October 13, 2009 10:30 AM
For almost two years, the Stermer family lived with several other Jews in underground caves in the Ukraine to avoid being captured by Nazis, a little-known yet incredible tale.
The Stermer family and several others spent 344 consecutive days living in what is known as Priest's Grotto, a "massive underground sanctuary," in the Ukraine during World War II, Brian Handwerk reported for National Geographic News in 2004. No serious illnesses or deaths occurred during that time, despite the cave dwellers' having "no special experience or equipment," Handwerk wrote.
Shulim Stermer, 84, recounted his experience from his home in Montreal in 2004. "The Germans took half the town to a concentration camp, and the rest had to go to a ghetto," he said. "That meant to the slaughter house." Rather than comply, his mother told Shulim's brother to find a place for the family to hide in the forest; he discovered the cave.
The Stermer family's inspirational story might have stayed a secret if not for the efforts of Chris Nicola, a "veteran caver" who was part of a team that explored Priest's Grotto in 1993, according to the 2004 issue of National Geographic Adventure Magazine.
The discovery of "two partially intact stone walls and other signs of habitation" within the Grotto piqued his team's interest. Locals told the team about a group of Ukrainian Jews that had lived in the caves, but whether there were any survivors remained a mystery. Nicola devoted the next decade of his life to figuring out the full story, until he finally "located six of the cave survivors, most of them members of the extended Stermer family."
In an interview with National Geographic Adventure, Nicola explained what made the cave dwellers' story so special. "The chance of a Jewish person surviving at all [in western Ukraine] was less than 5 percent. But what made this story different, and what is rarely seen in any Holocaust survival story, is how these families stayed virtually intact," Nicola is quoted as saying.
Nicola was also astounded by some of the artifacts found in the cave, particularly the millstone, which was too heavy for him to move. "Yet Nissel Stermer carried it on his back for three or four miles," Nicola explained. "That millstone was their life. They used it to grind grain to make bread, which was the main part of their diet."
Nicola's book, "The Secret of Priest's Grotto," written with Peter Lane Taylor, was named one of the Best Books for Young Readers in 2007.
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