of the Bielski partisans clearly shows that the Jews can be fierce warriors when forced to be.

The IDF is still motivated today by the holocaust and every soldier takes a detailed tour through the Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem, to remind them what will happen if they lose.

There is a scene is the movie where a wedding in the woods under a makeshift Chuppa under a light snowfall is juxtaposed against another brother attacking a German unit with fellow Bolsheviks. One scene has dancing and joy, while in a slightly different place, under the same light snowfall, Zus Bielski executes two German captives with a pistol shot into the back of their heads without reluctance or remorse.

This captured the jointly held emotions of love and rage that the Jews harbored, and many of us still do.

Yes, I recommend the movie. It is also interesting to note that several of the reviews of the book on Amazon are from children of the survivors of the story.

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