The Germans invaded Ukraine in 1941, and they began to order Jews to the ghettos. Esther Stermer, the matriarch of her family, refused to bring her family into the ghettos

The Germans invaded Ukraine in 1941, and they began to order Jews to the ghettos. Esther Stermer, the matriarch of her family, refused to bring her family into the ghettos. The Stermers lived in Korolowka when the Nazis arrived in fall of 1942. The Gestapo began to force the Jews of the city into trucks to transport them to the concentration camps. Over the next few weeks, the Germans found the remaining Jews left in the city and forced them to dig their graves before killing them.

The Stermers and five families fled the town in the middle of the night and found shelter in a cave. For a year and a half, the families lived underground, hiding from the Germans. In all, thirty-eight people were living in the cave. They stayed hidden during the day, and they would come out at night for food and supplies. Eventually, the Germans found the cave in which they were hiding.

When the Germans found the cave, Esther confronted the soldiers. She reportedly said, “What are you afraid of here? The Fuhrer is going to lose the war because we live here?” The German SS soldiers left the cave and never came back. When the Russians liberated Ukraine in 1944, the families were able to come out of hiding.

The Stermers and the five other families successfully remained in hiding for eighteen months, the longest underground survival event in history. After the war, Esther Stermer wrote a memoir of their experiences called We Fight to Survive.

Photos: The Stermer Family

Bottom: The cave they hid in. Continue reading

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