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!

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. 

Cleveland’s Karlin Hall

Table decoration from Ceska Sin Karlin, Cleveland, 2010

According to John T. Sabol and Lisa A. Alzo - the authors of Cleveland Czechs - the city’s original Karlin Hall was “founded in 1935 by three lodges of the Czech fraternal insurance society the Catholic Workmen. [It] stood near East 53rd Street and Fleet Avenue. Of the Czech halls in Cleveland, Karlin represented the Catholic community.”


Place mat with recipes from Ceska Sin Karlin, Cleveland, 2010

The hall moved to 5304 Fleet Avenue in 1972 after a fire burned the first spot down. Several decades later, the Karlin Club’s long-term secretary Joe Kocab told local reporter William F. Miller that the new venue’s construction had been “a grass roots effort” which had been supported by club members who had “paid off the mortgage” and lent their own skills to the rebuilding efforts.


Polka band plays at Ceska Sin Karlin, May 2010

The second Karlin Hall building comprised of a bar, kitchen, and a dining room with copious space for dancing – especially to the sounds of Czech polka. These photos were taken on a visit to the hall in May 2010:


Folk art motif and Czech restroom sign, Ceska Sin Karlin, May 2010

In his article dating from busier times at the club, Plain Dealer reporter William F. Miller describes activity inside the hall almost 20 years ago:

“When the polka band cranks up each Wednesday, the floor at the Ceska Sin Karlin Club quickly fills with a lively crowd of dancers… Polka night at the Karlin Club on Fleet Ave. draws a 50- to 90-year-old crowd who enjoy twirling the floor the way they did at their high school dances. That kind of energy is needed to work off a hearty… Czech-style dinner of pork or duck with dumplings, a bargain at $6, including coffee and dessert.”


Hall for rent beermat from Ceska Sin Karlin, Cleveland, 2010

While specializing in the sorts of dinner-dances described by Mr Miller, the hall also hosted St. Patrick’s Day celebrations and even, from time to time, an Elvis tribute night. Here is an extract from the hall’s (busy) program for Autumn-Winter 2005:



One of the individuals instrumental in the running of Karlin Hall over the past several decades has been Joe Kocab. He showed me around the hall during a visit to Cleveland in the spring of 2010:



In June 2010, Karlin Hall was closed and sold. A large number of Cleveland’s polka stars took part in ‘The Last Dance at Karlin Hall’ on June 12. Photos from the event can be seen here.

In their oral histories, both Ludvik Barta and Melania Rakytiak talk about the role that Karlin Hall played in their experiences of moving to Cleveland.

-posted by Rosie Johnston