Czechs & Slovaks Around the World

Cover of The Australian Slovaks' Calendar, 1957, courtesy of Anne McKeown

While Recording Voices & Documenting Memories focuses on Czechs and Slovaks who immigrated to the United States, it is important to remember that this is only one part of the story, and that thousands of Czechs and Slovaks settled elsewhere around the globe.

Here are a few of the highlights from our own oral history collections, which show some of the other locations in which Czechs and Slovaks set up a new home at various points throughout the past century:

Vera Borkovec, who was born in Prague, lived with her family in Tehran, Iran until after WWII. Her father worked as the director of the Škoda factory in the city, which employed a number of expatriate Czechs, some of whom are photographed below:


Vera Borkovec's father (second row from the bottom, fourth from right) with colleagues from Škoda Tehran

Joseph Ben David fled Czechoslovakia in 1939 and lived in Israel until 1954. The picture below shows him on the beach in Tel Aviv in the early 1950s.


Portrait of Joseph Ben David, Tel Aviv

Vera Roknic found herself stranded in Sweden, where she was on a work placement, at the time of the Communist coup in Czechoslovakia in 1948. She lived there for a number of years before emigrating to America in 1952. This photo shows her on a camping trip in the Swedish countryside with her late husband, Vaclav (himself a Czech émigré in Sweden):


Vera Roknic camping in Sweden, 1950

Jerri Zbiral, meanwhile, lived in Norway for three years before emigrating to Canada with her family. She refers to the years she spent growing up in Norway as ‘extremely happy.’


Jerri Zbiral competing in a skiing competition in Norway, 1954

A large number of Czech and Slovak emigres settled in Canada during the Cold War period. The photo below shows Ivana Edwards’ father selling Czech and Slovak books at a summer fair there in the 1950s. His International Book Service operated out of the Edwards’ adoptive hometown, Montreal.



Oliver Gunovsky settled in 1970 in Kitchener, in the Canadian province of Ontario, after two years spent in England. He found work in the restaurant business and eventually came to own the city’s Metro Tavern, which he says specialized in Central European fare - in particular schnitzels:


Promotional postcard for Metro Restaurant & Tavern, Canada

Émigré Otto Ulc has spent years documenting the stories of Czechs and Slovaks who settled around the world. This photo from his collection shows the Czech staff at Praga Technical Services & Manufacturers in Pretoria, South Africa:



Two good websites with lots of information about Czechs and Slovaks around the globe are krajane.net (in Czech) and Slováci vo svete (in Slovak).

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: