History Debuts Gripping Documentary NO PLACE ON EARTH Tonight

HISTORY®, in collaboration with HISTORY FILMS™ and Sierra/Tango Productions, announce the television premiere of the poignant documentary No Place On Earth tonight, April 26 at 6 PM ET/PT. Following its successful premiere at the Toronto Film Festival in 2012 and its theatrical release by Magnolia Pictures last year, No Place On Earth unearths the gripping story of 38 Ukrainian Jews who survived during WORLD War II. To evade Nazi capture, these heroic refugees, lived in a cave for nearly two years - the longest recorded sustained underground survival. Built upon interviews with the survivors, as well as Chris Nicola, the caving enthusiast who uncovered the story, No Place On Earth is an incredible true story of strength and survival.

In 1993, cave explorer Chris Nicola was mapping one of the world's most extensive horizontal cave systems with a group of elite Ukrainian cavers. He discovered unusual objects: buttons, shoes, a grinding stone, even a rusty, old house key. Over the next nine years, Nicola pieced together a most unbelievable story: with no gear or training, a desperate group of people had lived in this cave for months on end...and survived.

The cave, known as Priest's Grotto, housed groups of despairing families and created refuge for them in an unbelievably hostile environment during WWII. Led by family matriarch Esther Stermer, whose fierce resolve kept the underground community in-tact, this group united to survive against all odds. Throughout their ordeal, heroes emerged - including teenage boys and young men in their 20's - who put their lives on the line to venture out to chop firewood, collect food and gather essential supplies. What they accomplished is remarkable - in a region where less than 5% of the Jews survived - the 38 who went in to Priest's Grotto in May, 1943, came out alive in April 1944 as the Russians liberated the area. Over 65-years later, in 2010, four of those young heroes, now in their 70's, 80's, and 90's, journeyed back to Ukraine with their grandchildren and Nicola to enter the cave for the first time since their courageous parting. The remarkable story, NO PLACE ON EARTH, is told through a visual combination of adventure cave exploration, dramatic re-enactments, and verite. It's not only one of the most spectacular untold stories of its time; it's an adventure story of amazing triumph in the face of the most unbelievable odds.

HISTORY is supporting No Place On Earth with educational content for schools nationwide. These resources include educational content created by Tim Bailey, an award-winning educator who is the recipient of the History Teacher of the Year award from the Gilder Lehrman Institute for American History and a classroom viewing guide. These resources will be available at www.history.com/classroom<http://www.history.com/classroom. HISTORY has also partnered with USC Shoah Foundation - The Institute for Visual History and Education. Six of those who survived in the caves that are the subject of No Place On Earth have given video testimony to the Institute for its Visual History Archive, and students and teachers can watch their testimonies in IWitness, the Institute's award-winning educational website (iwitness.usc.edu). Their recollections are also the basis for an Information Quest activity within IWitness, which the Institute launched in support of HISTORY Classroom's digital resource guide for the film.

NO PLACE ON EARTH is produced by History's film arm HISTORY FILMSâ„¢ in collaboration with Sierra/Tango Productions. The film is directed by Janet Tobias - Emmy award winning director/producer (CBS 60 Minutes, ABC Primetime Live, NBC Dateline, ABC Nightline, PBS Frontline, PBS Life 360). Cinematographers are Cesar Charlone (City of God, Constant Gardener, Blindness), Edu Grau (A Single Man, Buried, Arthur Newman), Peter Simonite (Friday Night Lights and Tree of Life) and Sean Kirby (The Tillman Story, Happy Valley). Editors are Deidre Slevin (Snow Flower and the Secret Fan, Gaudi Afternoon) and Claus Wehlisch (Cloud Atlas, The Three Musketeers). Producers are Janet Tobias, Rafael Marmor (Blue Blood), Paul Laikin and Susan Barnett. Executive Producers for HISTORY are Susan Werbe, Molly Thompson and David McKillop.

About HISTORY®
HISTORY®, now reaching more than 98 million homes, is the leading destination for award-winning original series and specials that connect viewers with history in an informative, immersive and entertaining manner across all platforms. The network's all-original programming slate, including scripted event programming, features a roster of hit series including American Pickers®, American Restoration™, Ax Men™, Counting Cars™, Pawn Stars®, Swamp People® and The Legend of Shelby the Swamp Man as well as HISTORY®'s first scripted series Vikings, and epic miniseries and special programming such as The Bible and the Emmy® Award-winning Hatfields & McCoys, Men Who Built America, Gettysburg, Vietnam in HD, America The Story of Us® and 102 Minutes That Changed America. The HISTORY® website is the leading online resource for all things history, and in 2011, the United States Library of Congress selected HISTORY®'s Civil War 150 site for inclusion in the historic collection of Internet materials related to the American Civil War sesquicentennial. www.history.com

About HISTORYâ„¢ FILMS:
HISTORY Films seeks to bring cinematic stories by outstanding independent filmmakers to the widest possible audience. Through HISTORY Films, the network will pursue dramatic non-fiction films about extraordinary people and those singular moments in our past, present and future that stand out forever, demonstrating that History is Made Every Day. The HISTORY Films roster currently includes: The Unknown Known: The Life and Times of Donald Rumsfeld, directed by Errol Morris; the award winning Cave of Forgotten Dreams (2010) (National Critics; LA Critics; NY Critics awards) directed by Werner Herzog; Countdown to Zero (2010) directed by Lucy Walker; Magic Trip: Ken Kesey's Search for a Kool Place (2011) directed by Alex Gibney and Page One: Inside The New York Times (2011) directed by Andrew Rossi.

To post a comment, you must register and login.