In 1942–1944, during the Nazi occupation, several Jewish families lived in this and the nearby Verteba Cave (located 8 kilometers, or 5 miles, to the west in the town of Bilche Zolote). Some of these people never left the cave for 344 days, making this the longest recorded instance of uninterrupted cave habitation known. Although some of the Jews hiding in these caves were caught and exterminated by the Nazis, thirty-eight of them managed to survive the Holocaust of Ukrainian Jews until the area was liberated by the Red Army in April 1944.