1 10 2 https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/24397/archive/files/50f27df02b4eb1fa896343ffca5cb6f7.jpg?Expires=1773878400&Signature=po24eTt2RYR7vVqpOhfQo4fRD1mHSSrDM6KXljCuJUnTQ3Msmf9pwrld2ciUH9hTv0toqRXU1WofX64XtGi8zxQ-DI-3oHHpGIG1cJQ5UxML-f9PpwjgG56cKn3%7EgE9Ysyl-8wzFYP8%7EsOhnMjLTv75pqtnURa0GIsmPmPY9iBEi0nhpFJXiSkvq2lLMOtR4Ous3q2KWVg-ZglVPOCqbTudJ6msfEV7KbhEQpbX0MgWtN6wnyGsx-Eo5IcKmSVf68XC3T8eHJ99e8Y%7EkO9Q-wECjaJSnGcoxdoiGPeEQFKiqrxWHag%7Efzkmnw8MlIHLCJEa5lco-7AEcvnaTpE3cmg__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM c1d12208d7f7e6c37c922345a67e2bd1 https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/24397/archive/files/f381312fda13b599ad4cc8e363f12364.jpg?Expires=1773878400&Signature=ru6SZyMFCVzgUf6tJwAIMC79gTx2OYH3dTTheq7rphlM1DYGPTOSa2N%7EKsJPetSTIVvJompwJK5JpppC5PLAhHH5Hy15dEXBIBBtt5q1Fp35uUjvr-uTnnjXqJfeCRybBomhp5rTSSCZ1x0IewhZ4l-QpI0bE78E29B6Y2JsEEMixgIWgUA47g4Zy5QA7LuI%7EmcJKohiVhbqx%7EAsV8arR56%7ETV-WhVBDxpvDi5VVEbiQwwKm97PGx0PEF7nBwoTeHLGBB4Zp09F%7EC0Ye7anTmzhGMedWPkoaigyOBszDq6gnGtdbVfc6EtJsQ30%7EquV6sKPMyDmWKjrMM0xelaFVww__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM c5916299e1a90b153919e7ee9687d218 https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/24397/archive/files/45e4bd525a70bcb775e71538452695ec.jpg?Expires=1773878400&Signature=Ijh32PfW44AKDU3kfNscsOB3X6SJUBffAEMTdCgWEBnKZM91ZI0OXRe7Gg0ZBA%7EEHVZddBgmDW4%7ElNmXQmmV65gjWkvm80tIKhZYrEccrvPly-J0Tglxt%7ET4Rg3H0YnnoKXC%7E9hJWqPJGQDOTsDtyte0nZ2jYV-OxWD3z7SXwdg6kPWNO1gkZsrJDdFB-5GYn-Uw4TqPpBynE9Nvd45yY55YHJn6OdzFoaoosRBIsoErZWlLrRE-f3bmEItE6iFicYaLSCCccD2K6emWrdmtNeQUtsuXZu9s59cOJBc29erZmXYpr8F1DZAiHsZjSDYJbRZWP3Zk0ighH3K8lt2kWQ__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM 985bab0c42174ddbdf9c00ee5bf28e13 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Recording Voices & Documenting Memories of Czech & Slovak Americans Subject The topic of the resource Recording Voices &amp; Documenting Memories of Czech &amp; Slovak Americans was an oral history project launched by the National Czech &amp; Slovak Museum &amp; Library in 2009. The project captured and preserved the stories of Czechs and Slovaks who left their homeland during the Cold War and settled in New York City, Washington, D.C., Cleveland, Chicago and the San Francisco Bay Area. During the second phase of the project, the NCSML recorded the stories of immigrants who came to the United States after the fall of communism in 1989 as well. By the conclusion of the project in August 2013, the NCSML had collected more than 300 oral histories. <br /><br />Both phases of the project were made possible by grants from the Institute of Museum and Library Services. <br /><br />On the project’s website, you can read biographies of Czechs and Slovaks who began a new life in the United States, watch video clips from their interviews, and view photos and other archival materials they shared with us. <br /><br />Full length interviews are available for further research at the National Czech &amp; Slovak Museum &amp; Library. For more information, contact Dave Muhlena, Library Director, at dmuhlena@ncsml.org. Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Transcription Any written text transcribed from a sound <h4>Father</h4><iframe title="YouTube video player" height="300" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/bKda885FPwo?wmode=transparent" frameborder="0" id="undefined"></iframe><p>“My father was a journalist, but he had to be very careful about what he said. He worked at the Ministry of Information, and of course everything was very strictly audited and basically controlled by the Germans. He got into some trouble with the Gestapo one time by using a sort of pun. He was forced, because he had a good speaking voice, he was compelled to read the news once a week and, on this one particular occasion, they were talking about the collision of the German troops and the allied troops. And the term used in Czech is <em>srazka</em>, which means collision, and there is also a vulgar word very similar to that which means diarrhea. And, of course, his colleagues – when he was rehearsing – his colleagues were teasing him and said ‘What if you said this?’ When my dad sat before the microphone, he blurted that out, and of course, before he was finished, a couple of Gestapo officers were waiting for him and took him into this infamous Petschkuv Palac. My father wasn’t tortured, but he was interrogated for 24 hours. And then, oddly enough, a high ranking official intervened on his behalf and he was released.”</p><h4>Cleared</h4><iframe title="YouTube video player" height="300" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/HFlNKVM3Dm4?wmode=transparent" frameborder="0"></iframe><p class="wp-caption-text">Tony’s father Antonin in 1946</p><p>“It was a difficult job for him, you know. On one to pretend, you know, that he was not against the German occupation and on the other hand still knowing and feeling that the Nazi occupation will not last very long. And during those days of the uprising in Prague, he was also actively involved in broadcasting and running messages from various centers of resistance in Prague.”</p><h4>The War</h4><iframe title="YouTube video player" height="300" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/2Gw6EEIWZBU?wmode=transparent" frameborder="0"></iframe><p>“There was a sort of a black market, whereby city dwellers would trade various items. Like my dad traded books and, I think, a bicycle for a goose or a turkey with a farmer that he knew. And of course, you had to be very careful bringing it to Prague during the, usually on weekends, because they would have special civilian officials who would control what was being brought to Prague and quite often it would be confiscated. So yes, for us [children] it was sort of funny, but there was an element of danger, certainly, for the adults.”</p><h4>Communist Coup</h4><iframe title="YouTube video player" height="300" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/UTltUpQjLKM?wmode=transparent" frameborder="0"></iframe><p>“I got a new pair of skis, and this was a two-week stay in the mountains, near where my father was born. And I was very anxious of course to be there, to try my new skis and so forth. My father knew that the crisis was developing in Czechoslovakia so he was very reluctant to let me go, but my mother was on my side. She begged him to allow me to go. And of course, by the time I returned to Prague, a week or so later – two weeks later actually – my father was gone already. He had crossed the border to West Germany successfully. While I was still away from Prague, and my father was gone at this time, the Communist police would come and look for some incriminating documents against my father, trying to punish my mother for the anti-communist work that my dad did. And of course my mother said that she did not share my father’s views and so on and so forth. She said ‘Well, I’m willing to divorce him because he abandoned the family.’ But they didn’t believe her, of course. And we were not directly persecuted, but obviously, there was no pension, there was no money during this time for my mother to have, but we had relatives and friends who supported us financially for a few months until our escape from Czechoslovakia in September 1948.”</p><h4>Escape into Germany</h4><iframe title="YouTube video player" height="300" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/IHWxyBuqBpQ?wmode=transparent" frameborder="0"></iframe><p>“They registered everything. My mother had some valuables, some dollars and some gold rings, I think, that she had sewn into her bra of all places. But they threatened to punish us if we did not turn everything over to them. But be it to the credit of German precision, they recorded everything and it traveled with us from one refugee camp to another and, 27 months later, when we were leaving Germany, all this stuff was returned to my mother!”</p><h4>Refugee Camps</h4><iframe title="YouTube video player" height="300" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/U_s8N3S9mQ8?wmode=transparent" frameborder="0"></iframe><p>“For children, it was not the worst of times. I think a lot of adults suffered from various forms of depression, when it seemed almost hopeless, that they would never get out of these refugee camps. We had to go before an American consul in the occupied zone of Germany – the American zone – and he told us, and various other immigration authorities told us ‘Well, why don’t you go to Australia? You can meet your father there, and, after all, this is not going to last forever! The Iron Curtain is not going to last forever! In a few weeks you will be able to go back to Czechoslovakia.’ Everybody was ignorant of how long the Cold War would last, you know, in those days. Fortunately, we did not give in to that suggestion, but, we had to stay for 27 months, or two years and a quarter, in those refugee camps.</p><p>“Children, I think, adjust far better than adults, you know. Even though I had thoughts of perhaps never leaving Germany, I didn’t take it as hard as my mother. But we sort of leaned on one another and, you know, became very close.”</p><h4>American Citizen</h4><iframe title="YouTube video player" height="300" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/s1BbEXNzJ24?wmode=transparent" frameborder="0"></iframe><p>“I’m happy to be an American citizen, but my heart is still in the old country, in many, many ways. You know, I just cannot forget – I have very vivid memories, as you’ll notice, of my childhood and my recent visits to the Czech Republic have always been very pleasant. So, I like to go back, but I wouldn’t want to go there and live permanently. I just became too much of an American over the years.”</p> Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Tony Jandacek Description An account of the resource <p>Tony Jandacek was born in Prague in 1934 and grew up in the city’s Smíchov district. His father, Antonín Jandáček, was a journalist who worked for the Ministry of Information during WWII, while his mother, Marie, worked as a secretary at a glass cutting company during the War. In 1945, Tony’s father was found not guilty on charges of Nazi collaboration and continued to work for the government until the Communist coup. When the Communists took over in February 1948, Tony was away on a ski trip in northeastern Bohemia. By the time he returned from the mountains one week later, his father had fled the country; Tony did not see his father for another three years. The family received no news of Antonín Jandáček until May 1948, when they received a postcard sent from Chicago, bearing no name but clearly in his handwriting. In September 1948, the remaining Jandáčeks crossed the border illegally at Železná Ruda into Germany. They pretended they were hunting for mushrooms, says Tony, who led the expedition.</p><p> </p><p>Tony spent 27 months with his mother, sister and brother in various refugee camps in Germany (including Regensburg, Ludwigsburg and Pforzheim), before the family was allowed to travel to the United States and reunite with Tony’s father. Tony became an American citizen in 1954. He served in the United States Air Force between 1953 and 1957 and later became a Czech teacher at Morton High School, where he was formerly a student. Tony lives in La Grange Park with his Czech-American wife, Carmella, and works as a court interpreter with Czechs in Chicago.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p> Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived NCSML Archive 1948 emigrant/refugee American citizenship Child emigre Communist coup Czech language Education German Journalism Mushrooms Nazis Occupation Prison Refugee camp school Smichov Teachers Translator/interpreter World War II Zelezna Ruda https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/24397/archive/files/110eb903064c598ce020f71f9c720f17.jpg?Expires=1773878400&Signature=JLl0v29GW1Enmw-eJYCwVi5lDxzF7PNyvCBhVdHexZTiS1Sm-yje7BsmlORyhELdodXfcdtdSY%7Eo4r%7ErfqdKy0cTeQoMzET5iKqbIc3oJXVaX2JR6s4pvfuZMSLjbouJaiZrkU3kxROw1IsfD4PtQZItxcYBs3-sTvvUhNNDch5UiIgz5CtSDHFYFWGbufZwWVQNcF3be0Dx2QYLxaIv8GSk25n1IKlu5nLbCvvhA3yYQgjyhMbSQTzg4KNkWii1mS4WClQgecJSRblEeF2OT68WsH693wZy5PF2PBJWcoaMIFZO%7EFTbEnXUfr63CIWnOJ5uLcskwDzLpzmIkYfjYw__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM 49bce0000f8e8d178943e50b25d6b4b7 https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/24397/archive/files/137066ddf14b1579c08e4d37ee50f2f5.jpg?Expires=1773878400&Signature=KvgdFlanRUChRoVuaIqcZp3aZJNxtVqDW3hVcy381Iiua3eFXvUSz%7EqInAvzBV75FT-2fSyw3AXX3BlSNz1qsLZS-pSZHPjoTpplrmGjiNup9%7E1HKP7dvGapevzQfJ4BqVKDRPER4D9temnQYfMUQCeJRr1f5lets4B5UO0ceSqGASwz16u7TA1gsDy0zsg64dQ9iAedzGft%7Ez7a69RtoJYhXScoxdssP7aJqm7zgMJ10Ubv10czgb53KqDBTXuFzGPZCJYCFToZwf693RU67r4cnRfbH7CON48O0gkIG55zZjJRv1PurA82wF0IhqsLsolvlnaECViOuUA6m9FKmw__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM 9b6d51ed39310809434629ccdf7fbf84 https://d1y502jg6fpugt.cloudfront.net/24397/archive/files/10bae5c8ba462aa3320a8a11fb83cbfd.jpg?Expires=1773878400&Signature=StZDmNE03%7EMI9ZOBNXVmkZNh7GL4y4OFCI1rXrMV9PwDkPAJu4u1xWg20K9QvST5SxtfqWrEuGIzfzLWBK5ABsHTDVmyydcDlOS0boZjjZo0sOONwTn7FbKrXVSbonKbbnJ6YZJolU%7ES9rM5BytpF0md5TTNhwNgRCX4kvaywlHtjpCg4zDBh%7EiVLSwVs2Z4qCBWPtUpkXBSfXPn3YZD1YZcmDjVtO26WojooWQgc9hGEks4Q4-VIBkkZj4c5wQnlgIHI7FSX7EvaCqYHMHADmjEH6pJECCZ3pTAmQhcdeNtmPkRRxxmUD8%7EQWvJBtQ23uenlh0KNreo4HF38rOANw__&Key-Pair-Id=K6UGZS9ZTDSZM 31b1c3609f8f3c7fdbaf321ef586dbec Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Recording Voices & Documenting Memories of Czech & Slovak Americans Subject The topic of the resource Recording Voices &amp; Documenting Memories of Czech &amp; Slovak Americans was an oral history project launched by the National Czech &amp; Slovak Museum &amp; Library in 2009. The project captured and preserved the stories of Czechs and Slovaks who left their homeland during the Cold War and settled in New York City, Washington, D.C., Cleveland, Chicago and the San Francisco Bay Area. During the second phase of the project, the NCSML recorded the stories of immigrants who came to the United States after the fall of communism in 1989 as well. By the conclusion of the project in August 2013, the NCSML had collected more than 300 oral histories. <br /><br />Both phases of the project were made possible by grants from the Institute of Museum and Library Services. <br /><br />On the project’s website, you can read biographies of Czechs and Slovaks who began a new life in the United States, watch video clips from their interviews, and view photos and other archival materials they shared with us. <br /><br />Full length interviews are available for further research at the National Czech &amp; Slovak Museum &amp; Library. For more information, contact Dave Muhlena, Library Director, at dmuhlena@ncsml.org. Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Transcription Any written text transcribed from a sound <h4>Grandfather</h4><iframe title="YouTube video player" height="300" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/5L4eopcWoV0?wmode=transparent" frameborder="0" id="undefined"></iframe><p>“He was an avid mushroom picker. He had an eye that would see every mushroom everywhere in the forest, and while he was walking around picking the mushrooms, he started a new hobby. He started picking up pieces of branches of wood and carved them into shapes of animals, like snakes, birds, etc. And that became his sort of profession in his retirement. Then he built little chalets out of wood and pinecones, and then he progressed into carving different statues from folklife in Slovakia. The biggest was larger than life statues that he not carved, but actually chopped out of the big pieces of wood for the festival in Východná. They had a competition of folk artists, and he actually received the official folk artist title. He did many carvings for the museums, and so he became quite famous later in his life.”</p><h4>Baptized</h4><iframe title="YouTube video player" height="300" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/2n95YOUQKUM?wmode=transparent" frameborder="0"></iframe><p>“I remember we had to walk across – it had to be about five miles – through the forest and fields to a different church, not the same place where we lived. That’s the way many people went to church also, to different locations where maybe nobody knew them or something. Especially people like teachers, even some policemen, government employees, because they didn’t want people to know that they actually believe and go to church, so they would go to a different town or a different village to attend services.”</p><h4>School</h4><iframe title="YouTube video player" height="300" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/PBpX2lMBshA?wmode=transparent" frameborder="0"></iframe><p>“I think the teachers at my age were still the old class of teachers that became teachers before the communist regime, and they didn’t change their style of teaching, just didn’t teach us everything they would like to. Then more and more new teachers came; they were a different style of teachers. What I remember is that those teachers were sort of not teaching as much, but they were trying to catch you doing something wrong, like why didn’t you do your homework, what is this, like punishing and punishing, where the old teachers, they would try to make you understand why you were supposed to do it.”</p><h4>Sports</h4><iframe title="YouTube video player" height="300" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/4XdGWRUxB38?wmode=transparent" frameborder="0"></iframe><p>“There were sports clubs in the communist system. I think that’s probably the only thing, one of the couple of good things in the communist system was that they were supporting the youth, supporting financially all these clubs that my mother or other parents didn’t have to pay any money for us. So everything was paid for, travel and equipment, by the government. I was competing in cross-country skiing. In 1960, I was the second junior in Czechoslovakia, but I wasn’t allowed to go to any outside country to compete. They were always afraid that I would just try to escape and try to get to England where my father was.”</p><h4>Permission to Travel</h4><iframe title="YouTube video player" height="300" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/FT5T93ZlMgc?wmode=transparent" frameborder="0"></iframe><p>“In ’65 I came back to civilian life and right away I tried to go for vacation to England to visit with my father. When I went to the passport office, the man told me, he looked at the black book again and said ‘Ah, you’re not going anywhere, just don’t even bother.’ So every time I tried again, he told me ‘Get out of here, I told you, you’re not going anywhere,’ until the spring of 1968, when the same man says ‘Please come in and sit down. I’ll be with you in a minute.’ So I thought, ‘Uh oh, something changed, something is brewing.’ So then I got a visa and I was just married for a few months at that time, but I was so afraid that the system was going to change again, that they were going to take the travel permission away from me, that I didn’t even wait until my wife had papers ready. I just wanted to get out and go to England before somebody said ‘No, no that was wrong, you’re not going anywhere.’”</p><h4>American Czechoslovak Society</h4><iframe title="YouTube video player" height="300" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Mj9CN7-UbrA?wmode=transparent" frameborder="0"></iframe><p>“We did lots of support for young blood coming from Czechoslovakia willing to learn the western system of life and business and politics. They would come out here and didn’t know much, didn’t know anybody so we would help them to make contacts and open the doors for them, help them to attend some internships or schools. After awhile I thought my phone number was written somewhere in Vienna at the airport on the wall ‘When you come to Washington, call Oliver,’ because all of the sudden I had phone calls from complete strangers without any recommendation, calling, ‘Can you help me? Can you give me advice?’ or whatever. And I didn’t mind. I enjoyed it because I was sorry to miss the Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia, so this was my contribution to finally put the final nail in the coffin of communism.”</p> Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Oliver Gunovsky Description An account of the resource <p>Oliver Gunovsky was born in Trenčín, western Slovakia, in 1944. When he was four years old his father, Peter, left the country under the threat of arrest for his involvement in the black market, and his mother, Maria, felt pressure to move as well. Oliver lived with his grandparents, Gregor and Maria Malec, for a number of years in Trenčianske Teplice before joining his mother in Liptovský Hrádok where she was working in the restaurant industry. He remembers enjoying elementary school where he participated in sports, plays, and poetry readings and had a lot of friends. Because of his father’s illegal exit from the country, Oliver says his choice of secondary school was limited. He applied to three schools, including a military school, and was rejected from all of them. He was given a place in an engineering school in Bánovce nad Bebravou, but transferred to Ružomberok after one year to be closer to his mother. During secondary school, Oliver played many sports, and he especially excelled at cross-country skiing. Even though he had no contact with his father and, at this point, did not know his whereabouts, Oliver says he was not allowed to compete internationally for fear that he would try to leave as well.</p><p> </p><p>Oliver graduated from engineering school in 1962 and worked for one year in a machinery factory before joining the army. It was at this time that he first got in contact with his father and discovered he was living in England. When he left the army in 1965, Oliver attempted to obtain a visa to visit his father, but says he was repeatedly denied. In the spring of 1968, he was issued a travel visa and left for England on August 13. Upon hearing about the Warsaw Pact invasion eight days later, Oliver decided to stay in England. His wife, whom he had married only a few months earlier, was able to join him in the fall. Oliver worked for his father, who owned a butcher shop, grocery store, and restaurant. After a short time, Oliver then found a job at a hotel. He and his wife applied for immigrant visas to several countries and were granted permission to move to Canada. They settled in Kitchener, Ontario, with their young son, also called Oliver, in 1970. In Kitchener, Oliver worked his way up the restaurant business and eventually owned the Metro Tavern, which he says was known as a schnitzel house, but also served other Central European fare, and became a gathering place for Slovaks in the area.</p><p> </p><p>In 1982, Oliver and his family moved to Florida where he hoped to open another restaurant. When that plan fell through, he moved to Bethesda, Maryland, and opened a fast food schnitzel restaurant, which he sold after one year. After the Velvet Revolution, he was a founder of the American Czechoslovak Society (later the American Czech and Slovak Association), which assisted young Czechs and Slovaks who were visiting the United States to learn about western businesses, politics, and communities. In 1991, Oliver went back to Slovakia for the first time since leaving, and he continues to visit his mother there regularly. Today, Oliver lives in Washington, D.C.</p><p> </p> Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived NCSML Archive 1968 Banovce nad Bebravou Catholicism Community Life emigrant Liptovsky Hradok Military service Mushrooms refugee Religion Restaurant/hotel industry school Sports Trencianske Teplice Trencin Vychodna