The Secret of Priest's Grotto : A Holocaust Survival Story

After the fall of the Soviet Union, Chris Nicola traveled to the Ukraine to explore the gypsum caves of the region, which had not previously been open to Americans. On one of the trips, he heard locals telling stories about Jews who had gone into a cave during World War II, but no one was sure what

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happened to them. In his explorations, he found man-made walls and artifacts, and began to search for information. Nearly ten years later, there was an email from the neighbor of Sol Wexler, who was one of the 38 survivors. This is the story of Sol, his cousins the Stermers, the Dodyk family and the Kurz family. As Jews in wartime Eastern Europe, they faced being forced into Nazi ghettos and death camps. Instead, they chose leave their homes at midnight on October 12, 1942 to hide in the first of two local caves. With no weapons and limited supplies, the group lived in fear, darkness, constant chill and damp, making dangerous supply runs at night. When the Nazis discovered their first hiding spot in late March of 1943, Esther Stermer blocked their advance and stood toe-to-toe with the commander, challenging him so that her family might have more time to escape through the hidden exit. The few who were captured managed to escape and return, and the group moved to the larger Popowa Yama cave where they lived in darkness until April 12, 1944. Family love and loyalty are central to this amazing story of courage and survival against all odds. The design of this book is color coded -- pages telling the survivors' stories are colored, with historic photographs and maps and quotes from Esther Stermer's own memoir of their time in the caves. Pages showing modern photos and details of the expeditions into the caves are white, with photos of artifacts within the caves. Part archaeology, part survival story, and all history, this is an amazing record of human strength and will. A must-read for the Holocaust unit in 8th grade

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