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| Historian Kenneth Slepyan takes a rather benign view of the motivation of the Soviet partisans:
Suspicions among the partisans ran high; outsiders were not to be trusted. … Partly because of this exclusivity, few non-party Jewish civilians joined, or were permitted to join, the [partisan] movement in 1941. In the atmosphere of fear and suspicion that prevailed in the occupied territories, it was almost impossible for Jews, as outsiders, to enter units unless they were known personally to the partisans, just as it was unlikely that other outsiders, too, would be accepted. … partisans were frequently very suspicious of Jews—or of people who claimed to be Jews—under the logic that a spy would invent precisely such an identity. … Under interrogation, some Jewish partisans even confessed—or were forced to confess—to working for the Germans. … Indeed, even Soviet Jewish partisans executed fellow Jews whom they believed to be German spies.447 Jewish memoirs also confirm the pervasive fear of “spies” dispatched by the Germans to the forests: We moved from place to place in the forest a few times because of the increase in the number of spies and patrols sent by the Germans and local police from Kosov [Kosów], Rozheny [Różana], Iwatzvitzi [Iwacewicze], and other places. Many of them were caught, confessed and were executed. They were brought to us blindfolded and their hands tied by the secret service, which operated 10-15 kilmeters from our base [i.e., the Kirov otriad]. During the siege and search operations of the Germans and their accomplices, we didn’t have time to file and prosecute the spies and patrols that we caught. Unfortunately, these were the “laws” at the time in the forest.448 Joseph Kuszelewicz, who joined the Bielski partisans, confirms the belief that there were German spies among the Jews who came to the forest: There were some executions of Jewish informers infiltrated into the Bielski group by the Germans in order to betray it. … In most cases, these traitors were quickly uncovered and executed after a rapid and merciless sentence.449 A report submitted by Tuvia Bielski to the Soviet command on the activities of his detachment acknowledges this in a less explicit manner: Every citizen who came to the disposition of the detachment by chance or intentionally was interrogated by the Plenipotentiary of the Special Department, and there were occasions when the Germans would send in spies who pretended being partisans.450 Slepyan also acknowledges that a high percentage of Jews seeking refuge in the forest were murdered by [Soviet] partisans. A group of Jewish women was killed by a partisan band just after having crossed the Nieman [Niemen] River into the supposed safety of partisan territory. Such actions were commonly tolerated by mid-level Soviet officials, who rationalized that such things happen in wartime. … another partisan commander, Astreiko, … before becoming a partisan had been the head of a local police unit that had allegedly executed 300 Jews. Jews thus faced a difficult struggle to join the movement, and even able-bodied Jews were frequently turned away. … Some hid their Jewish identity altogether in order to join or because they feared their comrades’ prejudices. Even after being allowed into units … their acceptance was sometimes only grudging.451 Grainom Lazewnik, who hails from Łunin, in Polesie, and narrowly escaped being shot by Soviet partisans, confirms that information based on his personal experience: We met a few groups of [Soviet] partisans but they were not willing to have us. Some were anti-semitic and cloaked their rejection in strategic rhetoric; “Your community is not composed of good fighters.” Others were more practical and explained that they had enough fighters but lacked weapons, asking, “Why do you come with empty hands?” Some partisan leaders were more condescending and said, “You gave your jewelry and gold watches to the Germans. How can you come to us know for protection?” Meanwhile we heard that two friends from our original group were killed by the partisans who claimed to have found German documents on them. Then the partisans spread rumors that the Germans sent Jews into the forests as spies. Jews, the partisans claimed, were willing to spy and thereby save themselves. The documents in question were standard identity cards that Jews had to carry at all times. The partisans refused to consider the explanation. “How could you surrender your Soviet passports to the enemy in exchange for their identity card?” they asked. One day while wandering on side roads hoping to at last find a sympathetic ear, a partisan with officers rank came up to us. Riding on a horse with an automatic rifle slung across his chest, he quickly dismounted and began to shout in a murderous voice, “Run at once into the forest! Go!” Mordechai and Nachum ran immediately to the forest. My brother Moshe also took a few steps to distance himself but when he saw that I remained in place he stopped and shouted at me, “Quick, run!” … My heart dictated that I not turn my back to him though he continued to order me “Into the forest.” His finger was on the trigger … “What are you mumbling?” he asked. “I’m saying that we have no possessions.” And I lifted my hands as if to say “Here, check my pockets.” … The partisan mounted his horse and ordered, “Get out of here and make sure I never see any of you again,” and rode off.452 Historian Yehuda Bauer traces the sad experience of Jewish fugitives from Baranowicze and Nowogródek in the early period: In the summer of 1942, Baranowicze Jews escaped to the partisans for the first time … but most of them were killed by antisemitic partisans. … some of them were killed by bandits disguised as partisans … The Soviet partisans through whose territory the escapees [from the Jewish artisans’ camp in Kołdyczewo] had to pass to reach the Bielski group wanted to kill them, suspecting that they had been sent by the Germans on an espionage mission. Dr. Lewinbok, who was related to the Bielski brothers, managed to dissuade them. … In the forests these young people [i.e., members of the Jewish underground in Baranowicze] … [faced] sharp antisemitism from the Zhorkin partisan unit, which was responsible for the murders of Dr. [Abrasha] Abramowski and [Mamme (Antek)] Kopelowicz.453
Unaffiliated strangers were immediately shot. Most were Jews who had escaped from ghettos or camps and were hiding in the woods. They did not belong to any combat unit because the partisans did not want them. … After a few days had passed, I came across a Jewish boy and asked him, “What happened? What is going on? Where are the Jewish boys and girls?” He hung his head. “Most of the Jewish partisans were dismissed, sent away from the units into Nazi jaws because they did not have rifles.” The order had been given by partisan headquarters. The partisans did not want the enemy to think that so many partisans were without rifles. … The easiest solution was to expel the Jews. As always, when the Jews were not needed they were no longer wanted. Some of our Jewish former partisans had survived and were hiding defenceless in the woods.455 After their fifth day spent in the forest, they were surrounded on all sides. Armed men ordered them to remain in their places. Fear fell upon the people, and only when the armed men addressed them in Russian, did the Liskowo people calm down a bit. The armed men demanded wither money or gold. They ordered the people to produce all their valuables by nightfall, at which point they would return with wagons and take everything away. As the Liskowo Jews found out later from Joseph Mezheritzky’s brother, who with his family had hidden out with a friendly Pole in Janina, this same group of armed bandits had been at their place that morning and took everything of any worth that they found. Out of fear of these bandits, who threatened to molest the women, a number of Liskowo Jews had to leave their hideouts in Janina. … The band of outlaws kept their word, and late in the night they came to the earthen bunker. They ordered the people out of the pit, they went inside, and took whatever they found, and then they tore the clothes off the people, and took the shoes off their feet—and vanished with their booty.456 In those autumn days of 1942, one of our Jewish groups was attacked by some Russian partisans, headed by someone named Mustapha. There was only one survivor, Moshe Eisenstein …457 In August. 1942, we joined up with a group of partisans. However, the Gentiles warned us that in this region there is a group of partisans that go by the name Nekrasow, who rob everything from the rescued Jews and shoot them … Therefore, we had to go a different way, to the forests of Rubezhevichi [Rubieżewicze]. There, we found approximately 150 Jews of Rubezhevichi. …They told us that partisans always come to them … among the partisans that come to them, there are some who take the weapons and everything that they can find from the Jews. One was called Tolek from Kubinow’s Otriad. A second was Minin, a military commander of the high headquarters. They told us to be discrete, as they may soon come to take our weapons. … The roundups began on July 10, 1943. … They [the Germans] left the Pushta [Naliboki forest] after three weeks … Minin appeared during that time. He was somewhat drunk, and he shot three women and one man of the Rubezhevichi Jews.458 Among the runaway Jews many were older people, children, and women. The Russians were afraid that when the Germans would catch such people they might in turn tell about the Russians’ whereabouts. To prevent this from happening, and for their own safety, the Russians would deliver to the authorities the unarmed, helpless Jews, or they would themselves kill them.459 Just as we had located a place for ourselves in this beautiful forest and began to breathe freely, a group of riders rushed out and ordered us to come to the nearby clearing. These were Russian Partisans. One could see the hatred for Jews in their eyes. … They screamed and cursed and even threatened denunciation and murder. All this for one reason: to rob us of what was left of our “property” that we had brought from the ghetto. … And they, after taking all the booty, left us just as they had come.460 At first the [Soviet] partisans regarded us unfavourably, but then they showed what they were capable of. … When they caught Jews in the region they killed them. There were very many such cases. We then saw them wearing their clothes. … Among others they killed Abramski, Motel Grinwald, Izrael Reznik. Partisans killed them. They were Russians who had escaped from captivity [i.e., German camps for Soviet POWs] … there were various groups that called on hamlets, drank vodka, and robbed the local population. … They also attacked a loose group [of Jewish refugees] who weren’t associated with us. They were hidden in the forest … they found out about their location, they came and took them out. They killed all of them. Many perished in that way.461 At the end of the summer of 1942 … we left the [Stołpce] ghetto. … We heard that there were partisans in the forest and that they attacked Jews to rob them and often killed them. We avoided the partisans as much as we could. … One day five Jews—four men and I—went to a village for bread. … A partisan stopped us. He carried out an inspection. He took everything out of our pockets: money, watches, even handkerchiefs. During the inspection he mocked us and said that he would kill me … while holding a raised automatic gun … [One of the Jews struck the partisan while he was distracted and they managed to escape.] That partisan named Nitka … later roamed around the forest day and night looking for us, and would kill any Jew that he came across. … In March 1943 … the partisans killed nine Jews who escaped from the camp in Świerzeń.462 Later, in April [1943], we were told that my parents and my family were no longer alive. My father and my uncle had travelled to a village, where we had acquaintances, to bring food. On their way, they chanced upon drunken partisans, who said, “You are robbing our village,” and they killed them.463 What I saw on the river bank [of the Niemen] robbed me of my speech. The bodies of several Jewish women lay on the ground. It was not necessary for me to ask Tevl who had shot them. After swimming all the way across the river, when they finally reached the shore … It was not Germans who had done this—they didn’t even dare step onto “our shore” unless it was part of a mass attack. These Jewish women had been murdered by our own “friends”—by other [Soviet] partisans. … Returning to the staff headquarters, I found both Vladimir Tsaryuk and Stieptshenko there. Tsaryuk was the official representative of the Byelorussian partisan staff. Those women had just escaped from the Nazis, I said to him. Who murdered them? … Tsaryuk “explained”: “We were warned by reliable sources that the Gestapo had sent out a group of women to put poison in our food kettles—we’re in a war—can’t do anything about it now …”464
The few Jews who managed to escape to the forest from the burning ghettos and were unfortunate enough to fall into Grishka’s hands suffered badly. The silent trees could tell many tales of murder and rape. We all knew of his excesses but he was beyond control. A curious thing was that the girl he had singled out in the camp was Jewish. … She prepared his bread and pork for the road, looked after his clothes and shared her bed with him. Grishka went to some pains to conceal their relationship, for to admit it openly would cause a loss of face. … When it became obvious to us all that she was heavily pregnant and could no longer continue to work in the kitchen, he cast her off. She came to me weeping. No child was permitted in the camp. [The child was left to die.] … his lust for killing had made his name feared in the forest and beyond. Complaints came in from innocent villagers who suffered at his hands and who had no reason to feel other than loathing for the man who received nomination for the highest distinction his country could offer—‘Hero of the Soviet Union.’ It was inevitable that the high command should become aware of Grishka’s excesses; too many innocent peasants had been killed, too many women raped and too many huts burned. He had desecrated the unwritten law of the forest. High command passed judgement. Grisha Sibiryak must die. It was a traumatic day when the comrades with whom he had fought carried out their orders.465
In order to push the Jews out of “their” forest the partisan staff resorted to a tactic of terrorizing and robbing them. Several Jews, carrying on their backs a few pounds of potatoes that they had dug up out of abandoned fields, were held up by armed “partisans” who forced them to sit on the ground, searched their pockets and robbed them of everything they had, including the potatoes. One scoundrel even tore the boots off Beyla Pitkovski’s feet. Koptya Korolyov, who was interested only in gold or money, justified his actions with the following “logic”: “The Nazis are already on the outskirts of Moscow and Stalingrad. In any case, they will kill all the Jews, so what’s the difference?” Commissar Tatarikov and Sheyndl Krupenya managed to get away from these robbers a few times, but in October 1942 some partisans caught them and accused Tatarikov of hoarding Jewish gold and money that belonged to the staff. Having no such treasure, he could not give it to them. They held a “trial” and then shot him. His real “crime,” of course, had been his humane attitude toward Jews. One group of partisans came upon Jascha Shepetinski’s father and uncle, who had just been given food by friendly peasants. The partisans accused them of robbing the peasants … The penalty was death by shooting. Shlomo Tchernechovski was ordered by three partisans to give up his rifle. He refused to do so. They shot him and buried him. The following day, they remembered he had been wearing a watch. They dug up the grave and took the watch off his wrist. Noah Obulianski, Chaim Elya Lyuberski and the Birnbaum family were also killed by partisans. … Late in October, Leyma [Pitkovski], while on sentry duty one night, was shot by other partisans. At the end of October [1942] the Jews were ordered to leave the forest. The 144 Jews refused to do so and began building earthen huts for the winter. After a month of fighting the cold, the hunger and the hostile partisans, Rachel Rabinowich and the rabbi from Ivacivici [Iwacewicze] gave up. A new Jewish cemetery was consecrated in the forest. … Around that time a new commander was appointed to head the Soviet-Byelorussian detachment. Vladimir Nikolayevich Bobkov … he was also a drunkard and an anti-Semite. Even the formerly friendly Michalin partisans became infected with the anti-Jewish virus. The new Jewish cemetery in the forest continued to grow. At the end of November, Vaska came to the Jews with the news that the staff had decided to kill all the remaining Jews in the forest. He therefore advised them, as a “good friend,” to get away while they could still run.469
As it turned out, the Germans were no more dangerous than the partisans themselves. On one of our trips from the fields a group of partisans ordered us to lie on the ground so they could search us. Then they robbed us of our better clothing and shoes. Detaining us for hours, they let us go with the warning that we would be shot if we were ever seen again in that vicinity. Another night, roving Wolcze [Wilcze] Nory [“Wolf Caves”] partisans not only robbed us but beat us with the butts of their rifles. The Wolcze Nory [Soviet] partisans were now in complete domination of the forest. Desperate men, they badgered us constantly even though, by this time, we were barefoot and almost naked and had nothing left for them. … Seryosha, our political officer, was no longer with us. He and his Jewish sweetheart, Shaindel, were hiding somewhere in the woods. When the rulers of the forest eventually found Seryosha they demanded the gold and money he had collected from ghetto Jews who had escaped to the woods. … they “judged” him, found him guilty and ordered his execution. He was shot immediately. … Early one morning, the partisan chief of staff gave us an ultimatum: leave the forest by the second of November or be shot. Other Jewish groups, faced with the same threat, chose to leave. Our group of 170 voted to stay. … Most felt that leaving would mean certain death. … [The author then describes a confrontation with Soviet partisans, who posed as German police and tried to elicit information about the partisan camps from her.] Six months later, after we again joined the partisans, we learned that our theory about the “local police” had been correct. We met the partisans who caught me. They said they didn’t shoot me because they admired my courage. No matter how they tried to scare me, I didn’t give the partisans away. My asking to be killed and my physical condition made them take pity on me. Not until much later, when I learned that the partisans had killed many of the Jews they had caught and tested, did I realize how lucky I was.470
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