Isaac Malbin (died April 1942) was a Belarusian Jewish intellectual who was one of the refugees saved by the Bielski Otriad during World War II. He was killed while attempting to throw a grenade at a German tank in 1942.
Biography[]
Isaac Malbin was born in Minsk, Russian Empire to a family of Belarusian Jews, and he became an intellectual. Malbin published a pamphlet under the Soviet Union as a member of the "New Socialist Club", and he studied the works of men such as Descartes and had an interest in politics. In August 1941, he joined dozens of Jewish refugees in hiding in the Lipczanska Forest (Naliboki Forest, Belarus) with the Bielski Otriad during World War II, fleeing from the German SS and collaborators. Malbin was initially seen as useless, as he was an intellectual, but he became a hard worker like the other refugees. Malbin often debated with rabbi Shimon Haaretz, who was apolitical and orthodox, while Malbin was progressive and opinionated. In April 1942, he attempted to destroy a German panzer with a German stick grenade, but he was gunned down by Wehrmacht infantry, and the grenade blew up on his body.