3. TIL of the Odessa Catacombs, Ukraine. A network of tunnels under the city of Ode...

TIL of the Odessa Catacombs, Ukraine. A network of tunnels under the city of Odessa that was originally used in the 16th century for stone mining, and later on smuggling. It is famous for the accidental death of a girl who's body was not found for several years.

Born and raised in Odessa and I heard some stories about partisans hiding there from the Nazi's. One particular story happened during one of the harsh winters where it can get -10, -20 degrees Celsius (low teens in Fahrenheit) and considering the city is right on the Black Sea, the wind is nasty.

After a raid, Nazi's followed the partisans with dogs into the entrance of one of the catacombs. They were able to wound one of them on the way who was left behind. Nazi's held the man and tortured him in front of the entrance for others to come out but nobody ever did. They radio'd for a truck to come by with water and they stripped him and hosed him down with the water until he froze to death. They left him there. They also set fire to the entrance to the catacombs but nobody came out.

One particular entrance to the catacombs was near where I lived. It was extremely taboo to go there and we were too afraid to even go near the entrance. It was a giant black hole leading into complete darkness. I shudder just looking at it. The particular distinction of this entrance is it was where Nazi's killed various Jews and partisans. I don't know for sure, but since 6 members of my family was killed by execution, I don't know if they were shot there or just out on the street somewhere. My family won't talk about it and I only recently found out they were killed. The entire wall is lined with bullet and shell holes where partisans and Jews were shot. The wall is pretty long, I'd say at least 200 feet wide. It's riddled with holes.

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