Holocaust hero accused of swindling neighbor

His relatives say they don't believe the charges. "It's totally out of character," a nephew says.

PALM BEACH - In Eastern Europe during World War II, Aron Bielski and his three older brothers mounted what was, by most accounts, the biggest armed rescue of Jews by Jews during the Holocaust.

The Bielski brothers were acclaimed as heroes, and their exploits were chronicled in books, a documentary and a Hollywood movie coming out next year.

But now, the sole surviving Bielski brother is being called something far different - a con man.

Now 80 and known as Aron Bell, he has been arrested on charges of swindling a 93-year-old woman, a Catholic survivor of the Holocaust. Bell and his wife, Henryka, 58, are accused of tricking the elderly woman into giving them control of more than $250,000 in various bank accounts.

According to police, the couple convinced the woman they were taking her on a vacation to her native Poland, and instead put her in a nursing home there, returned to Palm Beach and spent her money, nearly every penny.

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As the Nazis invaded what was then the Soviet Union in 1941, the Bielski brothers fled their home near Stankiewicze in what is now Belarus and hid out in the forest.

Their encampment grew to include hundreds of armed fighters, families, children and elderly. No Jew was turned away. Their partisan movement ultimately rescued 1,200 Jews.

"To save a Jew is much more important than to kill Germans," Tuvia Bielski would tell his followers.

Tuvia Bielski was in command of the encampment. Asael Bielski mostly guided the brothers' armed unit. Zus Bielski was head of reconnaissance. Aron largely played the role of messenger - he knew the forest better than anyone.

"There are thousands of people who are walking the Earth because of the decisions that him and his older brothers made," said Tuvia's son, Michael Bielski, 55, of Bonita Springs.

Asael was killed in 1944. The remaining brothers emigrated to the United States in the 1950s, settling in the New York area and mostly working blue-collar jobs until finding success in the taxi and trucking industries. Aron retired to Florida in the 1990s.

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Relatives said they are shocked at the charges against Aron Bell.

"I don't believe it," said Zvi Bielski, 56, of New York City, Zus' son. "It's totally out of character."

Authorities said the Bells befriended Janina Zaniewska, who was once imprisoned by the Nazis alongside Jews in Poland. She lived in the same Palm Beach condominium complex as the Bells.

The couple persuaded her to give them power of attorney over her bank accounts, investigators said.

In May, the Bells flew with Zaniewska to Poland under the guise of taking her to visit old friends, police said.

The Bells dropped her at a nursing home and returned to Palm Beach.

Police were contacted in August by a bank manager who wondered why the Bells were withdrawing Zaniewska's money. Police eventually found Zaniewska at the nursing home.

"Thank God you found me," she told authorities, according to police.

Zaniewska returned Oct. 4. Prosecutors charged the couple with scheming to defraud Zaniewska, exploitation of the elderly and theft.

"This whole notion that the Bells sent this poor lady to Poland so they could steal her money is just preposterous," said the couple's attorney, Steven Gomberg.

He said the Bells were financially comfortable and were simply helping Zaniewska with her finances as her mental capacity diminished. "There was nothing stolen. She's not lost a penny" Gomberg said.

Ewa Chyra, director of the nursing home in Poland, said Zaniewska "was aware of where she was, what was going on, who brought her here."

"Zaniewska told various stories, so one could doubt some of what she said," Chyra said. "Her moods changed a lot, from euphoria to depression, and her behavior depended a lot on her mood."

Zaniewska's attorney, Robert Montgomery, said she "has all her faculties" but fell victim to the Bells.

"They stole money from her, there's no question about that, pretty much cleaned her out," Montgomery said. "She was taken advantage of."

[Last modified November 25, 2007, 23:57:20]