A group of Jewish families created a home for themselves deep inside caves to escape the Nazis

Jews hiding from their enemies in caves?

We’ve heard all about it from the story of Chanukah. But who would’ve thought it could happen as recently as during the time when our great-grandparents were young? Less than a hundred years ago, a group of Jewish families created a home for themselves deep inside caves to escape the Nazis. This is their story.

IT’Sbeen a rough few years in Korolivka, Ukraine. The Jewish community here is large and bustling — 500 families, almost half the village! There are two shuls and a cheder in the neighborhood. Esther Stermer lives in a big, comfortable house with her husband, Shabsy, six children, and all of her grandchildren.

But there are bad times coming. In 1939, Esther hears about the terrible things that Hitler and his Nazis are doing to the Jews in Poland. The Nazis from Germany have made a deal with the Russians to split up the land between them. Ukraine is supposed to go to the Russians, but Hitler double-crosses them and takes over the country. A new ghetto will be built, and all the Jews are ordered to go there.

Esther and her family don’t go into the ghetto. Instead, they dig a secret bunker under their house and hide in it whenever the Germans come. The Nazis control the land, but they don’t keep a close eye on her neighborhood, and her family hides whenever they come into the village. Esther’s clever three-year-old granddaughter, Sima, asks her, “How come the dog and the chickens can walk around freely, but not me?”