Alexander Zeisal "Zus" Bielski (19 October 1912-18 August 1995) was a leader of the Bielski Otriad, a Jewish resistance brigade which fought against Nazi Germany during World War II.
Biography[]
Alexander Bielski was born on 19 October 1912 in Stankiewicz, Congress Poland, Russian Empire to David and Beila Bielski, who were from the only family of Jews in the village. He was one of twelve children, and he was the younger brother of Tuvia Bielski and the older brother of Asael Bielski and Aron Bielski. When World War II broke out in the Soviet Union in 1941, the Bielski brothers fled to the Lipczanska Forest after their family and the other Jews of Stankiewicze were massacred, and Zus favored guerrilla warfare against Nazi Germany, while Tuvia favored outlasting the Germans. Zus frequently argued with Tuvia, and he ultimately decided to join the Soviet partisans of Viktor Panchenko to avenge the deaths of his wife and child in Horodyszcze. Bielski would help in saving 1,200 Jews during the war, and he briefly moved to Israel with his wife, his brother Tuvia, and his wife before moving to the United States in 1956. The family opened a trucking business, which they ran for 30 years. Bielski died in Brooklyn, New York City, New York in 1995 at the age of 82; his children served in the IDF of Israel.