More than 100,00 people, including 70,000 Lithuanian Jews were massacred in the Ponar forest during World War II. Eighty prisoners were forced to perform the grim task of piling the thousands of bodies together and burning them to hide traces of the genocide. Knowing they faced certain death once their work was complete, the prisoners dug the tunnel over a period of three months. On the night of April 15, 1944 they made their escape. After cutting their leg shackles with a nail file, 40 of them crawled through the narrow tunnel. But they were quickly discovered by guards. Fifteen escaped into the forest, but only 11 eventually reached partisan forces and survived the war.
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