Esther Stermer

Photo credit for photo above: "We Fight to Survive" by Esther Stermer (photo circa 1973)

The following is from "Mail Online" written by Harriet Arkell published 5 April 2013.

"Astonishing bravery of the Jewish family who escaped the Holocaust by hiding in an underground cave - for a year-and-a-half. Esther and Zaida Stermer and their six children lived underground to survive. They were among six Jewish families who avoided being sent to their deaths. Their astonishing story is told in a documentary "No Place On Earth."

"A Jewish matriarch was so determined to protect her family from Nazi persecution, she hid herself and them in an underground cave until their country was liberated - eighteen months later. Esther Stermer lived a peaceful, rural existence in a small Ukrainian village with her six children until the Germans invaded in late 1941. Hellbent on annihilating the Jewish people, the soldiers rounded up more than a thousand Jews and sent them to their deaths. Several Jewish families escaped the Holocaust thanks to the courage of Esther Stermer.... Sam Stermer.... and his brother Saul Stermer revisted the cave nearly 70 years later. But Mrs Stermer and her husband Zaida were determined that their innocent family would survive, whatever it took. So, she and five other Jewish families from the area packed up their belongings one cold October night in 1942 and fled, in the dark, to a sinkhole masking the entrance to an underground cave, five miles north of their home in Korolowka. A documentary, "No Place On Earth", tells the story of Mrs Stermer's courage more than 70 years ago. She and her family had already survived one year of German occupation, but knew that the shadow of death was creeping ever closer. Her son Sam Stermer....., told ABC News that the family's secret was their utter determination never to give in. The cave they settled in was pitch black, damp, and lay beneath ground that Nazi soldiers would march over, deep in the Ukrainian countryside. Sam and Saul Stermer said that their underground home was 'paradise' because they were free. The six families, with 38 people in total, ended up hiding there for 18 months, until it was safe to go above ground in their own land again. During that time, the families lived in complete darkness, digging out toilets and showers and more living space as they concentrated on surviving until they could come out again. At night they foraged for food, and in the day time they hid deep in the darkness. Sam Stermer's older brother Saul Stermer...., said: 'You went to sleep and you had a pillow and you covered up with good blankets - what else you want?' Saul Stermer, his nieces Sima and Sonia Dodyk, and his brother Sam Stermer play themselves in the documentary. What the family had and prized above anything was their freedom - they had escaped the invading forces, and they would continue to do so for more than 500 days. During that time, Esther Stermer had to defend her family once, when German SS soldiers raided the first cave. Coming face-to-face with the men they had lived in fear of for so long, Mrs Stermer held her ground, despite the fact they were pointing guns at her. Sam Stermer said: 'And she says "What are you afraid of here? The Fuhrer is gonna lose the war because we live here?"' Saul and Sam Stermer......, say they would not have survived without their determined mother. The soldiers left, never to return, and finally, in April 1944, the Russians liberated the area and the hidden families were able to climb out of the cave into the light. Last year the Stermer brothers (Saul and Sam) returned to the cave for the first time. They told how after the war, they travelled to Canada and set up a business, which they still run there. Today the survivors and offspring of those who hid in the Ukrainian caves number more than 125, and the film, which will be on limited release in the U.S. and will be released in Germany, tells the story of their courage.

Their survival is the longest uninterrupted underground survival in recorded human history."

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2304533/Jewish-Stermer-fami...

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2304533/Jewish-Stermer-fami...

Read More: http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2013-04-18/entertainment/ct-mov-...

Read more: http://forward.com/sisterhood/197259/the-women-who-warned-their-fam...

Read more: "We Fight to Survive" book (circa 1975 about 125 pages) written by Esther Stermer

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Place_on_Earth

Read more: "The Secret of Priest's Grotto: A Holocaust Survival Story" book with photos by Peter Lane Taylor

Read more: "Off the Face of the Earth" by Peter Lane Taylor

Read more: http://www.thecredits.org/2013/03/544-days-of-total-darkness-the-in...

See more: "No Place On Earth" movie/documentary by Magnolia Pictures and History Films

Read more: http://www.aish.com/jw/s/off_the_face_of_the_earth.html