KADDISHEL
A Life Reborn
Russian partisans were parachuted in large numbers into the for- ests, German movement in the forests of eastern Poland decreased significantly; no longer did they move freely around the villages and forests of Volhynia, although they still controlled the cities and towns. Jews hiding in the forests and villages were shot by all three types of partisans, especially extremist Ukrainian and Polish groups (Narodowe Sily Zbrojne). Sometimes they were killed in crossfire, sometimes because they were Jewish, and sometimes because it was safer to kill strangers than risk betrayal or ambush. All three groups waged relentless war against each other, with animosities especially deep between the Poles and Ukrainians. In the country- side, they burned each other’s villages and killed their inhabitants. There are no reliable figures on the number of Jews who were murdered by partisans in the forests, nor the number of Jews shel- tered by them. “Even at the peak of.. .the partisan movement, those Jews hiding in the forests could not feel secure, as quite a number of partisan leaders were infected with Jew-hatred. Despite claims of discipline and strict supervision, lower-rank partisan leaders were given considerable leeway and could act arbitrarily.” 5 There were Jewish fighters among the Russian and Polish partisans; some of the Russian partisan commanders who were parachuted into the area were Jewish. Nevertheless, Jews who wanted to join the partisans routinely had to provide gifts of weap - ons as a condition for acceptance, a requirement that did not apply to non- Jews. Even after relinquishing their weapons, Jews were not necessarily accepted. One group of Ludvipol survivors who joined Soviet partisans were abandoned in the forest during a trek to the Pinsk swamps. As many as sixteen hundred Volhynian Jews survived in the woods long enough to join Soviet partisans. By the end of 1943, about 10 percent of these partisans were Jews. 6 Some scholars believe that as many as twenty thousand Jewish partisans were
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