The Catacombs of Odessa

Before we left Odessa to head back to Kiev, we took a tour of the catacombs of Odessa.  It was very impressive, sobering, amazing, and depressing all at the same time.  Our guide said there are about 3000 km of passageways under Odessa, making it impossible to install a subway system now.  This compares to about 150 km of passageways under Rome and about 300 km of passageways under Paris.  There have been instances where sections of road have caved in due to increased vehicle weights and houses have fallen into the catacombs due to increased weight of buildings that have been built.  Limestone was mined to build the buildings of Odessa.  When building a specific building or house, a hole would be cut in the ground of the courtyard area so the stone could be brought directly up where it was to be used.  Sometimes, the hole would be left and the people living there could store their wine down in the hole or could go down in it to escape the summer heat.  Often the passageways are layered one on top of the other up to 5 layers.   They have been used for smuggling, hiding places for criminals, hiding places for treasures, and a place of refuge for the citizens and the resistance during WWII.  The resistance originally thought they would be in the catacombs for 6 months but ended up being there for 3 1/2 years.  The one (of many) groups fighting the Germans that we heard about on our tour began with about 69 men and only 6 survived the war.   There were about 80,000 Jews in Odessa before the war and only about 500 survived.  The evil humans are capable of is just unthinkable.


This is part of one of the kitchens that the soldiers used.  They would have their kitchen on one of the lower levels so that the smoke from the chimney of the stove would dissipate on the upper tunnels and not above ground where the Germans could see it.

This is one of the sleeping areas for the men.  It had a waterproof barrier and then rushes on top for the men to sleep.  This is also a blurry view of Helen, our tour guide.  She was kind enough to give our tour in English and Russian so we and Sasha could understand.

This is where some of their weapons were stored.  Sasha thought the guns were cool, of course.

These are two of the saws that men used to excavate chunks of limestone.  I can not even begin to imagine using these to cut through rock!

This is one of the wells.  It sat directly under a villagers house and the occupant of the house would send messages to the men in buckets.

At times, the city was being so heavily bombed, that school rooms for children were built into the catacombs so the children could still learn in relative safety.  These are desks and benches built out of the limestone.

This is the infirmary where wounded soldiers were brought.  Our guide said most of the wounded did not survive because the conditions were so cold, damp, and unsterile in the catacombs.

Here is their washroom where they washed themselves and their clothes.  Living in the tunnels gave them a certain smell so the Germans brought in dogs to sniff people out in the city who had been in the tunnels.  The men living in the tunnels would wash thoroughly before venturing out in the city streets.