Shimon Haaretz (1883-1942) was a Belarusian Jewish schoolteacher who was one of the 1,200 Jews saved by the Bielski Otriad during World War II.
Biography[]
Shimon Haaretz was born in 1883 in Stankiewicze, Russian Empire to a family of Belarusian Jews, and he became a yeshiva teacher. He was the teacher of the Bielski brothers when they were young, and Haaretz was known to be very intelligent in matters of religion. Haaretz was forced into hiding in 1941 during Operation Barbarossa, when Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union and began to exterminate Jews as their forces advanced into Russia. Haaretz hid in Konstanty Kozlowski's barn before rejoining his former pupil Tuvia Bielski, and he was one of the 1,200 Jews saved by the Bielski Otriad. Haaretz conducted religious services for the refugees before dying of illness in 1942 as the Jews made their escape from two German divisions.