(Jewish Group) Inspired by a 2011 movie, Ukrainian researchers have found the sewer...
Inspired by a 2011 movie, Ukrainian researchers have found the sewer where dozens of Jews escaped the Nazis
The dozens of Jews who escaped the Nazis by hiding in the sewers of Lviv became local and international lore almost immediately after World War II.
In the summer, when the rain seeped in, there was a lot of water everywhere, Krystyna Chiger recalled in testimony in 1947, when she was 11. Then we had to lean very low on the stones right next to the wall so that the water would not flow on us.
But the location of the underground hideouts remained unknown until recently, when a team of archaeologists who had been inspired by a 2011 Polish movie about the saga discovered a secret chamber where at least 20 Jews lived and many others died in awful conditions while the Nazis and their collaborators roamed overhead.
In a medieval chamber under Cathedral Square, researchers found not only a space that could house a large number of people but relics of the time spent there, including beer bottles from the time of the Nazi occupation and a toy likely provided by one of the locals who helped the Jews hide.
The discovery of the hideout last month followed a painstaking sweep of the sewer system by researchers from Lviv University, who used the testimony of the Chigers and other survivors, according to the Ukrainian news site Zaxid.
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JTA and their thesis-long titles! The original came from JTA.