Front-line reports told today of an unusual “guerilla village” — in Byelorussia — its entire population of 150 Jews, self-sufficiently moving about behind the German lines, fighting and preserving its village character. The name of the village is withheld.
The villagers were organized by a 26-year-old local Jew, Isaac Blatt, who had learned guerilla tactics and returned to lead the Jews of the village into the forests to save themselves from the Germans. The Jewish guerillas were able to obtain food from the pinched stocks of the peasantry by offering the services of the village’s artisans. They had among them tailors, carpenters, mechanics, leather workers, tinsmiths, printers, woodworkers, blacksmiths and others. They have to their credit several hundred Germans killed, troop trains wrecked and garrisons smashed.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
