Miracle Tunnel Dug by Jews to Escape Holocaust Finally Unearthed

An international research team has unearthed a famous tunnel used by Jewish prisoners to escape captivity and certain death from the Nazis in World War II.

About 100,000 people, 70,000 of whom were Jews, were murdered by the Nazis in Lithuania during World War II. German forces threw their bodies into pits in the Ponar forest to cover up the massacre.

A group of about 80 Jewish prisoners were forced to pile up and incinerate the corpses by day and stay in the pit by night. The prisoners knew full well that after they finished their task, they too would be murdered. They decided their only chance at life was through escaping. For three months they dug an escape tunnel in the pit with spoons and their bare hands.

By April 15, 1944, 40 Jewish prisoners cut their leg shackles with a nail file and attempted to escape on their hands and knees through the narrow tunnel they had carved out.

The escapees were quickly discovered by German forces, who shot many of them. Only 12 were able to make it through and survive the war.

The location of the miracle tunnel remained a mystery until international researchers uncovered it this week. A team from Israel, Canada, and the United States used scanning technology to pinpoint the tunnel resting only 10 kilometers from the Lithuanian capital.

"As an Israeli whose family originated in Lithuania, I was reduced to tears on the discovery of the escape tunnel at Ponar," Dr. Jon Seligman, with the Israel Antiquities Authority, said.

"This discovery is a heartwarming witness to the victory of hope over desperation. The exposure of the tunnel enables us to present not only the horrors of the Holocaust, but also the yearning for life," he said.

Experts see the discovery as one more piece of evidence against Holocaust deniers. 

"The exciting and important discovery of the prisoners escape tunnel at Ponar is yet more proof negating the lies of the Holocaust deniers," Israeli Minister of Culture MK Miri Regev said. "The success of modern technological developments that have aided the Jewish people to reveal another heroic story the Nazis attempted to hide, profits all humanity."

SOURCE:  Israel Antiquities Authority