In Vilnius Forest, Jewish Prisoners Escaped Nazis Through Secret Tunnel
The Vilnius forest Image by Wikipedia.org
On the night of April 15, 1944, a group of 40 Jewish prisoners — who were being held in captivity in Lithuania, forced by Nazis to cover up the massacre of some 100,000 Jews in a forest near Vilnius — they had dug at night, using only spoons and their hands. Many of the escapees were shot dead by guards, but 15 got away.
Thanks to advances in archaeological technology, the tunnel from that miraculous, tragic story has been discovered, as announced by the Israel Antiquities Authority on Wednesday.
The popular PBS science show “Nova” will air a documentary on the discovery next year.
A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
