Book 72 Defiance*** by Nechama Tec

This is the story of the Bielski brothers, Jewish partisans, who rescued over 1,000 Jews who survived WWII in Belorussia by hiding in the forests.   The book describes in detail how the group survived physically and the heirarchy and social organization that developed in order to survive.  

Tec interviewed many survivors including Tuvia Bielski, the charasmatic leader of the group, but the book is not an oral history, although there are some direct quotes.  This book is well researched and well written, other than the lack of stories in the survivors own words.  

The book is fascinating from two aspects --- the sociological/psychological, which is thoroughly analyzed, and the historical, which describes a little known aspect of the war.   Using many specific anecdotes, Tec describes how women were regarded in the forest camps, and especially how many relationships between upper class women and peasant men came about.