By Forris Day Jr.
The Holocaust is one of the darkest events of recent history. We take for granted, in America, the good life we truly have. If we are without electricity for more than an hour people become angry because perhaps their favorite show is on the TV and it can not be seen without the wonder that is electricity. Need a bite to eat? Walk over to the refrigerator and chances are you have at least something, if not an overabundance of food. Now imagine it all being taken away. All of it. The electricity, the food, your home and your freedom. What would you do if you had everything taken from you? Most would curl up in a ball and give up.
“No Place on Earth” is a documentary about several families during the Holocaust. We have heard many of the stories of Jews sent to the work camps and death camps. Of Hitlers insatiable thirst to kill an entire race and remove them from the face of the planet. A man who rose to power and lived an exorbitant life style as he and his bloodthirsty minions robbed, raped, killed and destroyed anyone in their path. For most Jews the story ends in death shortly after being pulled from their homes with nothing more than the clothing on their backs. But not for all. There were those that survived, beating incredible odds, by using their wit and by pulling together. “No Place on Earth” tells one of those touching stories.
It is the story of several families who ran from the Nazis and hid from them deep below the Earth’s surface deep within a maze of caves hidden from these brutal killers and the very light of the sun itself for nearly a year and a half. It is the record for the longest uninterrupted underground survival occurrence. A record that was made in the name of survival. The men were allowed to sneak out and forage for food but the women and children lived beneath the surface never seeing the light of day for nearly 18 months.
What I find most interesting about this story is that it happened in 1942-1945 yet went undocumented until just recently and quite by accident by cave explorer Chris Nicola. He was doing research on his own family heritage in the Western Ukrain and decided to go exploring deep inside some local caves. What he discovered far below the Earth was astounding. He found plates, cups, combs, a key and other signs of human life where he though no human had gone before. He searched for many years to learn how these items got there. He got a break when one of the survivors reached out to him and that was the beginning of the creation of this documentary film.
You will be humbled and have a new appreciation for life when you watch “No Place on Earth”. I know I now appreciate my life more than ever. The Blu-Ray I watched had astounding photography of the caves and quite a few extras to view if you choose to learn more about the people who lived through this harrowing ordeal.
