Incredible Resilience

In July, 1944 my parents, Taibe (Toby) and Avremel (Abrahem) Dzienciolski, walked out of the Nalibocka Forest in Belarus with the rest of the Bielski partisans having been liberated by the Red Army. They had survived the war for over 2 1/2 years, hiding out in various forests actively defying the German army and Polish collaborators. My mother's brothers, my Uncles Tevye, Zus and Asael, were the commanders of the partisans who helped save approximately 1200 Jews from annihilation.

Soon after my parents retrieved my sister Lola (aged 4) from her Christian foster parents, they traveled west toward Germany and wound up in the Föhrenwald DP Camp south of Munich where I was born in December, 1945. I am named Bella, after my Bielski Grandmother who perished in the war along with my Grandfather David and many other relatives from the Bielski and Dzienciolski families.

Life in Fohrenwald was a period of transition filled with mixed emotions of mourning for those who did not survive along with hopeful expectations for the future where people married, babies were born and families were reunited. For me, I rejoice in images of my first memories of my Dzienciolski Grandparents, the snow in the nearby forest, and the cafeteria with the smell of mashed potatoes.

We immigrated to the U.S. in 1949 where my Uncle Bell (Bielski), the oldest of 11 Bielski children, helped us start a new life. The surviving Bielski brothers went to Israel and later settled in the U.S. where we were all reunited.

Not a day goes by without me thinking about my family's past ordeals and their incredible resilience which I believe has been passed on to me and my two sons. Today my children and I participate in memorials, panel discussions, workshops and other events where we tell about our family's survival. It is part of Holocaust Education which I have become committed to since my retirement from Tel Aviv University.