Seventeen years ago I made the most amazing discovery while caving in Ukraine. After years of piecing together clues, bits of information and going on caving expeditions, I discovered a cave where thirty-eight Jewish people lived in exile during the Holocaust. Stories of their amazing survival during the world’s greatest genocide and their lives spent underground for nearly 2 years, inspired me to dedicate my life and livelihood to sharing their stories of courage, bravery and hope.

Faced with isolation, sensory deprivation and the constant threat of starvation, each of them adapted quickly to their hostile new environment. They built lanterns from old bottles, gathered water from the cave’s lakes and defended their entrance against the Nazi’s with their lives. In the end they never, never relented in defense of their underground fortress. Upon liberating themselves from the cave they could barely recognize one another once outside. But the daylight was no longer their enemy, and they were free. In the spring of 1943 the odds of a Ukrainian Jew surviving World War II were less than 5%. Hitler’s final solution had reached a furious climax with no safe place left to hide; except below ground, in a cave.  Priest’s Grotto is the story of how several families chose this option, and fought to survive during one of the darkest times in the history of Man.

Now, I am able to tell their story; a story which serves as the focus for both the book, "The Secret of Priest's Grotto" by Peter Lane Taylor with Christos Nicola, and the Priest's Grotto Heritage Project (PGHP), a special project in which the grandchildren of the Priest's Grotto Survivors are working hand-in-hand with the grandchildren of western Ukraine's Nazi occupiers to build an exhibit for a local museum as a way to honor the Priest's Grotto Survivors and 14,000 of their friends and relatives who perished at the hands of the Nazis.  It is through such projects that future generations can be made aware of the roots of Genocide, and hopefully learn how to stop history from repeating itself.

Today, most of my time is spent promoting Genocide Awareness by telling "The Secret of Priest's Grotto", through public speaking engagements, my book, and a soon to be made documentary and movie by Sierra/Tango Productions. I am also writing a second book about this story, and running a project, The Priest's Grotto Heritage Project; for the purpose of building a permanent exhibit in Ukraine to honor these courageous Jewish cave dwellers. A unique feature of this Heritage Project is it is making use of the local Ukrainian youngsters who are being trained by my caving organization (UAYCEF) to assist in the locating, preservation, and protection of artifacts left behind in the cave. In some cases the children participating in this program are the great grandchildren of those who collaborated with the Nazis during the Holocaust.

These same children will be working "hand-in-hand" with the grandchildren of those who lived the Priest's Grotto Story.  It is through programs such as these that I hope to make future generations aware of the evil and roots of Genocide around the World, and stop history from repeating itself - so that the horrific events that befell Ukraine in 1943 NEVER HAPPEN AGAIN. I was born in England in 1951, and immigrated to the US with my parents a year later. I lived in Williamstown, Massachusetts until the age of five, and grew up in New York City; where I lived most of my entire life, with the exception of a period from 1977 to 1987 when I lived in Washington, DC, where I worked as police officer and labor union organizer for corrections officers.
 
Dropping out of college in 1971, I embarked on my current law enforcement career, working as an undercover investigator in New York City's high schools, a police officer in the nation's capital, a Teamster business agent and organizer for police and corrections officers, a civilian operative for the FBI, and holding various New York State criminal, trial preparation, insurance fraud and professional licensing investigator positions. I have also worked as an adjunct lecturer, bodyguard, crewmember on a shrimp boat, and a bouncer and manager in a bar frequented by motorcycle gang members.
In 1987, following a 16 year absence, I returned to college and earned: Bachelor degrees in Criminal Justice, Forensic Psychology, and Physics; a Masters in Criminology, and completed several years in pursuance of a PhD. I am currently in pursuit of a Masters in Forensic Science, and Bachelors in Geography. I am also a graduate of three state police academies, have attended the FBI's Special Weapons and Hostage Negotiations Schools, and received specialized training from the New York City Police Department, and the Labor Studies Center of Washington, DC.
               
Although I have been skydiving, a long distance runner, motorcyclist, swimmer, tri-athlete, and scuba diver - caving (i.e. spelunking) has been my passion for many years. It has been caving that has quenched my life-long desire to explore; an interest that started at a very early age, and one that still leads me to yearn to see things that no other person has ever seen. When you cave, there is always the possibility that you might make a left turn instead of a right, and in so doing, discover a passage never seen before. Or, you might lift that rock out of your way, instead of climbing over it as has been done by so many others before you, and in so doing, discover a long lost life form. Or, perhaps you will even find treasure - such as a "gem of a story" that I found in a cave in Ukraine in the early 1990's.  I have devoted over three decades to the study and exploration of caves in the Former Soviet Union, Caribbean, Europe, Oceana, the Americas, and Africa. In 1995, I founded the non-for-profit Ukrainian American Youth Caver Exchange Foundation (UAYCEF), a student exchange program dedicated to the protection of Ukrainian caves, and fostering the exchange of speleological related information between young cavers in America and Ukraine. Today, I continue to act as UAYCEF’s Director.
 
With over forty international caving expeditions to date, I continue to lead expeditions throughout the World including Ukraine, where in 1993, I came across one of the most amazing underground survival stories of all time "The Secret of Priest's Grotto"; the long lost story, mentioned above, where I spent ten years unearthing how 38 Jews survived the Holocaust by living in a massive cave system in excess of 500 days.