The Last Word

Sociologist’s book goes
to the movies

When Nechama Tec, professor emerita of sociology at UConn’s Stamford campus, set out to correct a distortion of World War II history, she did not foresee that a book of historical scholarship would become the basis of a major Hollywood film.

However, more than 15 years after her book, Defiance, was published, the story of the largest armed rescue of Jews by Jews during World War II is now known by millions of people throughout the world.

Tec, a two-time nominee for the Pulitzer Prize and a leading scholar on the Holocaust, says her motivation for writing Defiance was to correct the prevailing image of European Jews as victims who went passively to their deaths.

Tec’s research for the book included review of archival materials, direct interviews with members of the Bielski Partisans and other World War II resistance groups and an interview with Tuvia Bielski in his Brooklyn home in 1987 just two weeks before he died.

Tec says the self-educated Tuvia typified the unlikely yet charismatic leaders that arise in times of social upheaval. “He filled the room with himself, he had so much charisma even right before his death,” she says.

The film “Defiance” traces the story of the Bielski brothers, who led a group of Jewish partisans that lived in the forests of the Soviet Union and carried out acts of sabotage against German troops.

Tuvia Bielski is portrayed by Daniel Craig, best known for his role as the new James Bond, and Zus Bielski is portrayed by Liev Schreiber, one of the nation’s leading stage actors.

The film is directed by Edward Zwick, who earned an Academy Award for his work on “Shakespeare in Love,” and who previously directed “The Last Samurai” and “Blood Diamond.”

The photos show scenes from “Defiance,” based on the book of the same name written by Nechama Tec, professor emerita of sociology. The center photo is a scene with actors Daniel Craig, left, and Liev Schreiber, who portray two of the three Bielski brothers.