Zvi Bielksi recalled some of his father's dying words: "I wish I could have saved more."

Bielski's father was Zus Bielski, one of three Russian brothers who are widely known today for their heroic guerilla fight against Nazi forces and the rescue of 1,250 Jews during World War II.

"For me, my dad was a hero but he never told me he was a hero," Zvi Bielski told an audience at Chabad of SCV on Wednesday.

"He knew what he did, but that's just what he and his brothers did during World War II."

Many in the group at Chabad knew the Bielski story from the 2008 motion picture "Defiance," starring Daniel Craig as Tuvia Bielski.

But the movie really only captured a fraction of the story, said Zvi Bielski, who lives in Brooklyn, N.Y. with his mother Sonia Bielski.

Acts of defiance
During World War II, the three Bielski brothers fled from their farm in the Soviet Republic of Belarussia to the nearby woods to escape the Nazis.

"The Bielskis grew up in the forest, they knew the forest," Zvi Bielski said. "They grew up on horses and they were hunting since they were little kids. These skills enabled them to survive."

The Russian brothers built elaborate villages in the forest for any Jew they could save whether they were men, women, children or crippled.

"People heard of the Bielskis in the ghettos," Zvi Bielski said. "They heard of the brothers who were rescuing Jews."

The Bielskis enlisted the help of some 300 resistance fighters and captured German weapons after ambushing German patrols, derailed troop trains and more, Bielski said.

"They were heroes, they didn't cower," Bielski said.

Nazi troops launched a huge effort to exterminate those in the Bielski villages, Zvi Bielski said. The swamp scene, which lasted several minutes in the movie, lasted two weeks in reality, he said.

"(Nazi troops) could not understand why or how anybody would waste their time to save a Jew," Zvi said. "They emptied their jails and sent 50,000 German troops into the forest. They wanted to kill everyone."

Eventually, the Nazis gave up, Bielski said.

It was the largest rescue of Jews by Jews in World War II, he said.

But while the Bielskis were heroes, they weren't perfect, Zvi Bielski repeated many times throughout the night.

"They saved people, but in order to save people, they had to kill," Bielski said.

Zus Bielski, the last living of the three brothers, died in 1995 at the age of 83 in Brooklyn.

"He said to me, ‘I'm going to die soon. Don't forget to tell the world what me and my brothers did," said Zvi Bielski.

Today's act of defiance
While the book, "The Bielski Brothers" by Peter Duffy, and the movie have gained international attention, the point was not to achieve commercial success, Zvi Bielski said.

"It was done because in 10 years from now, if someone hears of the Bielski brothers, they can go get a book or DVD and learn their story," he said.

Chabad of SCV's Rabbi Choni Marozov found the character of the Bielski brothers to mirror that of Abraham's.

"The message I took from ‘Defiance' was all about Abraham," Marozov said. "He sacrificed his life just so others could have a better life."

"I think that's what the Bielski brothers stood for."

The Bielski brothers did not give up, said Naomi Young, of Saugus, a local Hebrew school teacher.

"This (story) shows you the human spirit that triumphs at the end and survival," she said.

Before closing, Bielski thanked the group.

"This is our act of defiance against the Nazis today," Bielski said.

"What Hitler tried to do, we defy it by living a Jewish life," Marozov added.