When Lola Kline sits in a movie theater and watches “Defiance,” she will not just be a face in the crowd. Kline, 67, of Freehold Township, will actually be witnessing her family’s history as it comes alive on the screen.
JEFF GRANIT staff Lola Kline, of Freehold Township, displays photo albums that tell the story of her uncles, Tuvia, Zus and Asael Bielski, who took refuge from the Nazis with more than 1,000 people in the woods of Belarus. The Bielski brothers are the subject of a new movie, “Defiance.” Kline is a survivor of the World War II-era Holocaust and said actor Daniel Craig, who will portray her uncle Tuvia Bielski in “Defiance,” is her “new hero.”
Tuvia Bielski was one of three brothers who were part of an effort to save a large number of Polish Jews during World War II by hiding them in the deep woods of Belarus (once considered Poland, then Russian territory, now an independent country).
“Defiance,” which will be released Dec. 31 in select theaters and in general release Jan. 16, is based on a true story written by Nechama Tec and directed by Ed Zwick of “Blood Diamond” fame. The film depicts the struggle of the Jews of Eastern Europe as they are being massacred by the hundreds of thousands by Hitler’s Nazis.
PHOTOS BY JEFF GRANIT Precious family photographs recount the history of Lola Kline’s uncles, the Bielski brothers, who led a group of Polish Jews into the woods in a bid to escape the atrocities of Germany’s Third Reich. The Bielski brothers took refuge in the dense woods they had known since childhood and began their battle against the Nazis. The Bielski brothers, Tuvia (played by Daniel Craig), Zus (played by Liev Schreiber), and Asael (played by Jamie Bell), were Kline’s uncles.
According to Kline, the small group that went into the woods grew as people learned about the effort to hide Jews. Their efforts to “save every Jew,” according to Kline, created an entire community. In all, more than 1,200 Jewish people were kept in hiding. She said the community in the woods eventually became a village that included a hospital and a jail.
According to the Holocaust Research Project, “By the spring of 1942, the brothers managed to form what was called an otriad (a partisan detachment) which initially consisted of their immediate surviving relatives and close friends. During the next three years, approximately 1,200 Jews came into the otriad.
“At its height, the otriad camp consisted of long, camouflaged dugouts for sleeping, a large kitchen, a mill, a bakery, a bathhouse, two medical facilities, a tannery, a school, a jail and a theater. Tailors, seamstresses, shoemakers, watchmakers, carpenters, mechanics and experts in demolition provided the 1,200-member community with necessary skills, while about 60 cows and 30 horses provided food and transportation.”
Kline said, “When the rumors came in that the Germans were killing men, the men went into hiding in the woods. There were incidents of killing between 1938 and 1941 and men went into hidingwhile their families stayed on their farms. The men would come back to check on their families periodically.”
Kline said the Bielskis’ effort was the only all-Jewish group that would take men, women, children and the elderly.
“Other groups would only take those who could handle a gun,” she said. “The big killings, which I think took place in the winter of 1941, then started.”
As Kline sat among family photo albums, pointing out family members, the Bielski homestead in Stenkevich, and other historically significant photos, she revealed the details of the deaths of her relatives.
Listening to her describe the events of those years was touching and frightening as she spoke about unimaginable occurrences.
“My uncle Aron, who was around 10 years old at the time, was at home with his parents, David and Bella Bielski, when he saw the truck coming up to his farm,” Kline said. “He was on the farm and managed to hide as he saw his parents, being placed in the truck. They were collecting Jews, you know. That was the last time Aron saw his parents. He took off into the woods where his older brother Tuvia told him to go tell my mother and my other grandparents to get out and quickly.”
Kline said her mother, Taube Bielski Dzienciolski, wrapped her in a blanket and took off for the woods.
“I was about 6 months old,” Kline said.
Kline was kept in the woods for only a few months because it was too dangerous for an infant to stay there. In addition, she said she kept getting sick. It was arranged that she would live with a Polish couple in Hutaskellana, which was near the Bielski homestead. The couple would raise her as their own child. She explained the elaborate ruse needed to bring this idea to fruition.
“I was left outside a window of their home with a cross necklace on and a note asking that someone take care of me. My mother and uncles hid and waited for someone to come out and get me. The couple had to make sure their neighbors would hear me cry and know that I was left there,” she said.
She stayed with that family until she was about 4 years old. After the war ended, her parents came back to get her and that was something for which she was not prepared.
“I was raised by this couple and thought they were my parents,” Kline said. “I was very frightened of these new people (her biological parents) and didn’t want to go with them. I didn’t know who they were, and I had been taught to hate Jews. I was raised as a Christian and attended church.”
Kline said it had to be that way for her own protection in order for her to survive.
In the beginning, living with her biological parents was not easy for Kline.
“I remember crying every time I heard church bells. I wanted to go to church,” she said. Eventually, Kline, her fatherAbe Dzienciolski and her mother Taube traveled to the Fohrenwald Displaced Persons Camp in Germany. Kline’s sister, Bella, was born in the camp in 1945. The family was eventually able to emigrate to the United States in 1949. They settled in New York City where her father worked in the plastics industry. Kline’s youngest sister, Charlotte, was born in New York in 1949.
Asael Bielski died after joining the Polish army in 1945.
Tuvia Bielski and Zus Bielski emigrated to the United States from Israel in the mid-1950s, coming at different times but eventually settling in New York City. Tuvia died in 1987 at the age of 81. Zus died in 1995 at the age of 83.
Aron, 78, is the only survivor of the 11 Bielski siblings. He lives in Florida.
Kline said, “I dreamed of those Germans and the things they used to do to women and children for years and years. I would wake up crying and screaming hysterically.”
Reflecting back on that time, Kline gently turned pages in photo albums that contained bits and pieces of her life and her heritage. She remembered the horrors of that time in her life and the lives of those she loved as well as those who were lost.
Kline made a trip back to Belarus about 10 years ago with her son, Jeff, (her daughter, Jacee Slatnick, could not attend. Both children live in California) and other family members, some who came from other states and countries around the world.
A total of 18 members of the Bielski family traveled back to their homeland, back in time, returning to their roots.
“It was an amazing experience,” Kline said. During the interview in her home, Kline shared some of the photos she took on that trip, including pictures of the home where she was left as an infant and pictures of the mass graves where Jews were buried.
“Some of those graves were moving for days,” she said, “because some were buried alive.”
Returning to Belarus, the area that is now the subject of “Defiance,” was an important event in her life, she said.
An avid photo collector, she considers the memorabilia precious.
“We lost everything back then,” she said.
Her photo albums, which total about 30 right now, are irreplaceable treasures.
Kline has seen “Defiance” twice, including once at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York. She said about 150 members of the Bielski family were in attendance at the screening. Kline said the movie is “fabulous” and believes it demonstrates the strength of the Germans and “what the Jewish people were up against.”
“These Jews were courageous,” she said. “There were not that many that fought back in those days. The fight had been bred out of them. Many were passive. These Jews, my uncles, were the ones from the Bible — the fighters. It was the return of the fighting Jew, just like Israel is now. They are no longer leaving and allowing other countries to take them over.”
Kline said she is planning to attend the red carpet premiere of “Defiance” on Jan. 12 in New York.
“How many chances do you get to do something like this?” she said.
Contact Clare Marie Celano