Escape Tunnel, Dug by Hand, Is Found at Holocaust Massacre Site (Updated)

NY Times  via Drudge

"Jewish forced laborers dug a tunnel from this holding pit near Vilnius, Lithuania, into the surrounding forest. A team of archaeologists and mapmakers say they have uncovered a forgotten tunnel that 80 Jews dug largely by hand as they tried to escape from a Nazi extermination site in Lithuania about 70 years ago. 

"The Lithuanian site, Ponar, holds mass burial pits and graves where up to 100,000 people were killed and their bodies dumped or burned during the Holocaust.

"Using radar and radio waves to scan beneath the ground, the researchers found the tunnel, a 100-foot passageway between five and nine feet below the surface, the team announced on Wednesday.

"A previous attempt made by a different team in 2004 to find the underground structure had only located its mouth, which was subsequently left unmarked. The new finding traces the tunnel from entrance to exit and provides evidence to support survivor accounts of the harrowing effort to escape the holding pit. 

“ 'What we were able to do was not only solve one of the greatest mysteries and escape stories of the Holocaust,” said Richard Freund, an archaeologist from the University of Hartford in Connecticut and one of the team leaders. " . . .

UPDATE_Yeshiva World News:  PHOTOS/VIDEO: Historical Discovery In Lithuania – Escape Tunnel Used To Escape Nazis

"It is the intention of the partners to return to the site in the near future to expose the tunnel for public viewing as part of the memorial for the victims of Vilna and the surrounding area.

"Watch the filmed witness of Mordechai Zeidel, One of the escapees from the tunnel at Ponar." . . .

5-6) The ERT scan of the escape tunnel at Ponar

7-8) The memorial to the Holocaust at Ponar