PEF Region 10 member Chris Nicola, a renowned caver, explorer and author, was honored June 5 by the ScieBnce Museum of Long Island.
The museum presented Nicola with its Science Achievement Award at its 10th Annual Gala, held at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point. State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli also was honored with the museum’s Community Service Award.
Nicola, a senior professional conduct investigator for the state Education Department in New York city, is a steward and secretary of PEF Division 349.
The exploit that earned him the museum’s honor was his discovery that 38 Ukrainian Jews had hidden underground in a 77-mile-long cave called “Priest’s Grotto” for more than a year to escape the Holocaust, and his decade-long effort to find the survivors.
To his amazement, he found them living in the New York City and Montreal areas where they had immigrated after WWII.
Nicola began to explore the Priest’s Grotto labyrinth in 1993, but it took years of research that was hampered by the multiple languages involved to finally find the survivors and discover the true secrets of the cave.
His discoveries were documented in National Geographic Adventure magazine and later in a book, “The Secret of Priest’s Grotto” that was published in 2007.
Nicola is now preparing to work on a TV documentary about the historic episode. He’s also working with a museum in the Ukraine and a history project based in Moscow on related projects.
Nicola was accompanied to the museum gala by Sonia Hochman, a survivor of Priest’s Grotto who was just 9 years old at the time. They told the story and answered questions at the event.
“I want to thank the board of the Science Museum of Long Island for bestowing such an honor on me,” NIcola said. “I want to thank the Priest’s Grotto survivors for having enough trust and faith in me to allow me to tell their story throughout the world; to tell a story which, to quote one in their group, is ‘a story they cannot tell themselves.’”
Nicola also thanked his many friends, some of whom were present, for their continuing inspiration, support and encouragement.
“It is with both pride and pleasure that I now accept this award,” Nicola said, “in part, because of your work in shaping me into the person I am today.”
For more information about Nicola and his discovery of the secrets of Priest’s Grotto, see the August 2004 and June 2007 issues of The Communicator.
