MINSK, 26 March (BelTA) – Belarus provided invaluable assistance to the partisan movement during the Great Patriotic War, and it was here that the largest number of partisans operated, political analyst, military expert and former Israeli government official Yakov Kedmi said in the latest episode of the V Teme [On Point] project on BelTA’s YouTube channel.
“The largest number of partisans who fought against the Nazis were in Belarus. Belarus gave the partisan movement invaluable support,” Yakov Kedmi said.
The expert noted that the largest Jewish partisan detachment during the Great Patriotic War operated on the territory of Belarus: the Bielski brothers’ detachment in the western part of the Nazi-occupied BSSR. In this context, Yakov Kedmi recalled the family history of Jared Kushner, son-in-law of US President Donald Trump. Kushner’s ancestors fought in that very partisan unit.
“There were many such detachments. Jewish partisan groups differed from others. Jews were being exterminated entirely, so women and children also fled to the forest. That was their particular feature,” he emphasized.
The expert also pointed out that Belarusians almost never took part in Nazi atrocities against the local population or in the extermination of Jews. Moreover, the emblem of the Belarusian SSR included inscriptions in Yiddish. “This shows the place Jews held in Belarus,” he added.
