Jews Evaded Nazis by Living in Cave for Nearly 2 Years

[August]

Amazing story:

In October 1942, Jewish families were vanishing all over Nazi-occupied eastern Europe. There was little refuge to be found anywhere on that part of the Earth—but underneath the surface, one group found sanctuary. The accidental cavers endured a subterranean epic that ultimately saw them survive the horrors of World War II. Now a U.S. caver has recently brought their forgotten story to light in the current issue of National Geographic Adventure magazine.

The extended Stermer family and several others lived in two separate caves for a total of nearly two years, including 344 straight days inside the massive underground sanctuary known as Priest's Grotto. "The Germans took half the town [Korolówka, Ukraine] to a concentration camp, and the rest had to go to a ghetto," survivor Shulim Stermer remembered from his Montreal home. "That meant to the slaughter house. My mother decided, we're not going there. She told my brother, 'Go to the forest, find some place for us.' My brother found the cave."

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/n...survivors.html