Last revised august 30, 2004

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405 Historian Alexander Statiev contends that Soviet partisans “inflated their success to a degree that makes most numbers in their reports useless for researchers.” He notes, in particular, that the Central Partisan Headquarters claimed to have killed 303,950 enemy soldiers and 9,291 policemen, and wounded 79,168 enemy soldiers between April 17, 1943 and January 13, 1944 alone, “which is a blatant lie.” See Alexander Statiev, “The Soviet Union,” in Cooke and Shepherd, European Resistance in the Second World War, 208. According to the Belorussian staff of the partisan movement, in the course of the war, Soviet partisans killed 27,977 and wounded 8,232 native policemen, a figure that is obviously grossly inflated, but still passed off as genuine by many Belarussian historians. See K.I. Kozak, “Germanskie okkupatsionnye voennye i grazhdanskie organy v Belarusi 1941–1944 gg.: Analiz i itogi poter,” in Balakirau and Kozak, Pershaia i druhaia sysvetnyia voiny, 139. Belorussian historian Aliaksei Litvin, a researcher at the Institute of the History of the (Communist) Party in Minsk, exposed some of the highly inflated claims about the Soviet partisan movement made by Ponomarenko and others, which are characteristic of Soviet historiography, and challenged the long-held claim of near universal support for the Communist underground among the Belorussian population. He also lent credence to the contention of Polish historians that the Soviet side was never interested in reaching a compromise with the Poles. See Aliaksei Litvin, Akupatsyia Belarusi (1941–1944): Pytanni supratsivu i kalabaratsyi (Minsk: Belaruski knihazbor, 2000). A case in point are the reports regarding the May 1943 massacre in Naliboki, referred to earlier, which turned that blood bath of civilians into a military action that yielded large quantities of weapons. See Boradyn, Niemen–rzeka niezgody, 89. Another example can be found in Eugeniusz Iwaniec, “Napad sowieckiej partyzantki na Kosów Poleski 3 sierpnia 1942 r. (sukces czy klęska?)”, Białoruskie Zeszyty Historyczne, vol. 25 (2006): 259–97. The author also notes the wanton destruction of the school and hospital during the Soviet assault on the German garrison in this small town, with its deleterious impact on the welfare of the local population. For examples of “embellished” accounts from other parts of Poland see Eva Hoffman, Shtetl: The Life and Death of a Small Town and the World of Polish Jews (Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1997), 234; and Zbigniew Romaniuk, “Brańsk and Its Environs in the Years 1939–1953: Reminiscences of Events,” in The Story of Two Shtetls, Part One, 85.

Even some Jewish sources concede that Soviet partisan combat activities and heroism (and by necessary extension, those of Jews) have been greatly exaggerated. See Tec, Defiance, 83, 225; Nechama Tec, “Jewish Resistance in Belorussian Forests: Fighting and the Rescue of Jews by Jews,” in Ruby Rohrlich, ed., Resisting the Holocaust (Oxford and New York: Berg, 1998), 79. For example, the casualty toll for an assault on the Lida-Baranowicze railroad on January 5, 1944, which allegedly took the lives of two Germans and injured 13, was later inflated by Russian partisans to 21 Germans killed, and by Zus Bielski to 50 Germans killed. The commanders of both the Russian and Jewish detachments that participated in the sabotage were presented with awards by the commander of the Kirov Brigade. See Duffy, The Bielski Brothers, 230. Without checking German records, however, we cannot be sure exactly how many casualties there were as a result of that operation. Generally, there is a lack of confirmation in the meticulous field reports prepared by the Germans, as well as in other sources, of many of the accomplishments claimed by Soviet partisans, for example, those of the Markov Brigade. See Jarosław Wołkonowski, “Zdrada nad Naroczą,” Karta (Warsaw), no. 13 (1995): 138. One Jewish partisan noted: “Toward the end of the war, when we were leaving the partisans, the Russians were distributing titles, medals, and orders, even the highest kind of distinctions. Some of those could be bought with vodka. Also, whoever had good connections could count on receiving a medal.” See Tec, In the Lion’s Den, 202. Documents in the Belorussian archives in Minsk disclose that Jewish partisans were known to have paid their Soviet colleagues large quantities of gold jewelry (wedding bands, earrings, and crosses stolen from civilians) to “appropriate” Soviet military operations. When Soviet partisans in the field turned to headquarters for permission to do so, they were advised to up the ante.

406 Sokolov, Okkupatsiia, 104. For a well-documented reassessment of the Soviet partisans’ “railroad war” see Musial, Sowjetische Partisanen 1941–1944, 220–30.

407 Musial, Sowjetische Partisanen in Weißrußland, 22, 107–108, and Marek J. Chodakiewicz’s review in Sarmatian Review, no. 2 (April) 2006: 1217–20. See also Bogdan Musial, Sowjetische Partisanen 1941–1941: Mythos und Wirklichkeit (Paderborn: Ferdinand Schöningh, 2009); Gerlach, Kalkulierte Morde, 865–66 (Mogilev oblast). The Soviet historiography on the occupation in Ukraine is similarly marred and reported German losses are often grossly inflated. See Aleksander Gogun, “Stalinowska wojna partyzancka na Ukrainie 1941–1944,” Part Two, Pamięć i Sprawiedliwość, vol. 11 (2007), no. 2: 129, 133.

408 Timm C. Richter, “Belarusian Partisans and German reprisals,” in Snyder and Brandon, Stalin and Europe, 212–13.

409 Musial, Sowjetische Partisanen in Weißrußland, 106.

410 Leo Heiman, “Organized Looting: The Basis of Partisan Warfare,” Military Review (February 1965): 61–68, here at 62–63. See also Leo Heiman’s memoir, I Was a Soviet Guerrilla (London: Brown, Watson, 1959).

411 Heiman, “Organized Looting: The Basis of Partisan Warfare,” Military Review (February 1965): 62.

412 Raul Hilberg, The Destruction of the European Jews, Third edition (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2003), vol. 2, 545

413 Krajewski, Na Ziemi Nowogródzkiej, 43–45; Wardzyńska, “Radziecki ruch partyzancki i jego zwalczanie w Generalnym Komisariacie Białorusi,” Pamięć i Sprawiedliwość: Biuletyn Głównej Komisji Badania Zbrodni przeciwko Narodowi Polskiemu–Instytutu Pamięci Narodowej, no. 39 (1996): 46–50. On the activities of the German police in Belorussia see Wolfgang Curilla, Die Deutsche Ordnungspolizei und der Holocaust im Baltikum und in Weissrussland, 1941–1944 (Paderborn, München, Wien, Zürich: Ferdinand Schöningh, 2006).

414 Arad, The Holocaust in the Soviet Union, 512; Arad, In the Shadow of the Red Banner, 311–12.

415 Bryna Bar Oni, The Vapor (Chicago: Visual Impact, 1976), 73. According to other sources this raid resulted in the family camp dwindling from 360 to 150 people or from 300 to 100. Many villages were also laid waste and houses were burned down along with their inhabitants. See Alpert, The Destruction of Slonim Jewry, 342–45; Arad, The Holocaust in the Soviet Union, 511.

416 Bar Oni, The Vapor, 85, 90; Alpert, The Destruction of Slonim Jewry, 353–54.

417 Alpert, The Destruction of Slonim Jewry, 356.

418 Yechiel Granatstein, The War of a Jewish Partisan: A Youth Imperiled By His Russian Comrades and Nazi Conquerors (Brooklyn, New York: Mesorah Publications, 1986), 171.

419 Hans-Heinrich Nolte, “Destruction and Resistance: The Jewish Shtetl of Slonim, 1941–44,” in Robert W. Thurston and Bernd Bonwetsch, eds., The People’s War: Responses to World War II in the Soviet Union (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2000), 45.

420 Dereczin (Mahwah, New Jersey: Jacob Solomon Berger, 2000), 304.

421 Arad, The Holocaust in the Soviet Union, 509. See also the account of Hertsl Traetsky in Vladimir Levin and David Meltser, Chernaia kniga z krasnymi stranitsami: Tragediia i geroizm evreev Belorussii (Baltimore: Vestnik Information Agency, 1996), 306.

422 Arad, The Holocaust in the Soviet Union, 509.

423 Zissman, The Warriors, 123–24.

424 Philip Lazowski, Faith and Destiny (Barkhamsted, Connnecticut: Goulet Printery, 2006), 123.

425 Account of Meyshe Kaganovitsh in M. [Moshe] Kaganovich, ed., In Memory of the Jewish Community of Ivye, Internet: ; translation of Sefer zikaron le-kehilat Ivye (Tel Aviv: Association of Former Residents of Ivie in Israel and United Ivier Relief in America, 1968).

426 Account of Shimon Zimmerman in Meyerowitz, The Scroll of Kurzeniac.

427 Account of Yitzhak Zimerman in Meyerowitz, The Scroll of Kurzeniac.

428 Yoran, The Defiant, 122, 124, 125.

429 Smolar, The Minsk Ghetto, 124.

430 Aviel, A Village Named Dowgalishok, 220–30; Reizer, In the Struggle, 163. According to one source, the raid—a 16-day assault which started on June 16, 1943—took the lives of 70 Jews from the “Todras” family camp alone. See Eliach, There Once Was a World, 638. Leib Reizer states that, in retaliation, Jewish partisans blew up a German military train at the Tsherlana or Czerliny [sic] train station near Lunna [sic] destroying 12 Tiger tanks and more than 20 Ferdinands, and killing about 100 Germans. See Reizer, In the Struggle, 163–64; Testimony of Lejb Rajzer, dated 1945, Archive of the Jewish Historical Institute (Warsaw), no. 301/555. This claim appears to be grossly inflated and has not been verified.

431 Spector, Lost Jewish Worlds, 179, which places the rais in July 1943.

432 Arad, Ghetto in Flames, 452–53.

433 Levin, Fighting Back, 185.

434 Account of Nissan Reznik in Boneh, History of the Jews of Pinsk, Part Two, Chapter 6.

435 Yoran, The Defiant, 144–46.

436 Kowalski, A Secret Press in Nazi Europe, 268–69.

437 Arad, The Partisan, 149–50.

438 Kowalski, A Secret Press in Nazi Europe, 275.

439 Silverman, From Victims to Victors, 191.

440 Bauer, The Death of the Shtetl, 127, 129.

441 Kowalski, Anthology on Armed Jewish Resistance, 1939–1945, vol. 4 (1991), 102. See also the findings of Israeli historian Shmuel Krakowski, cited in Gilbert, The Holocaust, 464.

442 Nechama Tec, “Partisan Interconnections in Belorussian Forests and the Rescue of Jews by Jews,” in John J. Michalczyk, ed., Resisters, Rescuers, and Refugees: Historical and Ethical Issues (Kansas City: Sheed & Ward, 1997), 120.

443 Tec, Defiance, 81.

444 Ibid., 154–55.

445 Ibid., 264.

446 Timothy Snyder, Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin (New York: Basic Books, 2010), 237.

447 Kenneth Slepyan, “The Soviet Partisan Movement and the Holocaust,” Holocaust and Genocide Studies, vol. 14, no. 1 (Spring 2000): 5.

448 Berestizki, Run For Your Life, My Child!, 92–93. The author confirms that supply raids into villages, revenge actions against informers, and killing captured German and allied soldiers were routine. Ibid., 93, 113, 116.

449 Kuszelewicz, Un Juif de Biélorussie de Lida à Karaganda, 83–84.

450 Kagan, comp., Novogrudok, 236. This passage was omitted from the report reproduced in volume 23 of Yad Vashem Studies (1993); it should have appeared before the last paragraph on page 407. For similar accounts from the Nacza forest area, see the testimony of Abraham Asner, October 10, 1982, Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive, University of Michigan at Dearborn, Internet: