Readers have been very surprised to learn about this part of history...

Interview with Greg Archer 

by Agnes A. Rose

Greg Archer is best known for his award-winning features on agents of change, celebrities, and health and environmental patriots, near and far. His work has appeared in Oprah Magazine, The Huffington Post, San Francisco Examiner, The Advocate, Palm Springs Life, Bust, Prevention, VIA Magazine and other portals. As host of GTv, he frequently covers arts-related events and other red carpet fodder around the United States and Canada. His latest book Grace Revealed: a memoir was released in January 2015. He splits his time between his hometown of Chicago and Palm Springs.

Agnes A. Rose: Thank you so much for your accepting my invitation to this interview. I am very honored to host you here. The American premiere of your book took place a few weeks ago. In “Grace Revealed: a memoir” you describe the dramatic history of your family. The story goes back to the Second World War and refers to the mass deportations to Siberia. Could you tell us what motivated you to write this book?

Published by NORLIGHTPRESS

Bedford (USA) 2015

Greg Archer: Growing up, I always heard stories from my family about some “adventures” they had when they were younger. At first, these stories were about their time in Tanzania, Africa, living in an orphanage. I was very curious. How did they get to Africa? Why were they there? By the time I was in high school, after asking for more details, I learned so much more – that they were among 2 million Polish people deported to Siberia by Stalin. And that after the Poles had been granted an “amnesty” in 1941, they became refugees and somehow wound up in a British-run orphanage in Africa. I felt that this under-reported chapter in history needed to be told; that the Poles should be given justice. I also wrote the book as a kind of catharsis; to heal myself, too.

Agnes A. Rose: I am very interested to find out how your American readers understand your book. Could you tell us about it?

Greg Archer: Readers have been very surprised to learn about this part of history. It’s not in the mainstream. Many people are aware of what Hitler did during the 1940s, but few people are aware of the full extent of Stalin’s wrath and the people it affected. So, there is, first, surprise. I am also finding that my generation – the offspring of those who may have endured this; those now in their late 30s, 40s, and 50s who have an interest in ancestry and genealogy, are particularly curious, too. Because the book also explores my own journey uncovering this information and bringing it to light.

Agnes A. Rose: It seems to me that we sometimes forget a little bit about the mass deportations of 1940s. I think that much more often we talk about the Adolph Hitler’s unimaginable suffering inflicted upon both the Polish people and the entire world. Why is it so? How do you think?

Greg Archer: It’s fascinating to me that to this day, Stalin is often overlooked. My sense is that after Hitler attacked Russia in 1941, and Stalin then decided to align with the Allies to defeat him, that something happened. It was as if the group mind said: “Well, OK, Stalin is going to help us, so let’s not really look at the reality of what he did; let’s just brush it under the rug for now and move on.” In the meantime, he took over Poland, made it a Communist country, for the most part, and I think that, collectively, the Polish people never really had time to rally together and unite on this subject. They, too, swept it under the rug to some extent. Perhaps. I’m just trying to understand it myself. My sense is that because the country was suddenly Communist… and remained so for many decades, that this sort of thing could not be talked about. It is only now, 75 years later, that many stories from that time period are finally coming to light. And as such, Stalin is being exposed for the man he was.

Agnes A. Rose: While reading I very strongly felt your tremendous emotional bond with your grandmother. In my opinion she was a very brave woman. Could you tell us something more about her?

Greg Archer: She was extremely brave. In some ways, I felt haunted and hunted by her. She had a strong will but, from what I understand and have come to know, a very strong faith. I think that is what pulled her through. That is was what helped her keep her children alive.

Agnes A. Rose: I think that it must have been very difficult to you to write this dramatic history relating to your family. Could you tell us what kind of emotions accompanied you while writing?

Greg Archer: We could be here all day. Emotions? I joke. Well, it really felt as if I were re-living the entire intensity and impact of their original experience – from boxcar ride to Siberia, to the labor camps, to being refugees. I feel strongly that past generational unresolved trauma lives within each of us; and that this was my opportunity to bring it to the surface; to excavate it from within and attempt to shift. It’s been a very befuddling and intense journey… but one filled with many blessings, too.

Agnes A. Rose: And what was then? Did you feel a relief after finishing the book?

Greg Archer: Yes. But more so exhaustion. I felt, and to some extent still do, as if something very intense occurred… that I had gone through something. There’s a state of realignment attempting to take place I think.

Polish families deported during the Soviet occupation of Kresy. 
The number of Poles extracted from their homes and sent into barren land in 
Siberia exceeded 1.6 million. 

Agnes A. Rose: How long were you looking for a publisher? Was it easy or difficult?

Greg Archer: I knew of the publisher I chose and I chose them because I knew they could get the book out before Feb. 10 2015. It was important to me to have the book out this year because it was the 75^th anniversary of the mass deportations.

Agnes A. Rose: In your book you also describe your trip to Poland and visiting the church in Łąka near Rzeszów where many years ago your grandparents met for the first time. What did you feel while standing inside the church knowing that one day in the same place your grandparents were praying?

Greg Archer: It was rather ethereal… as if the veils of time and space had been lifted; as if they were all there just seconds ago, and suddenly I arrived. Perhaps one of the most cosmic experiences I have ever had.

Agnes A. Rose: Would you like to visit Poland again? What did you like most during your last stay here?

Greg Archer: YES. I would very much like to speak at different places/universities and such, about the book and other things. I would love to visit Zakopane and be there for a while and venture to many villages and towns throughout .I would love to experience Białystok.

Agnes A. Rose: After I had published my review of your book, some Polish readers expressed their regret that they could not read it in Polish. Are there any plans regarding the book publication in Polish? Do you know anything about this?

Greg Archer: There are plans to have it translated and I will keep readers alerted on Facebook and the website. So, hopefully very very soon.

Agnes A. Rose: Let’s talk for a moment about your work. You are also an entertainer and a journalist. You do interviews with the most famous Hollywood celebrities. Could you tell us a little bit about this part of your job?  

Greg Archer: For many years, I wrote, and still do at times, about people who are in film and TV. It’s been illuminating and I try to connect to the person that they are rather than the “celebrity” everybody sees. I have talked to some very fascinating people whose work beyond their celebrity is very intriguing.

Agnes A. Rose: You have just written the book, so now you are an author, too. Are you planning to work on next books in the future?

Greg Archer: Yes. I have another book outlined and plan to dive more deeply into it in the coming months… the central theme is “home” – the idea/feeling/concept of “home.”

Agnes A. Rose: Finally, I would like to ask you about the role of the “signs” in your life. In your book you frequently mention them. Do you really believe in them? Do they lead your life?

Greg Archer: Yes. I do believe in them. I feel led and guided all the time. I think we all are; we just need to be open to see thing I suppose; view things differently. Something like that. For me, I just need to get out of my own way.

Agnes A. Rose: Thank you very much for this conversation. Is there anything you would like to add?

Greg Archer: Thank you so very much. Good to be here.

If you want to read this interview in Polish, please click here. 

If you want to read the book review, please click here. 

“Grace Revealed: a memoir” by Greg Archer

Published by NORLIGHTPRESS

Bedford (USA) 2015

I read the book thanks to the author's courtesy. 
Thank you!

After on 17 September 1939 Adolph Hitler (1889-1945) and Joseph Stalin (1878-1953) had shaken their hands over Poland, the mass deportations of Poles to Siberia began very soon. The deportations consequently became one of the main tools of the Soviet policy of occupation. This policy was designed to make the ethnic cleansing and destruction of the Polish political, economic and intellectual elite. The identical goals guided the Third Reich, which was still a devoted ally of the Soviet Union at that time. So, the first mass deportation of the Poles began during the night from 9 to 10 February 1940. It related to the Polish people living in the lands that after 17 September 1939 had been annexed by the Soviet Union. That deportation concerned mainly the Polish officers, the Forest Service as well as civilians. The Poles displaced during that period were sent to Krasnoyarsk Krai, Komi, as well as they were resettled in such districts as Irkutsk, Archangelsk and Sverdlovsk.  

Another part of deportations took place two months later. It was in April 1940. It included the representatives of the Polish elite (officials, judges, teachers) and family members who had been deported in February 1940. There were the families of the Polish officers who were brutally murdered in Katyn in the spring of 1940. This time, the main place of exile proved to be Kazakhstan. However, in June 1940 the deportations to Siberia primarily included the Poles living in the central and western Poland, who after the outbreak of war had sought their refuge in the Borderlands (in Polish: Kresy) from the Nazi occupiers. There were also Poles of Jewish origins among those people. They were sent mainly to Arkhangelsk and Autonomous Republic of Komi as well as into the territories lying to the east of the Urals.

In May 1941 the Soviet Union authorities decided that there should be further “cleansing” of the eastern lands of the Republic of Poland. Therefore, on 22 May 1941 the next mass deportation was launched and a month later citizens living in the Baltic States, which a year ago had been incorporated into the Soviet Union, were displaced. There were the Poles among those people, too. During the night from 19 to 20 June 1941 (two days before the Nazi invasion of the Soviet) the mass deportation of the Poles began again. It related to the people settled in the areas of so-called Western Belarus. However, it was not finished because of the outbreak of the Soviet-German war. So, this part of the transports stuck on 22 June 1941 and finally did not reach their destination.  

This painting shows some Soviet soldiers taking Polish citizens to the Siberian labor camps. 
Photo: Artist unknown
Source: The Sikorski Polish Club, Glasgow, Scotland 

During nearly two years of the so-called first Soviet occupation, i.e. 1939-1941, several times more Poles than for almost two hundred years of Russian domination over Poland before 1917 were exiled. Between 1939 and 1941 the Polish citizens were deported in the depth of Siberia regardless of their nationality. The Poles were the vast majority (80 percent). There were also Ukrainians, Jews, Belarusians and Lithuanians having the Polish citizenship. At that time the morality among the displaced people was much greater than in the tsarist Russia. It is said that then the morality reached up to twenty-five percent of the deported people. For them their dramatic and extremely tiring journey started when the NKVD invaded their homes, and Soviet soldiers gave them a few minutes to pack their belongings. Then there was lasting several weeks’ transportation to Siberia. People like herrings in a jar crowded in the cattle boxcars with the cold which reached even fifty degrees Celsius. Often a place of their destination was the snowy steppe or taiga, and the mortality increased due to the murderous work in the mines of gold, nickel, coal and uranium. Also, we cannot forget about the backbreaking work with the cutting down of trees.

That’s enough about history. Now let’s focus on the book. Grace Revealed: a memoir is the extremely moving nonfiction in which the author tries to deal with the traumatic past of his family. Greg Archer’s grandparents – Jadwiga and Jacenty Migut – were in the first group of the Polish displaced people. Their family’s nightmare began on 10 February 1940. The Soviets gave them only thirty minutes to be able to pack the most necessary things, and then remained them just a dramatic journey into an unknown place marked by pain, suffering and above all unimaginable fear for themselves and their loved ones. They were crammed into the cattle boxcars where they had to lie down or sit on the bunks or suitcases without a change of their clothes for several days. On the other hand, the children who were deprived of fresh air, physical movement and proper diet began seriously ill. Stressed and tired people made an unbearable atmosphere there. The NKVD soldiers standing just next to them only were shaking their bayonets and vulgarly insulting the Polish people.

This drawing presents the conditions inside the barracks of a northern Soviet  labor camp.
Source: The Sikorski Polish Club, Glasgow, Scotland 

Grace Revealed: a memoir is also a kind of the special monument that the author has issued his family to commemorate those tragic events. Some people claim that the family traumatic experiences, which occurred even a few decades ago, can seriously affect the future generations who had nothing to do with them. This book is a perfect example for it. It implies that the deportation problem of the relatives into deep Siberia has struck in the author’s mind for a long time. I think that eventually the time has come for the author to discover his feelings in the book. This moment was preceded by "signs”. In fact every word and every sentence is the author’s deep emotional bond with his relatives, especially with his grandmother Jadwiga, who was a really brave woman. In the face of the huge threat not only to her own life but also her husband and children, she did not give up but heroically faced up to the cruel reality, while keeping her own dignity to the end of those events.  

In 2012 Greg Archer visited Poland and went to the place where all had begun. It was the Subcarpathian village called Łąka located near Rzeszów. For the first time Greg Archer’s grandparents met in the small church dedicated to St. Onufry. It was during one of the festivals held in the courtyard. Then they were the children and it took many years to get that acquaintance turned into something more serious. The author’s grandfather – Jacenty Migut – came from the neighboring village called Łukawiec. However, they made their marriage vow in the church where they had met. After that they had a son Ted, and then the next children: Mary, Janina, Joe, Stanley, John and Bronia. After some time, the family moved to Liczkowce. It was a village located near Ternopil (now Ukraine). It was quite risky because then these areas were situated too close to the border with the Soviet Union, but they still belonged to Poland. There, the family lived very well. The war and consequently the mass deportation into Siberia meant that the family had survived the nightmare before they could live in peace, but in a different place. But before it happened somehow they had had to come to terms with the loss of their loved ones.

On the one hand the Greg Archer’s book is a specific document showing the drama of that time, while on the other hand it is a tribute to the author’s family. Reading this book we can ask a series of difficult questions to ourselves. Why it happened? For what reason did those innocent people have to suffer so much? Was the war inevitable? What motivated the occupants to give such cruel fate to hundreds of thousands of people? These are the questions that I think we will never find the right answer. Historians doubtless have their own opinions on this subject, but I mean an ordinary human explanation of the facts which cannot be understood.

The St. Onufry' s church in Łąka near Rzeszów (Poland).
In this church the author's grandparents met for the first time.
Photo: Czczysuav Peplynsky

In his book Greg Archer shows as if the two faces of the war drama and mass deportations. On the one hand there are the quoted authentic memories of those who survived, while on the other hand the author reveals his own emotions to a reader. Thanks to it the reader is able to understand the author’s feelings in a better way. Greg Archer discovers not only the secrets of his career but also a little his private life. Sometimes the author does it in a very humorous way, such as talking about his stay in Poland and strenuous attempts to communicate with the Poles whom he met on his way. Of course, everything is related to the Stalinist crimes committed years ago. Reading this book we can also improve our own knowledge of history regarding the policy of Joseph Stalin and his associates. The whole is enriched with a few drawings and photographs.

I really hope that one day Grace Revealed: a memoir will be translated into Polish because these books are still needed and they should reach every country in the world. Never mind that times have changed. Never mind that for any of us the war seems to be abstract and unreal. Never mind that today’s military conflicts look quite different than in the past. Each generation must remember the people who were taken everything precious. But in spite of that those people never lost their dignity and no invader could deprive them of it.

Today we are celebrating the 75^th anniversary of those tragic events. Therefore, let’s remember those who survived and those who had died before the end of the war and then they could not live in another safe place in the world.

If you want to find out more about the mass deportations, please click here.

If you want to find out more about the book, please click here.

If you want to buy the book, please click here. 

If you want to read this review in Polish, please click here.