At least 80 percent of pre-World War II Lviv’s Jewish community of 150,000 people were murdered in the Holocaust. A small group of Jews managed to survive by hiding within the Ukrainian city’s sprawling sewer system for 14 months, evading capture by the Nazis and local collaborators.

In “Beneath the Lightless Sky: Surviving the Holocaust in the Sewers of Lvov,” Ignacy Chiger penned an exceptionally tactile account of hiding from the Nazis in western Ukraine. Half a century after Chiger’s death in 1975, the memoir was translated into English through the efforts of his grandson, Doron Keren.

“I grew up hearing bits and pieces of the survival story from my mother when I was in my early tweens,” said Keren, who authored a prologue for his grandfather’s memoir. “The timelines were blurry. It’s hard to believe, but the first time I put it all together, in chronological order, was when I read my mother’s book, ‘The Girl in the Green Sweater,’” said Keren, a retired dentist.

Chiger and his family survived the Holocaust largely due to the efforts of Leopold Socha, a Polish sewer inspector who aided Jews hidden in the sewer network. At first, Socha helped the Jews in exchange for money. When cash ran out, the one-time thief chose to keep sheltering the fugitives.

“I dread recollecting how awful the sewer was,” wrote Chiger. “Stinking sewage water flowed under our feet while the wind played and whistled above our heads, making us freeze,” wrote Chiger, who hid along with his wife, son, and daughter, Keren’s mother Krystyna.

With the sewers frequently flooded, Socha and the other Jews identified a secure ledge area nicknamed “the palace.” The hiding place kept them relatively dry and allowed access for Socha to bring supplies.

“What makes this story so unique is that it’s also a story of a Catholic hero — a savior who sought redemption and who fell in love with a Jewish family along the way,” Keren told The Times of Israel. “This........

© The Times of Israel