Working with Raw History - Sharing Czech and Slovak History through Video Clips

My name is Jakob Garman, and I am an Oral History Project intern for the summer of 2011. Working with the Oral History Project has been a great experience. There is so much history and so many stories from these individuals that would otherwise be lost without this project. It has been a great privilege to see these interviews uncut, in their raw state, and then have the opportunity to help NCSML edit and share them with the world.

One of the things I’ve done here is put together the trailer and teaser for the project. The clips I chose for the trailer were ones I believe express the key points that interviewees remember from their experiences in Czechoslovakia during WWII and the Cold War:



I have been touched by the stories these individuals tell; stories of escape and yearning for freedom, stories of childhood during war and tension, and stories of crossing the borders of communism, and coming to America. Everyone has a story to tell, and the Oral History Project gives these people a voice for the entire world to hear.

The first interview I edited was Barbara Skypala. The things she remembers are quite remarkable:



Besides the amazing heritage and history of the Czech and Slovak people, there have been many things I have learned and enjoyed in the technology department as well. I have learned more about the process of producing a professional video project, as well as hosting a professional web site. I have always enjoyed working with technology, and this project seems to be a bridge between history and technology, the old and the new. This is especially important for my generation, who might be more inclined to view internet media, or maybe a YouTube video than a normal encyclopedia or history book. This bridge also gives instant access to the Czech & Slovak Museum & Library’s content to people all over the world, which in itself, is amazing.

Again, it has been an honor to work with the museum on this project. I am certainly glad to be a part of it.

-posted by Jakob Garman

Holúbky making for the Cleveland Slovak Festival, September 2010

The Cleveland Slovak Festival has been held annually over the Labor Day weekend since 1971. Last year, it took place at St. Anthony of Padua Church in Parma, Ohio. Festivalgoers enjoyed a number of accordion bands, Slovak folk dance performances, Zlatý bažant beer and hearty portions of Slovak food.

Ahead of the festival on September 4, I joined the twenty-some volunteers preparing holúbky for the festival. Holúbky (which literally means ‘pigeons’) are stuffed cabbage leaves traditionally made, according to those at the festival, in the eastern Zemplín region of Slovakia. Here’s a photo guide showing how to make the perfect stuffed cabbage leaf:



First of all, you need to boil your cabbage. This makes the individual leaves more pliable so you can wrap them easily around the stuffing later on. At the festival, the hearts of each cabbage were then used in a tomato/cabbage-based sauce served over each of the holúbky. From my understanding, this is something of an optional flourish; holúbky can be served plain as well.



This photo of a fraction of the boiled cabbage leaves piled high gives you an idea of the quantities of holúbky being made for the festival.



Next up is the stuffing: the recipe used at the Slovak festival called for pork and beef to be mixed with rice and seasoned with salt and pepper. Onions sautéed in butter were also added to the mixture and worked in, as you can see, using a good deal of elbow grease.



With the leaves and the stuffing now prepared, it was time to make the holúbky themselves. To do so, small meatballs were prepared (as shown on the front right of this picture) and then wrapped in cabbage leaves (as shown on the front left).



Finally, the end of the cabbage leaf needs to be tucked into the roll so that the filling stays firmly in place. If the cabbage leaf is too long, then Mary Lesko (pictured) suggests you should cut it down so that it fits better. The scraps of cabbage left over became part of the holúbky sauce.

At the festival, the holúbky sold like hot pigeons and I didn’t notice any left at the end of the day. According to festival founder Paul Brunovsky, who spoke to the NCSML’s Recording Voices & Documenting Memories, food and drink have proven to be a major part of the event's allure since it was founded 40 years ago:



This year, the Cleveland Slovak Festival will be held on September 4th, again at St. Anthony of Padua Church in Parma, Ohio. The NCSML will be there with information about the museum and Slovak products for sale.

Cleveland's Czech Cultural Garden

The Cleveland Cultural Gardens came into being in the early 1900s on land that had been donated to the city for this purpose by John D. Rockerfeller. The original idea for the gardens, as articulated by founder Leo Weidenthal, was to create “links in a lovely garden chain, symbolizing all the cultures and honoring the dreamers and poets whose ideals have inspired humankind through the ages.”

The first garden (built in 1916) represented the British presence in Cleveland, but construction of the gardens took off in earnest in the 1930s, when expansion was supported by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) program.


The Czech Cultural Garden at 880 East Blvd.

The Czech garden was founded in 1935, though it fell into some disarray and was subsequently rededicated in 1997. Of the 26 gardens, the Czech one currently houses the largest number of sculptures, mostly designed by Frank L. Jirouch – a Clevelander of Czech extraction. Those represented in the garden include Tomas Garrigue Masaryk, Bedrich Smetana, Bozena Nemcova and Jan Amos Komensky.


Masaryk (front) and Smetana (back) by Frank L. Jirouch



On both sides of the garden are pillars, on which you can read this text in Czech and English. The English translation from the second pillar reads:

“Czech Cultural Garden – Bohemia Moravia Silesia – Homeland of teachers, statesmen, martyrs, musicians and artists, this garden is dedicated to our beloved Czech parents who by their teaching and by precept and example have established for us a high ideal of American citizenship. Dedicated 1935, rededicated 1997.”


Paul Burik at work in the Czech Cultural Garden, 2006

In more recent years, the upkeep of the Czech Cultural Garden has been taken care of by Paul Burik (who is now also head of the Cleveland Cultural Gardens Federation). He told Recording Voices & Documenting Memories how he originally became involved:



The park also plays home to a Slovak Garden (founded in 1932) and a Rusin Garden (dating from 1939). The Cultural Gardens also boast an excellent website, which can be found here.

Oral History Video Editor, Katie Shaffer

At the beginning of July, Recording Voices & Documenting Memories welcomed Katie Shaffer to the oral history team. A fortnight in, we asked her a couple of questions about what first interested her in the project:

“I was originally wanting to volunteer. I was looking for something interesting to do, and I love museums and history. I came to the NCSML and actually thought I’d volunteer in the library (as I’m a librarian by training). Then I heard about the oral history project and it caught my interest. It was something new.”

“I started out tagging profiles, adding subjects to biographies which were already up on the web. But now I edit footage, select clips and create online profiles for some of the interviewees.”

What are your favorite and least favorite bits of the work?

“My favorite is certainly listening to the interviews. I’ve learned so much about Czech, Slovak, and world history and politics. Each of the stories is so unique and fascinating. My least favorite part is dealing with technological issues. I’ve picked up a lot since I started working here, but there are still glitches which can take away your momentum when you’re working on an interview.”

Which interview have you enjoyed working on the most so far?

“I really have liked every single one. They are all unique, but equally inspiring and moving. But, I have to say, I loved working on Jan Kocvara's interview. He seemed like such an ordinary person at the beginning of the interview – but then his story of working in radio…



“I didn’t think of radio work as particularly dangerous or world changing, but his story was eye-opening. What he was saying on air clearly changed people’s lives and those who didn’t like what he was doing saw his work as very intimidating – so intimidating he felt his life was in danger. This gave me an entirely different perspective on a job you don’t always think of as all that dangerous.”

“I really liked the progression of his interview, from growing up in Slovakia to interviewing famous people, then feeling his life was in danger and ending on a note of ‘I was making history.’”



What is your view of such oral history projects, and has this changed since you started working on Recording Voices & Documenting Memories?

“Sure. And I think a lot of interviewees have said this too – recording the history of people who lived, not leaders or those written about in history books, gives you different perspectives. You can relate more, perhaps, because these people were just living their lives. And this way you learn about daily life. Especially for me, with no experience of living under communism, you get little bits of insight like ‘oh, that’s how that worked!’

“And it’s entertaining to watch. The spoken delivery of these stories adds insight that you might not get in a transcript.”

You’ve been working on selecting particularly striking excerpts from people’s interviews for the past couple of weeks. In the course of your work, which single clip has struck you the most?

“There are a couple I really liked from the interview with Klara Sever. I really like the one in which she is talking about the priest [who helped protect her family during WWII], because I like the way she says it.

“But the one that sticks with me is the clip about her family being released from Žilina labor camp, because the series of events she describes is so extraordinary.”



“This clip gives you the idea that certain instances can change your life in a second. If her father hadn’t been out working on the road, if no one had picked up that note and if his uncle hadn’t had that connection in that small village – who knows? She herself calls it a ‘miracle.’”

Slovo, Summer 2011

Cover of Slovo, Summer 2011

A new edition of the NCSML’s journal Slovo is out, and the whole issue is devoted to Recording Voices & Documenting Memories. Here are extracts from some of the articles written for Slovo by oral history project participants alongside images they shared with the NCSML at the time of their interview.


Portrait of Karel Ruml, 1949

Karel Ruml left Czechoslovakia in 1951 by “crashing a train through the Iron Curtain into West Germany.” In this edition of Slovo, he remembers his escape:

“My own task was to prevent anyone from using the single manual brake in my coach. With the train in motion… I got up and walked slowly to the end of the corridor, where I casually leaned on the wheel of the brake. Soon we were racing through As and a big, self-assured border guard tried to push me aside. I quickly drew my gun and ordered him to stop and keep quiet. He glared at me with a mixture of hate and cowardice, but didn’t move… We finally stopped among farm fields. Not too far behind us was a forested ridge bristling with watch towers and barbed wire – the Iron Curtain… Bewildered passengers [milled] outside the train.”


Birthday card designed by John Palka, circa 1950

In Twice Displaced But Not Defeated John Palka (who came to the United States in 1941 and then again in 1949) writes:

“…My parents worked hard to raise me with a dual identity – that of a devoted American grateful to his new homeland for the safety and opportunities it offered him, but also that of a Slovak who knew about and was proud of his heritage. In this they succeeded, for that is the way I still see myself today. After her death, I found in my mother’s files a memento that expresses this duality perfectly, a birthday card I made for her. On the front I wrote Happy Birthday and Št’astlivé narodzeniny, and on the back I drew two flags, the Czechoslovak above and the U.S. flag below. I was 11 or 12 when I sat down with my crayons to make this card.”


Jana Svehlova with her father, Jan Roubik, in England during WWII

Jana Svehlova is the founder of a non-governmental organization called The Enemy’s Daughters. She herself is the daughter of a political prisoner, her father having been arrested in 1949 because he was an RAF pilot during WWII and, she says, “the communist regime viewed those who had fought for the Allies with hostility.” In Slovo, Jana recollects her father’s arrest:

“The only clear image I have of that day is the color of my dad’s face when the agents were taking him away at 9 o’clock in the morning – stark white. I did ask one of the men, 'Where are you taking my daddy?' The security agent answered, 'We have to ask him some questions.' My father was arrested and sentenced to 10 years of hard labor… My mother and I were able to visit him about two times a year.”


Vladimir Maule's ID card, circa 1969

In From Lenin to Lennon, Vladimir Maule remembers his youth in Prague and journey to America in 1969. He settled with his mother in what was then a particularly Czech neighborhood of Chicago:

“As we walked along 26th Street, we heard some voices speaking in Czech. The sound was coming out of a travel agency. It was a social group of elderly Czechs at their monthly meeting, where they discussed global events and exchanged cooking recipes. They were genuinely happy to help. They found a place for us to stay the first night and recommended where to apply for work – my mom at Western Electric and I at a steel company called CECO. The next day we were both hired. (I had taken the wrong bus so ended up at Sears.) We found a basement apartment in Berwyn, a Chicago suburb with a sizable Czech population. We were on a roll.”

Vladimir talks more about the mix-up which led him to find employment at Sears (and not CECO) in this clip from his oral history interview:



Also in this edition of Slovo are articles by project participants Melania Rakytiak and Peter Hruby. Slovo is sent to all NCSML members and can be purchased at the museum store in Cedar Rapids.