In 1942–1944, during the Nazi occupation, several Jewish families lived in this and the nearby Verteba Cave located 8 kilometres (5.0 mi) to the west in the town of Bilche Zolote.

[1] Some of the local Ukrainians helped the Jews by selling them food, but others came close to bringing down their destruction, at one point even attempting an armed assault against the Jewish men who were trying to haul sacks of grain into the entrance of the cave in the middle of the night.

One of the survivors, Pepkala Blitzer, a four-year-old girl when she and her family sought shelter in the caves from the Nazis, later recalled how she had completely forgotten about the sun or daylight.

Eventually, one day in early April 1944, one of the Jewish men found a bottle lying on the floor beneath the entrance to the cave.

[citation needed] The story of the survivors who lived in these caves was featured in the June/July 2004 issue of the National Geographic Adventure magazine,[2] as well as numerous other journal articles, and an award-winning book published in 2007 that Nicola helped to write, targeted for a young adult audience.

[1] National Geographic staff writer and photographer Peter Lane Taylor, who co-authored The Secret of Priest's Grotto with Nicola, created a production company named Frontier Media Ventures, to help facilitate the making of a documentary, exhibit, and feature film about Nicola and the Priest's Grotto Jews.