Leaving Czechoslovakia comes to Cleveland

 

The National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library's traveling oral history exhibit, Leaving Czechoslovakia, is currently on display at Cleveland's Bohemian National Hall. Click here for a list of opening times and directions.

On Sunday, July 28 Project Coordinator Rosie Johnston and the NCSML's Director of National Development Charity Tyler will be on hand to discuss the exhibit's creation, and the work that the NCSML has been doing more generally over the past couple of years - in Cedar Rapids and around the country.

The NCSML is excited about presenting Leaving Czechoslovakia in Cleveland, as so many of the materials used in the exhibit originally came from oral histories recorded in the city. The exhibit contains excerpts from interviews with Zdenka Necasek and Melania Rakytiak, and artifacts such as this theater program, which was shared with the NCSML by interviewee Kveta Eakin:

The presentation of Leaving Czechoslovakia will take place on Sunday, July 28 at 3:00pm at the Bohemian National Hall. For photos of the event, watch this space!

Related Reading #3: Skutečnost

A Lasting Impression: The Independent Periodical Skutečnost (Reality) was lent to the National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library by Peter Demetz. It is a collection of articles which first appeared in the émigré journal Skutečnost, published in Geneva from 1948 until 1953. The anthology is edited by Czech historian Vilém Prečan.

In his interview with Recording Voices & Documenting Memories, one of the journal’s founders, Peter Hruby, explained the idea behind the publication:



In this collection (published by the Československé dokumentační středisko in 2008), selected articles are presented thematically, with chapters dedicated to Czech-German relations, Czech exiles, Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk and democracy and totalitarianism. Contributors include Peter Hruby and Peter Demetz as well as prominent figures in the Czech émigré community such as Pavel Tigrid and Ferdinand Peroutka.

One of the articles which caught my eye in this anthology was titled Tří měsíce v Americe (or Three Months in America), written by Jan Tumlíř in 1952. The introduction to the article sets out his premise:

“Here are a few unrelated comments and nothing original. Excerpts from diaries and letters and interviews. When you spend so long preparing for America and you are here for such a short time, you cannot be certain whether you are really thinking something or merely remembering something you once read…”

The article continues with a few anecdotes from the author’s life in New Haven and his travels to Cleveland. It concludes:

“I have never thought so often about two things as I have in America: home and death. Home and death, where is the connection?

“If I had stayed there, I probably wouldn’t be able to think about anything other than freedom. Leaving Czechoslovakia was the only way for me not to lose my home, if home is the place you love.”

Skutečnost has a small epilogue in English by editor Vilém Prečan. Otherwise it is in Czech. It can be found for purchase at Kosmas.cz.

New Transcripts at the NCSML

Voucher for buying goods at Tuzex stores in Czechoslovakia

More oral histories have been transcribed as part of Recording Voices & Documenting Memories. Full transcripts are available to researchers upon request at the National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library.

In this excerpt from an interview with Dasa Kozakova, she remembers shopping - and the shortage of goods - in Czechoslovakia during the 1970s and 1980s:

"There wasn’t toilet paper. So my father-in-law was forever sitting and cutting newspapers into little squares. Really! There just wasn’t paper... And, for example, onions - all of a sudden for four months there weren’t any onions. And it is difficult to cook Czech food without onions. Czech food has lots of sauces and their base is an onion.
 
"I would always pull up at a store with the kids in a pram and ask what was on sale. Then we would stand in the queue and buy as much of it as we could, because we gave it then to my parents and my mother-in-law too, so that everybody had. And that was it, quite simply - the constant struggle for ordinary things. Then, when I went to work (I worked at Albertov),  there was a little store, and I had to go there at noon to buy bread. Because if I went when I finished work at 3:30, there wasn’t any more. So, there were all of these nonsensical things. In the end, everyone had bread, but with such difficulty! 

"When the boys had just started at primary school, my son sat beside a greengrocer’s son. And the greengrocer’s son was always bringing in oranges or apples – these sorts of things – and my son never had them, because I wasn’t capable of finding them. I went into the grocery store and there were potatoes, maybe carrots. There just weren’t these sorts of things. And so I, even though I didn’t like it, after about half a year of my son saying ‘I want an orange too!’ I said ‘You can’t have one! Oranges are for Christmas!’ – because all of a sudden there were oranges then. Everyone could buy two kilos. They were Cuban, they were ugly – they were good, but they were ugly. They didn’t look good, but they were juicy. So I went to the greengrocer, the kid’s father, and asked him either to stop giving his son this fruit, or to give it to mine too!"

..."Meat was also impossible to find. There was always beef brisket. And if you were lucky there was shank or ribs. But we never saw sirloin. We never saw that sort of meat. You just couldn’t get it, not even in restaurants. I don’t know. You couldn’t find rump steak. Ham? I don’t know where that disappeared. Because again, all you could get was pork belly, you know. So belly and pork brisket you could get. And always on Monday the butcher’s was closed. And so for meat on Tuesday there were queues from first thing. My mother-in-law, she still came from that old school and she still cooked and so she always stood in these queues so as to buy fake tenderloin or something of the sort. So meat was also a big problem. Finding bacon? And ham? Not possible! For a normal person, that is, who didn’t have any connections…"

How were the stores back then? 

"Everybody went about with a string bag. This was a type of bag which looks quite modern – maybe not now but a couple of years ago this bag reappeared. So everyone had a string bag, and when someone by chance saw something available, they bought it!"

Recording Voices & Documenting Memories in Florida

Late this May, Recording Voices & Documenting Memories made its first trip to Florida. The NCSML recorded the stories of a number of Slovaks and Czechs who had settled in and around Sarasota and Miami in particular.

Emil and Elena Brlit in The Brlit Dental Lab

Emil at work in the Brlit Dental Lab

The first stop was Brlit Dental Lab to meet Emil and Elena Brlit. Emil left Czechoslovakia with his family in 1969, while Elena came to the United States more recently, in 1983. Following each of their interviews, they shared a number of old photographs with Recording Voices & Documenting Memories:

Elena dressed in local kroj as a child in Slovakia

Emil (fifth from left, front row) with the Sarasota Slovak Soccer Club, 1990s

In Miami, the NCSML spoke with Luba DeWitt, head of the local Czech-Slovak Cultural Club. Following her interview, she showed Recording Voices & Documenting Memories the Club’s North Miami home, where a Sunday lunch of goulash was being served:

Luba DeWitt in front of the Miami Czech-Slovak Cultural Club

Preparations for lunch at the Czech-Slovak Clutural Club, Miami

Finally, the NCSML met with Dr. Tomáš Gral, who moved to the United States age 39 in 1964. Dr. Gral shared his experiences of incarceration at Auschwitz and Gleiwitz during WWII, and his memories of studying at medical school in Bratislava immediately after the War.

Portrait of Dr. Tomáš Gral from 1945

Dr. Gral in his apartment, 2013

For clips from Dr. Gral’s and each of these other interviews, follow the NCSML’s oral history web pages over the months to come. 

Early Learning from Interviews with Post-1989 Immigrants

Jozef Bil in Pittsburgh, 1990s

Since 2011, the NCSML has been recording with newer Czech and Slovak immigrants who came to the United States following the Velvet Revolution in 1989. In doing so, the museum has gathered new types of information.

For a start, those who came after the fall of communism in Czechoslovakia have provided us with eyewitness accounts of the Revolution. Responses to this have been particularly varied.

Irena Kovarova was a student at Charles University in Prague in November, 1989. She says she felt impelled to get involved in the protests which brought about the fall of the government: “What I really started feeling more and more, I felt embarrassed that I’m allowing these people to rule my life... And so that was sort of brewing, and when this November demonstration of students was going to take part, it was absolutely clear. I mean, we had to be there.” 

Pavlina Parks, meanwhile, was a few years younger and in eastern Moravia. She suggests that events took her somewhat by surprise: “I was in seventh grade and I remember going to Rožnov for my piano lesson... I remember there were a lot of people on the square… and I didn’t have quite an idea of what’s going on… There was a main speaker and I do not know who he was, what he was talking about… It was a very new experience for me; I was just there with a lot of new people around me and I could feel the big energy and the big vibe and the whole power of something happening, but I didn’t know what.”

“Then they were showing some stuff on TV and we were slowly explained to in school what’s happening, but we didn’t understand why the change is happening because we did not feel that we had a bad life up to now... Teachers started to explain to us that there is democracy in different countries and what a democracy is, and these words were empty to us. We didn’t know what to [think].”

Czechs and Slovaks who came to the United States following the Velvet Revolution often suggest they left for different reasons than those who came before. Many interviewees suggest that they were attracted to America by wanderlust, and so as to seek adventure. This was the case with Ludmila Sujanova, who came to the United States from Košice, Slovakia in 2003. She makes a direct link between the events of the Velvet Revolution and her ability to travel west:



… Others, meanwhile, came to the United States to make money. Many discuss their immigration in initially temporary terms (which is another difference between post-1989 immigrants and those who came before, and who sought political asylum). Stanislav Grezdo moved to New Orleans in 1999:



To date, the NCSML has recorded around 45 interviews with Czechs and Slovaks who came following the Velvet Revolution. This constitutes about one sixth of the interviews we have in our collections.

Related Reading #2: Prague Winter

To mark Secretary Madeleine Albright’s visit to the National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library on May 17-18, Recording Voices & Documenting Memories suggests her most recent book, Prague Winter: A Personal Story of Remembrance and War 1937-1948, as an interesting piece of reading related to the oral history project. 

Prague Winter tells the tale of Secretary Albright’s early childhood in Prague (and then in Great Britain during WWII), and of the more recent discovery of her family’s Jewish background.

Secretary Albright pours over her parents’ diaries and papers to learn more of their WWII experiences. She references correspondence sent to and received from the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia throughout the War. She also conducts interviews with relatives and former neighbors as part of her research.

She does so to try and understand “Why we make the choices we do… What prompts one person to act boldly in a moment of crisis and a second to seek shelter in the crowd? Why do some people become stronger in the face of adversity while others quickly lose heart?”

Prague Winter provides a unique eyewitness account of WWII from a Czech émigré perspective. The book is meticulously researched and comments originally on the Czech history of the period.

Prague Winter is sold at the National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library’s store. For more information on purchasing the book, click here.

Leaving or Staying: Personal Stories of 20th-Century Czechs and Slovaks

The following text is the summary of a presentation made at the Bohemian National Hall in New York City on April 23, 2013: 

Since 2009, The National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library (NCSML) has been recording the stories of Czechs and Slovaks who settled in the United States throughout the course of the Cold War. Of the 282 interviews recorded to date, around one tenth have been with people who left during the normalization period. For the purposes of this blog post, normalization means the era following the Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia and prior to the Velvet Revolution. It refers to the 1970s and 1980s, and the rule of Communist Party Leader Gustáv Husák in particular. There are, of course, many reasons why Czechs and Slovaks emigrated during this period. Marek Skolil explains his reasons for departure in the mid-1980s thus: “I realized that I want to leave the country – if I cannot study, I will leave.” Jan Kocvara, meanwhile, suggests that it was for his family’s sake that he decided to leave the country:

Among the older generation of NCSML interviewees, who emigrated in the late 1940s and early 1950s, there are many dramatic stories of crossing the border into West Germany on foot, often with bullets whistling past as they ran. By the 1970s, to all accounts, the process of emigration seems to have been a lot more bureaucratic. Borders were almost hermetically sealed, and the way out of the country was often through bribing and/or tricking a functionary, or stealing a stamp or appropriate piece of letterhead. Jerry (born Jiří) Barta’s experience reflects this trend:

A favorite means of emigration during this time was through the organized coach tour. Interviewees discuss traveling to Yugoslavia and seeking asylum at a UN-run refugee camp in Belgrade. West Germany was another country in which Czech and Slovak tourists frequently claimed asylum. Tomas Pavlicek took a coach to Munich with his daughter in 1987:

In total, historians believe that around 13,000 Czechs and Slovaks settled in the United States during the normalization period. Following the Velvet Revolution, it is thought that thousands of them returned to today’s Czech and Slovak Republics. 

Artist Sonya Darrow on Work with the Oral History Project

Detail from Untitled #1

To enhance the NCSML’s traveling oral history exhibit, Leaving Czechoslovakia, Cedar Rapids artist Sonya Darrow worked with the National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library to create a collage of documents Czechs and Slovaks used to emigrate. Here, she reflects upon the collaboration:

The collage - Untitled #1 - was first shown in New York City at the Bohemian National Hall in June 2012. It has also been displayed at Des Moines Public Library, Iowa. It is the first in a series of artworks using documents gathered by the National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library’s oral history project Recording Voices & Documenting Memories of Czech & Slovak Americans.

Untitled #1 on display in NYC

Sonya Darrow and Rosie Johnston with Untitled #1 in Des Moines

Related Reading #1: Under a Cruel Star

For those looking for eyewitness accounts of life in (and emigration from) Czechoslovakia in written form, a good place to start might be Under a Cruel Star: A Life in Prague 1941-1968 by Heda Margolius Kovály.

Kovály’s account opens in wartime Prague on the eve of her deportation to the Łódź Ghetto and then Auschwitz. Kovály subsequently describes escaping Nazi captivity and returning to the Czech capital, where former friends turn her away fearing persecution should they assist her.

Following the end of the War, Kovály is reunited with her old companion, Rudolf Margolius, whom she marries. The rest of the book charts Margolius’ rising political star following the Communist coup in 1948, his execution following a notorious show trial in 1952, and Kovály’s persistent efforts to rehabilitate her late husband.

Kovály left Czechoslovakia for the United States following the Warsaw Pact invasion in 1968. She recalls her emigration in the final chapter of her book:

“At the end of September, the invaders were still sitting in full strength at the airports. I boarded a train, carrying two small suitcases and twenty dollars in my pocket.

“The train was crammed. Facing me sat two students, a young man and a girl, who were headed for Holland. We talked about books and about life, and the pretty girl kept complaining that she had left behind her new hat.

“’Don’t you think,’ she kept asking ‘That going into exile would be less awful if I were traveling in a beautiful new hat?’

“Later, a grouchy middle-aged German tourist came into the compartment with her small daughter. The little girl stared at the three of us curiously and then asked, ‘Mutti, why are these people so sad?’”

“Her mother snapped at her ‘Don’t you know the Czechs love their country, you dummy?’…”

Heda Margolius Kovály died in Prague in 2010. For more details on her book, Under a Cruel Star: A Life in Prague 1941-1968, click here.

Preview of Remembering World War II

The Czechoslovak Division of the British Army in Prague, May 1945

On Veterans’ Day (Sunday, November 11 at 2:00pm), the NCSML’s oral history team, Rosie Johnston and Katie Shaffer, will show clips at the museum in which interviewees reflect upon their experiences of World War II. There are dozens of hours of footage on this subject housed at the National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library.

Here are a few clips which touch upon the topic, and which offer a preview of the sorts of videos you’ll see at the NCSML on Sunday:

Alex Cech was a teenager during WWII. He has some fond memories of wartime:

Likewise, Helena Fabry’s youth was spent in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. In this clip from her interview, she remembers one of her hobbies during the War:

Poster for a play in which Helena Fabry starred. At the bottom it states 'No Jews Allowed.'

Robert Budway was born in the United States. He moved with his mother to her native Czechoslovakia in 1931. He says his American citizenship became a problem following the assassination of Reichsprotektor Reinhard Heydrich in 1942:

These clips give you a taster of what to expect on Sunday. For more information, click here for a preview of the event in The Cedar Rapids Gazette. And, of course, come to the NCSML (1400 Inspiration Place SW, Cedar Rapids 52404) at 2:00pm on Sunday!

Cedar Rapids Humanities Iowa event, November 11

In the last in its series of Humanities Iowa events, the National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library (NCSML) is presenting clips from its oral history project in Cedar Rapids on November 11.

The event, titled Remembering World War II, will see oral history project staff Rosie Johnston and Katie Shaffer show footage presenting Slovaks' and Czechs' memories of World War II. Clips will highlight the stories of those who spent the War in hiding, as well as those who encountered American, Soviet and German troops. The discussion will be moderated by Dr. Margaret Haupt, professor emerita of political science at Coe College.

The event will take place at the NCSML (1400 Inspiration Place SW, Cedar Rapids IA 52404) at 2:00 p.m. It is free and open to the public. There is no need to RSVP.

More Political Prisoner Transcripts In

For the past couple of months, intern Cecilia Greco has been transcribing interviews that the National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library recorded with former political prisoners. In the second transcript in this series, Czech-American Robert Budway (who was imprisoned on a visit back to Czechoslovakia in 1962) remembers the way that his childhood in Bohemia was affected by the onset of WWII:

Robert Budway in his hometown of Těchonice, circa 1935

"When the disintegration of Czechoslovakia began, I was 10 years old. I was not really even 10 years old. I lived it intensively; I believed at 10 years old, I realized the gravity of what was happening. So by the time the country totally ceased to exist, I was 11. Then when I went to high school, I could not change down deep in my heart and mind that what I have learned in those first formative years in that grade school in that little village of Těchonice to love the Czech scene; Czech nation; Czech history; Czech everything. It was difficult to come to terms that I must repeat things I didn't believe. And I also was a little shocked because most teachers I encountered in my experience in the First Czechoslovak Republic, the Second Czechoslovak Republic... I think were very decent people who were doing their best to educate the young people in the spirit of Czechoslovak ideas. However, there were a few who did not, and I had difficulty with that. I would rebel in my usual way, even pretend. When they asked a question, let's say pertaining to German geography – and I was a geography buff – I would immediately declare loud and clear, 'I do not know.' And everybody in the classroom knew that I knew. It was daring at that particular time to even answer to a teacher, 'I don't know.' If you didn't know, you would look down and be silent. But that was also considered my American or rebellious way, I did not know. Even the teacher sensed that I must have known because after all, he did give me the best grade in geography. And yet I answered his question on examinations – many times when I didn't like the question, 'I don't know.'"

You said that in school you would have to repeat things you didn't believe... What sorts of things? I know that you were talking a lot about Germany, but what in particular?

"Right. First of all, the spirit of education at that particular time was suddenly [that the] German language was the language you learn; German besides Czech. Then there was an emphasis on a 'Future Europe,' a so-called Neuordnung Europas – that is, in German, a new order in Europe.  That was all around. To listen to the news and declarations of loyalty to German leadership, that was definitely something that was very hard to swallow. For somebody whose heroes were [Tomáš Garrigue] Masaryk, [Edvard] Beneš, and [Milan] Štefánik. So that was the thing. For example, we had to also do recycling. [We collected] scraps and all sorts of things. That was something I rebelled against, because I had to meet certain quotas. In high school you had to deliver so much and so much, I no longer can tell you, but let's say 10kg of scrap. Or you have an option; you can do it [by bringing] some metal, that means one object will do. Or you can collect papers and other things, which would take you quite a lot of time to do. So one time I went to do a shortcut, so I was caught taking some of my mother's cooking pots. And when she realized this is what I wanted to do, she said, 'You little fool' – I want to repeat the name she called me – 'Do you know that your uncles and your father may be in America's army? And they are going to produce bullets out of this thing... You are actually going to contribute to the killing of your own compatriots, of your American relatives, who must for sure be in the army!' Certainly it was a cold shower for me. I dropped it, and then had to collect what in Czech is called byliny, which is collecting herbs. And that took me weeks and weeks because I had to dry it, I had to find some bag to put it in, drag it up to the high school – and I walked two hours to high school. So obviously it would have been much easier to pick up one pot and I'd meet my quota. 

"This was quite an experience which made me aware again that I do have somebody in the United States, and there is a war going on. And I was contributing unknowingly, unwillingly to [something like this]. These were the types of things I really objected to. And everything that was German was always bigger, and that also aggravated me. Even though I must admit, certain things certainly were quite interesting. I did not reject learning something about Mozart, Schiller, and Goethe. I did not object to seeing a German movie; they fascinated me, most of them were for kids. But then I was nothing but 14 years old. But I do know that Czech movies tell me much more, I have much recollection of Czech movies even up today. Usually at that time, the quality movies were taken from Czech literature. And I was familiar with Czech literature, so I knew what they were trying to convey to me and they did their job. They did convey to me a very nice [message], you know, that there's something else besides Germany; that Czechs are here to stay. And I felt what one of the earlier Czech patriots during the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, Karel Havlíček Borovský, said in Czech, 'Jsme a budeme' – 'We are and we are going to be.' That's a loose translation of the Czech nationalism defying the Austrian Monarchy. So, I used that against the German domination, which was in place there."

Where did you go to high school?

"I went to a high school in a small regional town called Plánice. Plánice was about a two-hour walk from the village where I lived. So I was quite a familiar figure to the countryside. I had to pass through a number of villages, everybody knew 'That's the American, that's Bobek from Těchonice who is going to high school.' And every fruit tree by the road, I knew them very well. So it was an adventure. I did not have a bicycle because it was difficult to obtain during the War. Even then my grandparents tried hard to find a bicycle, but somehow I preferred to walk. And a walk actually taught me something about perseverance: no matter what, or what weather, I will definitely go to school. During wintertime I would have to wake up by 5 o'clock; by 6 [o'clock] I would be on the road. I do particularly remember one winter, very early in the morning when it looked like this was not a day to go to school – grandmother and mother were looking out of the window and definitely saying no. But I would say yes, and I would start my journey to school... I got stuck very fast; I still could see our house, and I cried there because there was so much snow so I was falling in, and I had to get up, and [would fall] down again. But I dared to say, 'I am not going to go back and admit that they were right, I will go through this to the end.' I believe I have learned a lot about – which came to help me during the War and after the War – perseverance, don't give up."

For more on Robert Budway, visit his oral history profile at www.ncsml.org. 

Humanities Iowa event in Des Moines, October 17

The NCSML is opening its oral history traveling exhibit, Leaving Czechoslovakia, in Des Moines Public Library Central Branch on Wednesday, October 17. 

At the opening, speakers will include Dr. Kieran Williams (Drake University), Dr. Mila Saskova-Pierce (University of Nebraska - Lincoln), Dr. Igor Tchoukarine (Macalester College) and Recording Voices & Documenting Memories interviewee Peter Vodenka.

The opening will run from 6:00pm - 8:00pm. It is free and open to the public. Leaving Czechoslovakia will remain on display at Des Moines Public Library until October 31. 

Please RSVP to Rosie Johnston by October 12 at rjohnston@ncsml.org. 

The event is co-sponsored by the Iowa International Center and Des Moines Public Library. It is made possible by a grant from Humanities Iowa, an affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

New Transcripts Just In

Recording Voices & Documenting Memories is happy to welcome a new intern. For the past two months, Cecilia Greco has been producing transcripts of interviews with former Czech & Slovak political prisoners and their families. Watch the NCSML's oral history web pages over the weeks to come for the complete transcripts and, in the meantime, here is a taster of what to expect:

Jana Svehlova three weeks before her father's arrest

Jana Svehlova was interviewed in Washington, D.C. in 2010:

"My parents left Czechoslovakia in 1939. But they married in England – they met in England. My father was with the Royal Air Force – with the 311 Czechoslovak Squadron. And my mother managed to get to England as a domestic person. And her War duty was delivering milk to English homes. And all her life she complained about those dirty English women not washing those glass milk bottles properly."

So, both of your parents fled the Nazis?

"Yes, they fled the Nazis. And my father and mother met in Cardiff, because my mother went with her friends to an official Air Force Club in Cardiff. And she was still very sad because her boyfriend in Czechoslovakia told her he wouldn't marry her. But she was persuaded by her friends, and she went. And in walks a group of handsome Czechoslovak airmen. And one of them asked her to marry him – I mean, I'm sorry, to dance with him. And she said yes. And next, he asked her to lend him money for cigarettes. (Laughs) And next thing, they have a date. And then he asked her to marry him because he said, 'look, I'm going to get killed anyway. So why shouldn't a nice Czech girl get a good pension?' And so they married in May 1943. And I must admit, I was born December 1943."

So, when did you then return to Czechoslovakia?

"Well, my father couldn't wait to get back to Czechoslovakia. So in August 1945 – immediately after the War when they demobilized – he went back to Prague. And my mother did not want to return because she was from the Sudetenland, her first language was German, and she didn't have the best memories of Prague just before the War. So she wanted to stay in England, but my father wouldn't hear of it. So, first the families of people who fought with the Allies were flying back. But so many planes crashed that the Red Cross organized that the spouses - basically the wives and the children - would go by train and boat. So my mother and I then came by train to Czechoslovakia in 1945."

... Jana's father was arrested in December 1949, when she was 10 years old. Despite this, Jana says she still has good memories from childhood:

"I was never hungry. My mother told me, and I have lived with this – my mother complaining, not having money for example for coal. So, I know that one of the neighbors – we found out later that that particular neighbor was the one that was reporting on us to the Secret Police. But she was very nice to us. (Laughs) And she gave us money, or lent us money for coal. And also, when my mother was writing to the president and everybody else, you know, 'Let my husband out; he's been out there now five years; I think he's reeducated.' Because her first language was German, she was never sure about the Czech grammar. So this particular neighbor was also helping her with those letters. And I – after my mother died, she died when she was 92 in England – and I found she kept all the letters from my father from prison. All those 10 years, year-by-year. So I found those letters and it was kind of funny. Oh, and some of the letters she wrote to the president. And she also wrote a letter to the commandant of the labor camp, 'My husband has been there for seven years now; let him out. I'm sick, and my child needs a father.' And he wrote back, 'Your husband's behavior is not right. He is not reeducated and he plays cards.' Because sometimes when they were down in the mine, you know, the guards wouldn't go down there. So, somebody obviously must have said it that he played cards. (Laughs) My mother wrote back, 'Well, he was a gambler before he went to prison, and I guess the prison hasn't cured him yet.' (Laughs) So, they didn't let him out. Maybe because he was playing cards." (Laughs)

Visit http://www.ncsml.org/Content/Oral-Histories.aspx for more full-length transcripts over the months to come.

Bistro Bohém, Washington, D.C.

Bistro Bohém is located in Washington, D.C.’s Shaw neighborhood. The “Bohemian-styled” restaurant was opened by Czech-American Jarek Mika in spring 2012.

Jarek Mika at Bistro Bohém, September 2012

A former banker, Jarek left his job in finance a couple of years ago to study at culinary school. He says his cooking at Bistro Bohém is influenced in equal part by what he learned at college and his Czech grandmother’s traditional recipes.

Bistro Bohém's menu, September 2012

The goulash and vepřo, knedlo, zelo (pork, dumplings and cabbage) at Bistro Bohém are accompanied by a formidable cocktail list. Diners can choose from Bohemian Margaritas, Fernet Martinis or Becherovka Old Fashioneds - to name but a few of the Czech-ified drinks.

In early September, Bistro Bohém doubled in size when it opened a café in the building next door.

The newly-opened Kafé Bohém

Bistro Bohém is open every day except Monday at 600 Florida Ave NW, Washington, D.C. Watch the NCSML’s oral history pages for clips from an interview with owner Jarek Mika over the months to come.

Recording Voices & Documenting Memories in Washington, D.C.

It has been a long time since Recording Voices & Documenting Memories staff were in Washington, D.C. This August, the NCSML set out for the capital to record the stories of a number of Czech & Slovak immigrants who settled there after the Velvet Revolution in 1989. Here is a small sampling of some of the materials gathered:

Photo courtesy of Jana Kopelentova Rehak

Anthropologist and photographer Jana Kopelentova Rehak settled in the United States in 1994. In the Czech Republic she had worked as a photographer and studied at the film and photography school FAMU in Prague. She continued her studies in the United States, writing her doctoral thesis on Czech & Slovak political prisoners, whom she also photographed. Today, she lives in Baltimore and teaches at Towson and Loyola Universities:

Jana Kopelentova Rehak at home in Maryland

Ludmila Sujanova came to the United States from Kosice, Slovakia. She settled first in New York City and then Florida before coming to Germantown, Maryland. Following her interview with Recording Voices & Documenting Memories, she shared these photos from her youth in Eastern Slovakia:

While in D.C., we revisited former interviewee Juraj Slavik and rummaged through some of his old class photos from the Czechoslovak State School of Great Britain during WWII. Here’s an image from a music lesson complete with the Allied powers’ flags as classroom decoration:

In this clip from his interview with Recording Voices & Documenting Memories, Juraj remembers his school days in Great Britain during WWII:

The NCSML also met with Czech restaurant owner Jarek Mika while in Washington. Look out for another blog post about his business, Bistro Bohem, over the weeks to come:

Jarek Mika at Bistro Bohem, September 2012

… And be sure to check the NCSML’s oral history pages for each of these interviewee’s profiles and more!

Barbara Reinfeld’s Refugee Camp Diary, 1948

At a recent oral history shoot, Recording Voices & Documenting Memories interviewee Barbara Reinfeld (née Koháková) shared her childhood diary with us.

Refugees in West German camps were issued with these scrapbooks, which they were encouraged to “keep as a permanent souvenir of the current unpleasantness.” In fact, these diaries had been repurposed from World War II, when they were intended to lift the spirits of prisoners of war.

In her diary, Barbara documents moving from one refugee camp to another, shopping in American military PX stores, receiving CARE packages and comparing the taste of Coca Cola and Pepsi Cola.

 

The diary contains a number of photos, including these images of a wedding in Barbara’s refugee camp in August, 1948. Note that the wedding car is a decorated International Refugee Organization jeep.

 

While in West Germany, Barbara and her family were in touch with the Alexander family in the United States. In the summer of 1948, they sent the Koháks a photo of their children with the following inscription:

“This is to show Raza & Barbara how American children dress in the Middle West. Willa’s shorts are navy blue, her shirt a red plaid. Buzz’ are navy blue cowboy jeans with a light blue plaid shirt. David’s T-shirt is bright blue, his pants are of U.S. army material – khaki colored. The picture was taken for you – the children knew why, which is no doubt why they look so serious.”

 

Barbara started seventh grade in fall 1948, where she made a number of friends mentioned throughout this diary. To her entry for September 20, 1948 she attaches this invite to her friend Virginia Rice’s party at which, she is reassured, “there will not be any boys there.”   

 

For clips from Barbara Reinfeld’s oral history, watch the NCSML’s oral history pages over the months to come.