Defiance

I chanced upon the movie Defiance at the library. I was glad I picked it up.

Impressive as it may seem that the movie boasted the latest James Bond star Daniel Craig and that it was from the director of Blood Diamond and The Last Samurai, these were not what led me to borrow this movie. What piqued my curiosity was the fact that the movie was based on a true story about World War II that I had not previously known.

It was about the Bielski brothers, Tuvia, Zus and Asael, who fled to the forest after both their parents were killed in 1941 during the Second World War. They were joined by other Jews from their Polish town wanting to escape from the Germans. In the forest, they formed a resistance group to protect themselves with Tuvia as their leader. They tried to have some semblance of normalcy by setting themselves up as a village with everyone assigned tasks as more and more people joined them. Their number grew to reach over 1,000.

It is mentioned that the Bielskis never sought recognition for what they did but that the number of the descendants they saved are in the tens of thousands.

Amazing, really.