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.

Recording Voices and Documenting Memories in Prague

Prague Castle, 1938 (photo: Thomas Hasler)

In September, the NCSML went to Prague to interview a number of Czech émigrés who returned home following the Velvet Revolution in 1989. The oral history team also took the chance to meet a couple of other Czechs (and indeed Americans) with interesting stories to tell. Watch our web pages for biographies and clips from the interviews over the months to come. Here, however, is a taster of what to expect:

Eva Eisler moved to New York City with her husband and children in 1983. It was there that she became particularly well known for her jewelry design. She moved back to the Czech Republic some twenty years later and now teaches at Prague’s VŠUP (Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design). When Recording Voices & Documenting Memories visited Eva, she was in the process of installing an exhibit of her students’ work entitled Treasure Hunt at the Czech capital’s Rudolfinum Gallery.


Eva Eisler installing an exhibit, Prague, September 2011


Detail from Treasure Hunt exhibit

Gene Deitch is an American animator (born in Chicago in 1924) who describes himself as “the only free American in Prague during 30 years of Communism.” He moved to the Czechoslovak capital in 1959. Gene and his team of animators at Prague’s Barrandov Studios subsequently won an Oscar for their film Munro. Gene spoke to Recording Voices & Documenting Memories about his decision to move and his time in Central Europe at his studio in Prague’s Malá Strana.


Altered passport photo of Gene Deitch

Meda Mládková went to Geneva, Switzerland as a student in 1946 and decided not to return to Czechoslovakia following the Communist coup in 1948. After more than half a decade in Switzerland, she moved to France where she studied art history and married her husband, Jan Mládek. At the beginning of the 1960s, the pair came to Washington, D.C. on account of Jan’s job at the International Monetary Fund. In 2001, Meda (now widowed) opened a gallery on the Prague island of Kampa where the couple’s collection of Communist-era Central European art could be displayed. Meda now spends her time between Prague and Washington, D.C.


Meda Mládková at Kampa Museum, September 2011


Book published by Meda Mládková (née Sokolová) in exile in Geneva, early 1950s

For full biographies and interview highlights, visit the NCSML's oral history web pages over the months to come.