Intro -- Contents -- Foreword -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- 1. Before the War -- 2. The Russian Occupation -- 3. The German Invasion -- 4. The Beginning of the Bielski Otriad -- 5. Escapes from the Ghetto -- 6. The Partisan Network -- 7. Rescue or Resistance -- 8. Eluding the Enemy -- 9. The "Big Hunt" -- 10. Building a Forest Community -- 11. The Emergence of New Social Arrangements -- 12. The Fate of Women -- 13. Keeping Order -- 14. The End of the Otriad -- 15. From Self-Preservation to Rescue -- Notes -- Biographical Appendix -- Organization of the Bielski Otriad -- Glossary -- A -- B -- G -- H -- J -- K -- L -- M -- O -- P -- R -- S -- T -- Y -- Z -- Index -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H -- I -- J -- K -- L -- M -- N -- O -- P -- R -- S -- T -- V -- W -- Y -- Z.
The prevailing image of European Jews during the Holocaust is one of helpless victims, but in fact many Jews struggled against the terrors of the Third Reich. In Defiance, Nechama Tec offers a riveting history of one such group, a forest community in western Belorussia that would number more than 1,200 Jews by 1944--the largest armed rescue operation of Jews by Jews in World War II.