Cleveland’s Karlin Hall

Table decoration from Ceska Sin Karlin, Cleveland, 2010

According to John T. Sabol and Lisa A. Alzo - the authors of Cleveland Czechs - the city’s original Karlin Hall was “founded in 1935 by three lodges of the Czech fraternal insurance society the Catholic Workmen. [It] stood near East 53rd Street and Fleet Avenue. Of the Czech halls in Cleveland, Karlin represented the Catholic community.”


Place mat with recipes from Ceska Sin Karlin, Cleveland, 2010

The hall moved to 5304 Fleet Avenue in 1972 after a fire burned the first spot down. Several decades later, the Karlin Club’s long-term secretary Joe Kocab told local reporter William F. Miller that the new venue’s construction had been “a grass roots effort” which had been supported by club members who had “paid off the mortgage” and lent their own skills to the rebuilding efforts.


Polka band plays at Ceska Sin Karlin, May 2010

The second Karlin Hall building comprised of a bar, kitchen, and a dining room with copious space for dancing – especially to the sounds of Czech polka. These photos were taken on a visit to the hall in May 2010:


Folk art motif and Czech restroom sign, Ceska Sin Karlin, May 2010

In his article dating from busier times at the club, Plain Dealer reporter William F. Miller describes activity inside the hall almost 20 years ago:

“When the polka band cranks up each Wednesday, the floor at the Ceska Sin Karlin Club quickly fills with a lively crowd of dancers… Polka night at the Karlin Club on Fleet Ave. draws a 50- to 90-year-old crowd who enjoy twirling the floor the way they did at their high school dances. That kind of energy is needed to work off a hearty… Czech-style dinner of pork or duck with dumplings, a bargain at $6, including coffee and dessert.”


Hall for rent beermat from Ceska Sin Karlin, Cleveland, 2010

While specializing in the sorts of dinner-dances described by Mr Miller, the hall also hosted St. Patrick’s Day celebrations and even, from time to time, an Elvis tribute night. Here is an extract from the hall’s (busy) program for Autumn-Winter 2005:



One of the individuals instrumental in the running of Karlin Hall over the past several decades has been Joe Kocab. He showed me around the hall during a visit to Cleveland in the spring of 2010:



In June 2010, Karlin Hall was closed and sold. A large number of Cleveland’s polka stars took part in ‘The Last Dance at Karlin Hall’ on June 12. Photos from the event can be seen here.

In their oral histories, both Ludvik Barta and Melania Rakytiak talk about the role that Karlin Hall played in their experiences of moving to Cleveland.

-posted by Rosie Johnston

Border guards in Chodsko, 1978

I was raking through some old books at Czech Village Antiques in Cedar Rapids when this image caught my eye:



This is the cover of a tourist guide to Domažlice and surroundings, situated in the Chodsko region of today’s Czech Republic. The book was printed in 1978 by Merkur Publishers in Prague for the Domažlice Tourism Commission.

Chodsko borders Bavaria, and according to this website dedicated to the Chodové (people from Chodsko), tradition has it that:

“The Chods guarded the borders along with their trustworthy companions, the Bohemian Shepherds (Chodský pes, Chodenhund)... They were Czech-speaking people granted rights and freedom by their king for hundreds of years - certified by proclamation.”

Inside the Chodsko guide, there are a number of interesting illustrations, which accompany texts about a plastics factory, a collective farm and local castles and monuments:



But the motif of the border guard and man in traditional Chod costume (or kroj) is the prevailing image throughout the book:



This choice is explained on page eight, in the following fashion:



A translation of this text reads something like:

BORDER GUARD

“A border guard and dog on the cover might come as a surprise for those who, in a book about Domažlice, can imagine nothing other than a traditional Chod motif. But we have chosen this image quite deliberately. Isn’t after all the border guard, the protector of the border of socialism, a continuation of an old Chod tradition - guarding the westernmost frontier of the Czech kingdom? The guard dog and the mark of the Chods on his lapel are more than just expressive symbols.”

The reason I wanted to post this series of images and text in this blog is because I found it an interesting example of the way borders were being discussed within Czechoslovakia, at least at an official level, during the 1970s. In the course of this oral history project, we have heard many accounts of individuals’ own experiences at the Czechoslovak border - or the ‘borders of socialism’ as this book would have it - but the stories we have heard have been very personal. It is interesting for me, therefore, to be able to contrast them with official literature about Czechoslovakia’s borders during the Cold War period.

-posted by Rosie Johnston

Recording in Chicago: May 23-28

The NCSML was in Chicago between May 23 and 28, recording more interviews as part of its oral history project. Here's a preview of some of the materials we gathered - check our website for interviewee profiles over the months to come:

Dagmar Kostal grew up in Susice, Czechoslovakia. Her parents owned a bakery in the town and so the family did not go hungry during WWII, she says. Dagmar left Czechoslovakia to train as a pastry chef in Switzerland after the War. She immigrated to Australia following the Communist coup in Czechoslovakia in 1948.

Today, Dagmar lives in Berwyn, IL with her son.

Geraldine Kraupner left Czechoslovakia with her husband following the Communist coup in 1948. She spent over a year in refugee camps in Germany before coming to America. She was very active in the patriotic sports organization Sokol. Here is a program she kept from a Sokol gathering in Ludwigsburg refugee camp in 1949:




Today, Geraldine lives in Forest Park, IL:



Vlastimil Surak left Brezova pod Bradlom, Slovakia, for Chicago in 1948. At his interview, he showed us this photo of himself as a baby in his hometown in 1927. Vlastimil is the child in the pram, which he says was brought back from America by his parents, who had already spent time in the United States:



Vlastimil's family owned a tannery in Brezova pod Bradlom. When he came to the United States, he eventually raised the funds to set up his own tanning business in Chicago. Here's a picture of one of his employees at work in the 1950s:



Valentin Turansky came to the United States after leaving Czechoslovakia with his family in 1948 and spending time in Belgium and then Australia. He joined the Slovak soccer club in Chicago:



In Chicago, Valentin worked as a printer in a part of town which is still referred to today as Printer's Row:



Alice and Eda Vedral told us their stories of leaving Czechoslovakia in 1948 and 1949 respectively. Here they are pictured in their home in Cicero, IL with their eldest daughter, also called Alice. Watch our web pages for their stories over the months to come:

Czech & Slovak immigration to the United States

This blog post first appeared on the Tenement Museum's blog on August 10, 2010.

Czechs and Slovaks had been immigrating to the United States long before Czechoslovakia even came into existence in 1918. But two events in the country’s more recent history sparked mass immigration to America: the Communist coup in Czechoslovakia in 1948 and the Soviet-led invasion of the country in 1968. At the National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library, we have been recording the stories of those who left during the Communist era, asking them why and how they came to settle in America.

When Communists seized power in Czechoslovakia in 1948, approximately 25,000 of the country’s citizens fled in that year alone. The most frequent routes out of the country were over the Czech border with Bavaria in the west and the Slovak border with Austria in the south. The borders were guarded and closed, but especially in these early days, people found a way across if they knew what they were doing. John Palka escaped with his family in 1948, escorted by a paid guide:




At this time, leaving Czechoslovakia was regarded as a criminal offense and, indeed, if you fled, your closest relatives could well end up in prison. Click here for the story of Ludvik Barta, whose mother-in-law spent four years in prison because her husband left in 1948.

A number of escapes during this early period of Communism in Czechoslovakia read like something out of a spy novel or Hollywood film. Perhaps the most famous escape of this era was that of the Masin brothers, who spent one month on the run in East Germany in 1953, trying to make their way to West Berlin. They had tried to leave in 1951, but this plan had been foiled and oldest brother Ctirad Masin spent two years in labor camps as punishment. The brothers were pursued at one point by as many as 25,000 East German police and they killed at least three people on their journey to the West. Ctirad Masin remembers the very last leg of his group’s journey:




In other stories, people allegedly used scuba gear to swim down the Danube River into Austria (the Danube was later mined to prevent such escapes). In 1951, a group of resistance fighters actually hijacked a train and forced it over the border into Western Germany. A number of those on board the so-called ‘Freedom Train’ later settled in the United States, including Karel Ruml.

The next big spike in Czech and Slovak immigration to America came in 1968, the year that Warsaw-Pact troops invaded Czechoslovakia and put an end to a period of liberalization and reform (including an easing of travel restrictions) often referred to as the Prague Spring. It is thought that even more Czechs and Slovaks fled in 1968 than had 20 years previously.

Immediately following the Soviet-led invasion on August 21, Czechs and Slovaks continued to apply for tourist visas abroad; they received them without problems and then left the country, with no plans to return. There are also stories of border guards ‘turning a blind eye’ in the days after the Warsaw Pact Invasion. However, in 1969, so many Czechs and Slovaks left the country that the government nullified all existing passports in a bid to stem the exodus.

The most common forms of escape during the years that ensued were, on the whole, much less dramatic than those of the early Cold War era. A common way of leaving the country was through organized coach tour. Joe Gazdik’s story is quite typical. He took a bus tour to Denmark in August 1969, obtained his passport from the group leader and then declared his intention to remain abroad. He says it was important not to talk too early:




Another way that Czechs and Slovaks made it to America during this period was through marriage (though understandably, many of those in question would insist that emigration was not their prime concern when tying the knot). Those who did marry an American citizen and emigrate legally to the United States (such as Stan Pechan) talk about the large amount of paperwork and multiple bureaucratic barriers to navigate, particularly on the Czechoslovak side. In Stan Pechan’s case, it took one and a half years before he could join his wife in the United States. Some were not even granted visas to get married in person – the ceremonies instead took place by proxy at the Czechoslovak Embassy in Washington and Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Prague.

By the time Communism fell in Czechoslovakia in 1989, it is believed that between 180,000 and 600,000 Czechs and Slovaks had fled their homeland. Thousands of these individuals live in the United States today.

-posted by Rosie Johnston