The Stermer family's inspirational story might have stayed a secret if not for the efforts of Chris Nicola, a "veteran caver" who was part of a team that explored Priest's Grotto in 1993, according to the 2004 issue of National Geographic Adventure Magazine.The discovery of "two partially intact stone walls and other signs of habitation" within the Grotto piqued his team's interest. Locals told the team about a group of Ukrainian Jews that had lived in the caves, but whether there were any survivors remained a mystery. Nicola devoted the next decade of his life to figuring out the full story, until he finally "located six of the cave survivors, most of them members of the extended Stermer family."In an interview with National Geographic Adventure, Nicola explained what made the cave dwellers' story so special. "The chance of a Jewish person surviving at all [in western Ukraine] was less than 5 percent. But what made this story different, and what is rarely seen in any Holocaust survival story, is how these families stayed virtually intact," Nicola is quoted as saying.Nicola was also astounded by some of the artifacts found in the cave, particularly the millstone, which was too heavy for him to move. "Yet Nissel Stermer carried it on his back for three or four miles," Nicola explained. "That millstone was their life. They used it to grind grain to make bread, which was the main part of their diet."