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.

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

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.

Leaving Czechoslovakia Exhibit in New York City

On June 27, The National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library unveiled its oral history exhibit, Leaving Czechoslovakia, in New York City. The exhibit is at the Bohemian National Hall, 321 E 73rd Street, where it will be open to the public until July 11.

The exhibit is on display on the third floor of the Bohemian National Hall, from Monday to Friday, between 12pm and 5pm. If you are interested in watching a DVD of interview clips which accompanies the exhibit, please call (212) 988-1733 to schedule in advance.

Leaving Czechoslovakia Exhibit Opening in Oak Park

On Friday, May 11, the National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library (NCSML) unveiled its oral history exhibit Leaving Czechoslovakia at Oak Park Public Library in Illinois. The exhibit draws upon the first two years’ worth of interviews gathered through Recording Voices & Documenting Memories, and focuses on Cold War-era Czech & Slovak immigration to the United States.

The exhibit runs until May 27 in the library’s ‘Idea Box.’ It is free and open to the public.

Library Director Deirdre Brennan (left) with board members David Sokol and Mila Tellez

Slovak Honorary Consul Rosemary Macko Wisnosky

 Consul General of the Czech Republic in Chicago Dana Hunatova

At the exhibit opening, speeches were given by members of Oak Park Public Library’s board with a Czech connection, Mila Tellez and David Sokol. The Consul General of the Czech Republic in Chicago, Dana Hunatova, and the Slovak Honorary Consul Rosemary Macko Wisnosky also spoke.

Patriotic Slovak and Czech cupcakes were provided by the NCSML Guild. They proved to be something of a fashion statement:

Click here for more information about Leaving Czechoslovakia at Oak Park Public Library.

Leaving Czechoslovakia Exhibit Preview

Since January 2012, the Recording Voices & Documenting Memories team has been working to assemble a traveling exhibit which presents some of the highlights of the oral history project so far.

The exhibit, Leaving Czechoslovakia, will debut at Oak Park Public Library on May 11, 2012. It will run until May 27.

The exhibit focuses on Cold War-era Czech & Slovak immigration to the United States, and is split into three sections: the first presents some of the reasons why Czechs and Slovaks emigrated, the second deals with how Czechs and Slovaks made it to the United States and the third looks at what happened next.

The exhibit consists of display panels with photographs and quotes, and a DVD in which 20th-century Czech & Slovak émigrés to America present their stories in their own words.

Here are a couple of the clips you will see in the second section of the exhibit, in which interviewees discuss how they left Czechoslovakia:

Karel Ruml was raised in Nymburk, Bohemia. In 1951, he and a group of accomplices hijacked a train in order to cross the border into West Germany:



Jiri Pehe, meanwhile, left Czechoslovakia with his wife in 1981. The pair traveled to Yugoslavia, where they succeeded in persuading two Austrian tourists to help them across the border into Austria:



The opening reception for Leaving Czechoslovakia will be held at Oak Park Public Library on May 11 at 7pm. It is free and open to the public, though guests are asked to RSVP to Leah Wilson (lwilson@ncsml.org) by May 9. The exhibit will run until May 27 and then go on display in New York City in June.