If you lived as I did, several years under Nazi totalitarianism, and ...

VOL. XIII No. III & IV Museum • Library • Archives Fall/Winter 2008/2009 

Czech Cultural Center Houston, Texas (KULTURNI CENTRUM CESKE) 

If you lived as I did, several years under Nazi totalitarianism, 

and then twenty years in communist totalitarianism, 

you would certainly realize how precious freedom is, 

and how easy it is to lose your freedom. Milos Foreman, Director 

Great Times call for Great Men! From the book The Good Soldier Svejk 

Jaroslav Hasek 1883-1923 

Saint Wenceslas 907-935 

Saint Wenceslas (in Czech: Václav (c. 907 – September 28, 935) was 

duke (kníže) of Bohemia from 921 until his death. Wenceslas is best 

known in the English-speaking world as the subject of the Christmas 

carol “Good King Wenceslas.” 

He was the son of Vratislav I, Duke of Bohemia from the Přemysl 

dynasty. His father was raised in a Christian milieu, through his father, 

Bořivoj, who was converted by Saint Cyril and Saint Methodius, the 

“apostles to the Slavs.” His mother Drahomíra was the daughter of 

a pagan tribal chief of Havolans and was baptized at the time of her 

marriage. He is venerated as Saint Wenceslas and is the main patron 

saint of the Czech state. 

In 921, when Wenceslas was thirteen, his father died and he was 

brought up by his grandmother, Saint Ludmila, who raised him as a 

Christian. A dispute between the fervently Christian regent and her 

daughter-in-law drove Ludmila to seek sanctuary at Tetín Castle near 

Beroun. Drahomíra, who was trying to garner support from the nobility, 

was furious about losing influence on her son and arranged to have 

Ludmila strangled at Tetín on September 15, 921. 

According to some legends, having regained control of her son, 

Drahomíra set out to convert him to the old pagan religion. According 

to other legends she was herself a Christian. Very little is known about 

her rule. In 924 or 925 Wenceslas assumed government for himself 

and had Drahomíra exiled. After gaining the throne at the age of 

eighteen, he defeated a rebellious duke of Kouřim named Radslav. He 

also founded a rotunda consecrated to Saint Vitus at Prague Castle in 

Prague, which exists as present-day St. Vitus Cathedral. 

Early in 929, the joint forces of Arnulf of Bavaria and Henry I the 

Fowler reached Prague in a sudden attack which forced Wenceslas to 

pledge allegiance to the latter. This resulted in resuming the payment 

of a traditional tribute which was first imposed in 806. One of the 

possible reasons for the attack was the formation of the anti-Saxon 

alliance between Bohemia, Polabian Slavs and Magyars. 

In September of 935 (in older sources 929) a group of nobles allied 

with Wenceslas’ younger brother, Boleslav I of Bohemia, in a plot to 

kill the prince. After inviting his brother to the feast of Saints Cosmas 

and Damian in Stará Boleslav, three of Boleslavs’ companions--Tira, 

Čsta and Hněvsa--murdered him on his way to church. Boleslavs thus 

succeeded him as the Duke/Prince (kníže) of Bohemia. 

According to Cosmas’ Chronicle, one of Boleslav’s sons was born on 

the day of Wenceslas’ death, and because of the ominous circumstance 

of his birth the infant was 

named Strachkvas, which 

means “a dreadful feast.” 

There are discrepancies 

in the records regarding 

the date of St. Wenceslas’ 

death. It has been argued that 

Wenceslas’ remains were 

transferred to Saint Vitus 

Church in 932, ruling out 

the later date; however, the 

year 935 is now favored by 

historians as the date of his 

murder. 

There is a tradition which 

states that Saint Wenceslas’ 

loyal servant, Podevin, 

avenged his death by killing 

one of the chief conspirators. 

Podevin was executed 

by Boleslav. The main 

thoroughfare, the centre of 

both business and social life, in short the “heart of Prague” that is 

Wenceslas Square is 750m long and 60m wide. It was established by 

Charles IV in 1348 as a link between the New and Old Town fortifications. 

However, the area soon primarily became a large New Town 

marketplace, and because regular horse auctions were held, it earned 

the name Horse Market. As early as 1362 annual markets were held 

there, with fabrics, weapons, and until 1877 grain being sold. The 

lower end was taken up by New Town huts, and after they were pulled 

down in 1786 a wooden theatre, called the Shack (Bouda), grew in 

their place. Czech plays were staged here for three years, not a long 

period, but it was important to the process of national revival. The 

Shack was pulled down at the same time as the two gates, the Old 

Town Havel Gate and the New Town Horse Gate. The stone statue 

of St. Wenceslas by Bendl is no longer here either, for in 1879 it was 

moved to Vyšehrad. The square was paved as late as the end of the 

18th century, but from the beginning Horse Market had a completely 

rural character. A typical wayside cross stood in the middle of the square. 

(continued on page 2) 

Celebrating the Culture, Language, Scholarship and the Arts of Bohemia, Moravia, Slovakia and Silesia. 

1 

Statue of King Wenceslas in Prague, 

Wenceslas Square.

The News of The Czech Center 

Czech Center Museum Houston 

In the Museum District 

4920 San Jacinto Street 

Houston, Texas 77004 

Telephone: 713-528-2060 

Fax: 713-528-2017 

Email: czech@czechcenter.org 

Chairman@czechcenter.org 

Webpage: http://www.czechcenter.org 

www.houstonreceptions.org. 

Vol. XIII, No. III & IV– Fall/Winter 2008/2009 

From the Chairman, Member Updates, 

Spotlight on Slovakia, Letters, 

Remembrances 

Quote on the Cover 

Milos Foreman 

Effie M. Rosene, Editor/Contributor 

Publication Committee: 

W. G. Bill Rosene, Sherry Pierce, Cathy 

Anderson, Christie Johnson 

Website: 

Niche Marketing 

The News of the Czech Center is published by the 

Czech Center Museum Houston to inform members, 

donors and interested parties of the Center’s activities. 

Editing, Design and Production is accomplished 

in-house by the Center’s Development Board. 

Send articles and activities well in advance to the 

above address, attention Editor. 

The opinions expressed in The News of the Czech 

Center are those of the authors and do not necessarily 

reflect the policies of the Czech Center Museum 

Houston. 

This organization is funded in part by a grant from 

the City of Houston through Houston Arts Alliance. 

Our MissiOn 

The Purpose of the Czech Center Museum Houston is to 

unify the Czech/Slovak American Community around issues 

of importance and provide a central focus for all things Czech 

related, serving as a clearing house for informa tion useful for 

members, visitors, individuals, organizations, and the media. 

The CCCH will: 

Promote the Czech Culture and Heritage by preserving, 

recording and celebrating the language, scholarship, and the 

arts of Bohemia, Moravia, Slovakia and Silesia; 

Sponsor activities and events to accent special persons, 

places and provide a forum for lectures, concerts, exhibits and 

interaction with citizens visiting from the Czech and Slovak 

republics; Provide Czech language instruction, a museum, 

archives, genealogy research facilities, and a library for history 

and contemporary research of the Czech peoples; 

Perform works of charity and mutual aid which include 

granting scholarships to promote the continuation of our 

cultural heritage. 

From the Chairman 

Effie M. rosene 

“Building the future...remembering the past...leaving a legacy.” 

“May the work I’ve done speak for me!” 

We returned from an icy, snowy, cold Czech Republic (Amsterdam and Vienna) on 

December 4th in time for our fourteenth annual well planned Saint Nicholas Eve 

Celebration with family and friends, near 200 guests (see page 8). We were grateful 

children were in abundance this year. Dr. Karolina Adam and husband John 

Dickerson brought two tables plus themselves. Various Slavic heritages performed 

their traditional carols i.e. Polish, Croatian, Ukraine, our Czech queen Christiana 

Gentry delivering the Czech Carols and singing of African American choral director 

Tom Jones. The ambiance, especially with wonderful international Slavic food, was obviously greatly 

enjoyed and memorable. 

Another memorable occasion was the Houston Säengerbund Singers’ Holiday Party in Prague Hall. 

This group is Houston/German based since 1883. The event coordinator even chose to offer Czech 

Slovak made authentic gingerbread cookies used for celebrations of every kind including wedding, 

holiday, etc, as their party favors. 

Andrea White (Houston Mayor Bill White’s wife) annually holds a Holiday “We’re all Neighbors” 

Luncheon, which this year was held here. We were honored and privileged to host an international group 

representing most of our city’s over 100 different cultures with consuls, consul generals, and/or their 

spouses and numerous other movers and shakers in the community. We smile when we tell you this and 

we don’t know how Washington would feel about it, but we are so often thought to be an embassy! 

Another latest corporate holiday party engaged the Harbor Light Choir from the local Salvation 

Army to greet their guests as they entered the Czech Center Museum Houston Brno Gallery for the hour 

before festivities including a casino were held upstairs in Prague Hall. The group of twelve gentlemen 

in tuxedoes synchronized dancing, clapping and singing of magnificent Negro spirituals especially as 

Christmas carols, brought an enormous amount of joyous cheer to this house. I was honored to be asked 

to make my debut with them that evening. Can you believe it!? 

A bit about our recent trip: Since it was total black darkness everyday at 4:00 p.m. (by 8:00 p.m. one 

would think it was midnight) the constant really cold weather (not like here in Houston) and the daily 

snow, rain or ice, we ventured out only on near day trips. Every town already had its Jarmark, Christmas 

market and seasonal decorations. (Remember our dollar still is not conducive to buying or affording 

much.) We had wonderful days, however, daily lunching with friends and trying all those delicate young 

wines and the archival ones from the cellar. We visited with Maria Slamova, a tour agent from Brno, 

who last year traveled with a group of our members and their families. We had a Texas chili night with 

member friend Jan Kuba of Podivin (via Cedar Rapids, Iowa and San Antonio). Driving to Prague 

for an overnight, we saw oceans of snow both sides of the freeway. We lunched at Café Savoy with 

Zdenka, for 60 years head of Barrandov’s Czech Cartoon Industry and her beloved husband, illustrator 

and author of For the Love of Prague, Gene Deitch. Edition five, the final one he says, will be in our 

Prague International Gift Shop in a few weeks. He is the American who has lived and worked in Prague 

as an American citizen throughout communism and beyond. (continued on page 10) 

Saint Wenceslas (continued from previous page) 

In 1848 the name was changed to Wenceslas Square (Václavské náměstí) at the suggestion of Karel 

Havlíček Borovský. Sometime in 1875 it turned green with rows of linden trees planted, but in 1184 

these had to make way for horse-drawn carriages, taking passengers from Můstek to Nusle. In 1894 

the first electric lamps were switched on, and the horse-drawn carriages were replaced by an electric 

tramcar. Today the tram line only crosses Wenceslas Square (through Vodičkova and Jindřišská Streets), 

a pedestrian precinct that leads through a part of the middle section of the square. At both ends of 

Wenceslas Square there are underground stations (Muzeum at the upper end and Můstek at the lower). 

The whole area was disrupted with utterly insensitive construction of the so-called North-South motorway 

in 1967. The absurd project is unparalleled in developed countries. 

The most prominent feature of the upper end of the square, the National Museum, built 1885-1890, 

was separated by a main thoroughfare, becoming a deserted island between two busy roads. Below the 

museum, across the motorway, we can see the remarkable statue of St. Wenceslas by Josef Wenceslas 

Myslbek, dating from 1913. The square is lined with hotels, restaurants, c1ubs and shops. Besides 

the palaces, there are several other important architectural “gems.” These include the Hotel Europe 

(šroubek), an Art Nouveau structure from 1903 to 1905, which features a facade with gilt nymphs 

at the top and its original preserved interior, including bars and huge mirrors. The Neo-Renaissance 

Wiehl House (Wiehlův dům) , dating from 1895-1896, has a facade decorated according to sketches by 

Mikoláš Aleš and Josef Fanta. 

T h e N e w s o f T h e C z e c h C e n t e r 

2

Bohemian National Hall 

The five-story building was designed by 

William C. Frohne in the Renaissance 

Revival style. It is a rare survivor of the 

social halls built in the nineteenth century 

for New York City’s immigrant ethnic communities. 

Bohemian National Hall has been an 

important center for Czech and Slovak 

culture in New York City for more than 

one hundred years. From the beginning, it 

served as a focal point for its community, 

offering ethnic food, instruction in Czech 

language and history, and space for its large 

community meetings. 

In 2001 ownership of the Bohemian 

National Hall was transferred to the Czech 

Republic according to the contract between 

the Bohemian Benevolent & Literary 

Association (BBLA) and the Czech 

Republic. To emphasize the link with the 

Czech Republic, the building will contain 

offices of the Consulate General and the 

Czech Center. The BBLA will use the 

entire third floor. The Czech Center exhibition 

space and a Czech restaurant will be 

located in other areas of the building. 

It replaced an earlier National Hall on 

Manhattan’s East 5th Street, which had 

served the Czech and Slovak population 

living in the Tompkins Square area of the 

Lower East Side. As members of the Czech 

and Slovak population moved to Yorkville 

in the late nineteenth century in search of 

better housing and employment, the Hall 

followed. 

It immediately became home to most 

of the city’s Czech and Slovak social 

clubs and organizations. The five-story 

building designed in the Renaissance 

Revival style is richly ornamented faced 

in buff Roman brick, stone, and terra 

cotta. Among its prominent features are 

a projecting entrance porch with paired 

granite columns and a two-story arcade 

with Ionic columns resting on lion’s-head 

bases. During World War I the Hall served 

as the New York center for the liberation 

activities that ultimately helped create 

the nation of Czechoslovakia, carved out 

of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire. 

Today, Bohemian National Hall survives as 

a significant reminder of a major workingclass 

ethnic enclave which once flourished 

in Yorkville and as a very visible representative 

of an important aspect of immigrant history 

in New York City and the United States. 

Large-scale Czech and Slovak immigration 

to the United States began in the 

nineteenth century, when the present-day 

Czech and Slovak republics were part of 

the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Czech immi- 

gration, like much other Central European 

immigration, was sparked by 

the revolutionary movements 

of 1848; Slovak immigration 

began in the early 1870s, picking 

up in numbers after 1890. 

The first wave of Czechs 

generally settled in the 

Midwestern states where 

inexpensive farmland was 

available, and the largest 

Czech communities developed 

in Midwestern cities. 

Many Czech immigrants 

settled in New York City, 

however, and by the late 

1870s had formed a commu- 

nity on the Lower East Side 

Bohemian National Hall, circa 1901 

in the area around Tompkins 

photo courtesy of the Museum of the 

Square, already known as a City of New York. The Wurts Collection 

German enclave. The Czechs 

over cooperation on renovation 

of the Bohemian National 

Hall. The solution was to 

transfer ownership of the 

located between East Houston and East building to the Czech Republic for $1 and 

8th Streets around the Square, and espe- have the Czech Republic assume responsicially 

from East 3rd to East 5th Streets bility for renovation of the entire building 

along Avenue A; Avenue B became known and provide rent-free use of one floor to 

as “Czech Boulevard.” The great major- the associations of the umbrella organiity 

of the Czech and Slovak immigrants zation of BBLA. To emphasize the link 

were working class, who arrived with cer- with the Czech Republic, the building will 

tain industries, such as the fabrication contain offices of the Consulate General 

of pearl buttons and cigar manufacture. and the Czech Center. The BBLA will use 

During the 1880s and early 1890s the entire third floor, which includes the 

(following the construction of the Third Dvorak Room and performance space. The 

Avenue El), the Czech community migrated Czech Center exhibition space and a Czech 

from the Lower East Side to the Upper East restaurant will be located in other areas of 

Side, settling in the Yorkville area between the building. The renovation, completed in 

Second Avenue and the East River, roughly 2008 of the Bohemian National Hall has 

from East 65th to East 78th Streets. They become a truly common space for organiz- 

were joined there by the Slovak immigrants. ing events and meetings of Czechs living in 

(By 1900, the Czechoslovak population in America and their countrymen back home. 

New York City rose to 27,000.) Yorkville The initial restoration of the building 

at that time had a diverse immigrant popu- façade was carried out in the 1990s under 

lation, including Germans, Italians, Irish, the direction of Czech-American preserva- 

Hungarians, Greeks, Jews from Central tion architect Jan Hird Pokorny, who was 

Europe, and African Americans. 

also instrumental in the building’s designa- 

The Bohemian National Hall continued tion as a New York City landmark in 1994. 

as a Czech and Slovak institution for many A state-of-the-art performance space has 

decades, while the Bohemian Benevolent been completed on the third floor of the 

& Literary Association continued to main- building and is now being used for cultural 

tain the building. As the Czech and Slovak and musical events. The restoration of the 

populations moved out to the suburbs, how- elegant 1890s ballroom on the fourth floor 

ever, fewer and fewer functions were held will be made available to the constituent 

at the Hall. Space in the building had been Czech-American organizations for events. 

rented out to other organizations, including Ed: On the occasion and celebration of the 

many unions, from early on; progressively Grand Opening of the Bohemian National 

more space seems to have been devoted to Hall, November 1, 2008, knowing that 

such use over the years. From the 1940s to it has been a long road to refurbish and 

the 1980s the theater annex was rented out restore this beloved Czech monument in 

to a private operation. In 1986 the Hall was New York City, the government of the Czech 

declared unfit for occupancy. In this threat- Republic is to be complimented for their 

ened state, efforts to save the building were part in utilizing this facility and bringing 

stepped up, culminating with its designa- new life to it. 


3 

tion as a New York City landmark by the 

New York City Landmarks 

Preservation Commission in 

July 1994. 

On December 7, 2001 

ownership of the Bohemian 

National Hall was transferred 

to the Czech Republic according 

to the contract between 

the Bohemian Benevolent & 

Literary Association (BBLA) 

and the Czech Republic, 

signed on January 31, 2001. 

The origins of the contract 

date back to 1997, when 

the BBLA and the Czech 

Republic began negotiations

New Memberships 

Benefactor 

Carolyn Filipp-Beseda 

Minnie Petrusek 

Founder 

Lovie & Earl Beard, MD 

Catherine Cabaniss & 

Ambassador Bill Cabaniss 

Edwin Hlavaty 

Annette & Paul Sofka 

Patron 

Gladys & Willie 

Gavranovic 

Sandra Rutherford 

Friend 

Annette Cheek Bishop 

& Alfred Bishop 

Helen Macha Black 

Leland & Paula Chvatal 

Richard & Traci Dvorak 

Edith Lambeth 

Lucy & Joe Lamer & Family 

Emma Montgomery 

& Patricia Montgomery 

Dwight & Judy Schulz 

Sharon Kempf 

& Christophe Venghiattis 

Family 

Barbara Kaspar Berry 

David Berry & Family 

Gift of Lexia Kaspar 

Ribeiro 

Cheryl Blankenburg 

& Family 

Bobby & Vanita Dlouhy 

Jeffrey & Gina Hays 

& Family 

Darryl Herzik & Family 

Susan & Ronald Hricko 

& Family 

George & Shirin Jalufka 

Cheryl Ann Johnson & 

Chris W. Johnson 

Bobbye & Daniel Lefner 

Darina Poliak Family 

Barbara & Isadore Shenkir 

Gift of Edith Shenkir 

Clayton & Kay Clayton 

Ben Tuma & Family 

Individual 

Larry Bubela, MD 

Elizabeth Collins 

Jo Nell Holmes 

Lexia Kaspar Ribeiro 

Felicidad Sanjvan 

Member Renewals 

Ann Agness 

Mary Ann Akers 

Donna Alberti 

Ron & Marjorie Andreo 

Helen Baine 

Joy Koym Balderach 

Lorence & Zora Bravenec 

Dr. & Mrs. J.A. Burdine 

Esther Fojt Cunningham 

& Robert Cunningham 

Elizabeth Cupitt 

Dr. Joseph Dervay, 

Mary Dervay & Family 

Lillian Dulaney 

Michael Dulaney 

Jan & Mary Ann Dura 

Hutch & Mary Jo Dvorak 

Mark & Susan Dvorak 

Jerry Elzner 

Cynthia Gdula 

& Charles Westervelt 

Cindy & Greg Gentry 

& Family 

Jaroslav & Linda Havel 

Member Update (May 19, 2008 to December 31, 2008) 

Adelma Chernosky Graham 

Milton E. Havlick, Jr. 

& Sibley Kopmeier- Havlick 

Edwin Hlavaty 

Stephen Hlavinka 

Beryl Hogshead 

Dwight Holub & 

Janet Hundle Holub 

Nancy & Henry Holubec 

Margie Horn 

Patricia Horner 

Duane & Jean Humlicek 

& Family 

Charlene Machacek Hurta 

& Leroy Hurta 

Rhonda & Larry Janak 

Eddie Janek, Sr. 

Robert & Nancy Jircik 

Burdine Johnson 

Emil & Evelyn Kovalcik 

Garry Kramchak 

Georgia & Joe Krauskopf Jr. 

Al & Alene Kercho 

Viola Klinkovsky 

Alvin Kollaja 

Jerry & Palma Koudelka 

Ernest Koval 

Kay & Wilfred Krenek 

Gene Lichnovsky 

Clinton Machann, Ph. D. 

Dorothy Maczali 

Clarice Marek 

Gene & Pati Marik 

Dennis & Flora Masar 

Teresa Matlock 

Roger Mechura 

John & Mary Michalsky 

Sally Miller, Ph.D. 

& David Miller, M.D. 

Joe J. Novosad 

& Helen Remmert Novosad 

Mildred O’Brien 

Sue & Paul Ofield 

Tim Opatrny 

Jean Palmer 

Sanford Paterson 

Sister Roseanne Plagens 

Jo Ann Pospisil 

Leta Middleton 

Helen Stacha Reifein 

Treena & Tom Rowan 

Blake Gohlman Rutherford 

William Eugene Samohyl 

Margaret & Albert Smaistrla 

Donald & Mary Ann 

Stankovsky 

Emil Stavinoha 

Alfred Stryk 

Lana Sullenger & 

Laura Lancaster 

Lynn Swaffar 

Margaret Jez Toman 

Marie Vavrik 

Sue Ann Pokluda Wallace 

& Jere T. Wallace 

Susan & Pat Wheeler 

Fran Wilcox 

David Yeomans, Ph.D. 

Sheila Yeomans, Ph.D. 

M/M Gene L. Zellmer 

Georges Zemanek 

Memorial/Honor Wall 


Caroline & Marion Freeman 

Cathy & Joseph Jankovic, MD 

Janet Jurik 

Woody Lesikar 

Charles and Ann Orsak 

Pat Parma 

Darina Poliak Family 

Honor Donations 

Joy Balderach 

Mrs. Lily Mae Barras 

moving into her new home 

Cindy Freeman 

Marion M. Freeman 

Robert Freeman 

Marion M. Freeman’s 

Birthday 

Hunter Werlla 

& Rebecca K. Werlla 

Evelyn & Emil Kovalcik 

Memorial Donations 

Mildred Elzner 

Jerry Elzner 

Frank Horak 

Lillian Dulaney 

Vlasta Zemanek Chernosky 

E.J. & J. Amason 

Mary Kathryn Baker 

Burnette & T.P. Boyette 

Donald & Marilyn Currie 

& Family 

Pat V. Guittard 

H.S. & Marilyn Groots 

Wilma K. Heckelsberg 

Dorothy Jane Higgins 

Katherine Holsclaw 

Ina Huntsman 

Gusta Lee Lenert & Family 

Wanda Meyer 

Alice & Paul Pennington 

Mrs. Justine Rivoire 

& Mrs. Nita Bagley 

Paula & James Suchma & 

Family 

Joe Zemanek Family 

In memory of my parents 

Kenneth A. Meek 

and Ethel Kuzell Meek 

Gary Meek 

Loretta Steffek Whittington 

Genevieve & Peter 

Angelides 

Kitty Cottingham 

Iris Duesterhoft 

Mary K. Powell 

& Mike Powell 

Jay & Joanne Purcell 

Gail Sand 

Evelyn Skellie & Family 

Joseph Warren Steelman 

George Williams & Family 

Czech Center Houston 

Supporters 

Platinum Benefactor 

Houston Endowment, Inc. 

Julie Halek Kloess 

Dan Urbanek, Jr. 

Posthumous donation 

Diamond Benefactor 

Janell & Wes Pustejovsky 

Presidents Room Windows 

Frank & Mary Pokluda 

Gift Shop Windows 

Special Benefactor 

Father Paul Chovanec 

Edwin Hlavaty 

Ann & Bert Link 

Mary Grace Pavlik 


C. Richard Stasney, MD 

Donation 

Lars Anderson, Marion Bell, 

Lorence & Zora Bravenec, Rose 

& John Deathe, Edwin Hlavaty, 

Joseph A. Kocab, Jarmila Kos, 

Marta Latsch, Bobbye & Daniel 

Lefner, Sharon Middlebrook 

& Edward Middlebrook, Merv 

Rosenbaum, Barbara & Calvin 

Simper, Dwight W. Schulz, Annette 

Reznek Scranton, Sue Ann Pokluda 

Wallace & Jere T. Wallace, David 

Yeomans, PhD. & Sheila Yeomans, 

PhD 

Brian Emr 

Gala 2008 Contributors 

Grand Patrons 



Special Patrons 

Catherine Cabiness & 

Ambassador Bill Cabiness 

E.J. Chromcak 

Rev. Paul Chovanec 

Mach Industrial Group 

Mach Family Foundation 

Zahava Haenosh 

Barbara & Henry Hermis 

Edward & Sandra Pickett 

Ted & Elizabeth Emr 

Table Contributors 

Father Paul Chovanec 

Beatrice Mladenka-Fowler 

& Jesse Fowler 

Lorraine Rod Green 

Barbara & Henry Hermis 

Chris Hlavinka 

Cliff & Barbara Malek 

Marek Family Foundation 

Wesley & Janell 

Pustejovsky 

Effie & Bill Rosene 

Betty Joyce Sikora 

Clarice & Ray Snokhous 

Nina & Ray Vitek 

Unable to Attend 

Contributors 

Ervin Adam, MD 

& Vlasta Adam, MD 

Joy Balderach 

Jaroslav & Blazena Belik 

State Representative 

Dwayne Bohac 

Lorence & Zora Bravenec 

Cynthia Gdula & 

Charles Westervelt 

Adelma Graham 

Phil Kasik 

Ann & Bert Link 

Gene Lichnovsky 

Edwin & Johnelle Moudry 

Sister Rosanne Plagens 

William Samohyl 

Claire & Frank Svrcek 

Dan Urbanek 

John Vacek 

Carol & Brian Williams 

Gala Committee 

Ray & Nina Vitek, Gala Chairs; 

Cathy, Matthew, Christopher, Larry 

Anderson; Joan Connor; Robert 

Dvorak; James Ermis; Henry & 

Barbara Hermis; Christie, Rory & 

E.J. Johnson;, Sally Miller: Paul & 

Judy Pasemann; Sherry, Lindsey 

& Sarah Pierce; Jerrydene & Rudy 

Kovar; Ashley Vitek Ben David; 

Brettne Vitek; Pat Frewin; Treena 

Rowan; Carol Triska Vacca; Effie 

& Bill Rosene 

Live and Silent Auction Contributors 

Czech Center Houston, Joyce and 

Jim Braus, Carrabba’s Ristorante, 

Dorothy Chernosky, Lynn Chernosky 

Swaffar, Marion Freeman, Robin 

Jackson Photography Betti Friedel 

Saunders, Sally Eisen Miller, Lillis 

Werder, Rep. Dwayne Bohac, 

Valerie Kerschen, Amy Floyd, 

Ralph Ragar, Bowl Café, Spanish 


4 

Flower Restaurant, Star Pizza, 

Frank Smith, Victoria Castleberry, 

Tamara Harcourt, Barbara & Henry 

Hermis, Chris Hlavinka, Barbara & 

Cliff Malek, Paul & Judy Pasemann, 

Mary & Frank Pokluda, Museum 

of Fine Arts Houston, Museum of 

Natural Science Houston, Treena 

Rowan, Paul & Annette Sofka, Nina 

& Ray Vitek, Carol Williams, Alex 

di Genin, Chappell Jordan Clocks, 

Cathy Anderson, Marta Latsch, 

Hana Hillerova Harper, Donna 

Alberti, Meridien Chiropractic, 

Gary Kubiak Houston Texans, Star 

Pizza, Woody Lesikar, Rev. Paul 

Chovanec, Erwin Belota of Triangle 

Electric, Nina Vitek, Prasek’s Hillje 

Smokhouse 

Drawing Contributors 

Victoria Castleberry, Elizabeth 

Cupitt, Bob & Cecilia Forrest, 

Beatrice Mladenka-Fowler, Daphne 

Granger, Lorraine Rod Green, 

Zahava Haenosh, 

Henrietta Marek Haessley, Edwin 

Hlavaty, John Kahanek III, Phil 

Kasik, Marta Latsch, Barbara 

Malek, Cliff Malek 

Barbara Mikulik, Gladys Oakley, 

Emil Ogden, Frank & Mary 

Pokluda, Chuck Rod, Betty Joyce 

Sikora, Clarice & Ray Snokhous, 

Mary Ann Stankovsky, Tomas 

& Vicki Suchy, Claire & Frank 

Svrcek, Emily Thoede, Carol Vacca, 

Johnny & Linda Veselka, Marie 

Zinnante, Kathy Kokas, Evelyn 

Shupak, Marietta Hetmaniek, 

Agnes Shimanek, Alton Veselka, 

Madelyn Dusek, William Cabaniss, 

Al Korenek, Ben Evans, Tom 

King, Jackie Hays, Bob Connor, 

Ray Vitek, Richard Stasney, MD, 

Charlie Waligura, Debbie & 

William Shortner 

Hurricane Ike – Building Repair 

Contributions 

Donna Alberti 



2008 Christmas Remembrance Gift/ 

Unable To Attend St. Nicholas Eve 

Marion Bell 

Blazena & Jaroslav Belik 

Helen Black 

Jane Cyva 

Joan & Thomas Dine 

Kenneth Dusek 

Clarence Ehlers 

Cynthia Gdula 

& Charles Westervelt 

Joe & Lucy Lamer 

Marta Latsch 

Jo Ann V. Lucas, 

In memory of 

Rose Pechack Bubenik 

Cora Sue & Harry Mach 

In honor of 


Marek Family Foundation 

Father Stephen Nesrsta 

Gerald Opatrny 

Sandra & Edward Pickett 


William Samohyl 

Lorraine Rod-Green 

Clarice & Raymond 

Snokhous 

Glenn & Yvonne Sternes 

In Memoriam 

Since last publication! 

Evelyn Valka Anderson

Joined 2004 

October 8, 2008+ 

Wayne Dear, MD 

Joined 2004 

August 9, 2008+ 

Audrey Klump 

Joined April 24, 2000 

Lillie Schneider 

Joined 1997 

Frank P. Horak 

May 24, 2008+ 

Vlasta Zemanek Chernosky 

June 14, 2008+ 

Kenneth Allen Meek 

Joined January 1998 

June 27, 2008+ 


Velke Kolo 

Leslie Kahanek, Founder 

Velke Kolo, Joined 1995 

Lawrence Gaventa 

Benefactor 

CLUB 200 Members 

Please join with 82 individuals 

or families that have contributed 

$5,000 or more, or have pledged 

that amount, to become a member 

of this prestigious group. These 

members will be recognized on the 

donor wall in the entry foyer of the 

Czech Center. 118 more needed to 

be a Club 200 member! 

CLUB 200 Members 

Norma Ashmore 

Martha & Earl Austin 

Stephen & Mary Birch 

Foundation 

Mildred Dziadek Borden & 

Joseph Borden 

Burnette Jurica Boyett & 

Thomas Boyett 

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Briggs & Veselka Co. 

Victoria Castleberry 

CHS of Texas 

Reverend Paul Chovanec 

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Henry Hermis, AIA 

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Edwin Hlavaty 

Anna Hornak 

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Jimmy Howell, MD 

Houston Endowment, Inc. 

Roy M. Huffington 

Rev. Joseph M. Hybner 

Delores & Arthur M Jansa, MD 

Edwin Jurecka 

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Marcella Klima, MD 


Louis J. Kocurek, Jr. 

Lillian & Robert Kokas 

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Marta R. Latsch 

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Marek Family Companies 

Jacqueline & Bennie Marek 

Martha & Ralph Marek 

MBC Foundation 

John P. McGovern, MD 


& Jesse Fowler 

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Lindsey, Sarah, & 

Sherry Rosene Pierce 

Mary & Frank Pokluda,Jr. 

Frank Pokluda, III 

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Charles Saunders 

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Don Sheffield 

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Raymond J. Snokhous 

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H.M. Sorrels, DDS 

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SPJST Corporate 

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John Stavinoha, Jr., MD 

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In Memoriam 

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Leslie Kahanek 

Thelma Burnett Maresh 

Tim & Rosa Lee Kostom 

Tony Pavlik 

Randall Leland Rod 

Memorial Gift Lorraine Rod 

William E. Souchek 

Naomi Kostom Spencer 


Czech Center Honor Roll 

of Lifetime Members 

Alice Adam 

Ervin Adam, MD 

Vlasta Adam, MD 

Karolina Adam, MD 

John G. Dickerson 

Larry & Cathy Rosene Anderson 

Norma Paine Ashmore 

Anna Ashmore 

Keith Ashmore, Jr. 

EarlAustin, Martha Austin 

Joy Koym Balderach 

Lovie & Earl Beard, MD 

Marion Bell 

Alma Mazoch Berger 

Elizabeth Bily 

Melinda & John Bily 

Helen Dornak Blankenburg 

Lynn Blankenburg 

Frances & William Bollom 

Joseph Borden & 

Mildred Dziadek Borden 

Thomas Boyett & 

Burnette Jurica Boyettt 

Jerry & Anna Berger Brannen 

Jim & Joyce Drapela Braus 

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Bradley & Cindy Saunders Buggs 


Ambassador William Cabaniss 

Member Update (continued) 

Victoria Lysek Castleberry 

Captain Eugene A. Cernan 

Jan Cernan 


Jean Chernosky& 

Marvin E. Chernosky, MD 

Norma E. Chernosky 


Mary & Richard Conroy 

Edna Petters Cox, Bill Cox 

Robert Cunningham & 

Esther Fojt Cunningham 

Elizabeth Eisen Cupitt 

Czech-American Priests Assoc. 

Jeanette & Daniel J.Darilek, Jr. 

John & Rose Hrncir Deathe 

Vicki Dressler 

Gabriela & Daniel Dror 

Dror Foundation for the Arts 

Lillian Horak Dulany 

Allen & Madelyn Rod Dusek 


Jeff & Shelley Saunders Eatherly 

Keith & Janet Pertl Edwards 

Elizabeth O. Eicher 

Ted C.Emr, Elizabeth Meyer Emr 

Danna & James E. Ermis 

Carolyn F. Filipp Beseda 

Francine Mikulik Fleming 

Velma Chernosky Fordtran+ 

Robert Forrest & 

Cecilia Pingenot Forrest 

J.H. & Marion Merseburger 

Caroline Freeman 

Peter Fucik 

Lawrence Gaventa+ & 

Silvie Kelarek Gaventa 

Cynthia Gdula & 

L. Charles Westervelt 

Cindy & Greg Gentry 

Len Green & 

Lorraine Strnadel Rod Green 


Oleta Hanus+ Louis Hanus+ 

Virginia Ermis Harper & 

Henry Harper 

Purvis E. Harper, MD & 

Lynn A. Harper 

CHS Harris County 

Kathy Pertl Hart, Gary Hart 

Leroy Hermes, Barbara Hermes 

Barbara & Henry R. Hermis, Jr. 

Pam Hemphill 

Marietta Hetmaniak 

Charles J. Heyda+ 

Chris J. Hlavinka 

Paul & Kim Hlavinka 

Edward A. Holik, Anne Holik 

Victor E. Holy, Jerry S. Holy 

Anna Hornak 

Dr. Jerry Hosek, Shirley Hosek 

Roberta & Jimmy Howell, MD 

Kathleen & Daniel J. Hrna, Esq. 

Roy M. Huffington+ 

Alan Husak, Glen Husak 

Rev. Joseph M. Hybner 

Bobbie & Ruby Kocurek Jackson 

Robert Janak 

Doris & Edward A. Janek, Sr. 

Cathy & Joseph Jankovic, M.D. 

Delores & Arthur M. Jansa, MD 

Eric & Christie Rosene Johnson 

Edwin Jurecka+ 

Marlene & Edward J. Kadlecek 

Leslie Kahanek+ 

Gladys Froehlich Kahanek 

John Kahanek III, Sonia Kahanek 

Frank J. Kalenda, Jerrie Kalenda 

Robert Kercho, Sandra Kercho 

David Killen 

Joe E. Klecka, Margaret Klecka 

Henrietta Klecka, Rudolph Klecka 

John Klesel, Georgia Klesel 

Eva Klima, MD 

Tomas Klima, MD 

Marcella Klima, MD 


Audrey Klump+ 

Thomas M Kocurek 

Louis J. Kocurek, Jr. 

Robert Kokas, Lillian Kokas 

W. C. Kolinek, Barbara Kolinek 

Agnes Kosarek 

Jerrydene Pavlik Kovar 

Rudolf Kovar 

Edward Krpec, Anna Krpec 

Joe J. Krupa, Jr.+ Alyce V. Krupa 

John Albert Kuba 

Mark Kubala, MD, Betty Kubala 

Pat & Charles Kubin 

Michael Kucera 


Helen Kopecky Layman 

Woody K. Lesikar, Shelly, 

Woodrow Lesikar 

Elbert & Ann Bordovsky Link 

Marek Family of Companies 

Foundation 

Harry Mach, Cora Sue Mach 

Melanie Saunders Mahoney 

Tim Mahoney 

Clifford Malek, Barbara Malek 

Marvin J. & Judith M Marek 

Stan Marek 

Bennie & Jacqueline Marek 

Ralph Marek, Martha Marek 

Thelma Burnett Maresh+ 

Jeff Masek 

Charlotte Matula 

John P. McGovern Foundation+ 

McLennan-Hill CHS 

Kenneth A. Meek 

Barbara Mikulik 

Marcella Miley, W. C. Miley 

Sally Eisen Miller PhD 

David H. Miller, MD 


Jesse Fowler 

Edwin Moudry & 

Johnelle Thoede Moudry 

Laverne Huml Nash 

John Nau, Bobbie Nau 

Phillip Nevlud, Kelli Nevlud 

Gladys Jurchak Oakley 

Gerald Opatrny 

Betty & John W. Orsag 

Patricia Parma 

Paul Pasemann 

Judy Tallas Pasemann 

Stanley L. Pavlas 

Charlie E. Pavlicek 

Anthony E. Pavlik+ & 

Mary Grace Sikorski Pavlik 

W. F. & Alice Strzinek Pearson 

Henry Pekar, Dortha Pekar 

Michael Pertl, Rebecca Pertl 

Clarence Pertl, Bobbie Pertl 

Minnie M. Petrusek 

Dorothy & Larry Pflughaupt 

Sandra Jircik Pickett, Ed Pickett 

Lindsey & Sherry Rosene Pierce 

Frank J. Pokluda III 

Mary & Frank Pokluda, Jr. 

Mike Prasek 

Janell Gilmore Pustejovsky & 

Wesley Pustejovsky 

Charles Pustejovsky, Sr 

Georgana Repal 

Justine Jurica Rivoire, 

Nita Bagley 

Hugh J. Roff, Jr., Ann Roff 

Melissa & Charles W. Rod 

Effie M. & W. G. Bill Rosene 

Charles & Betti Friedel Saunders 

Pat & C. Stephen Saunders 

Shelley Sekula-Gibbs, MD 

Nancy Chernosky Sheffield 

Don Sheffield 

Jennifer Davis Sibille 

Paul Sibille, MD 

Charles & Marilyn Sikora 


5 

Walter M. Skripka 

Grace A. Skrivanek 

Raymond J. Snokhous 

Clarice Marik Snokhous 

Edward W. Socha, Debby Socha 


Sokol Houston 

Lil Hornak Sorrels 

Dr. H. M. (Mit) Sorrels 

Julianne Souchek 

Naomi Kostom Spencer+ 

SPJST Lodge #88 Pokrok 

Susan Stasney & 

C. Richard Stasney, MD 

Colleen Stavinoha & 

Michael Stavinoha, MD 

Edie & John Stavinoha, MD 

Yvonne & Glenn F. Sternes, PhD 

Dan Urbanek, Jr.+ 

John R. Vacek 

SPJST Texas 

Johnny J. Veselka, Linda Veselka 

Briggs & Veselka Company CPA 

Ray Vitek, Nina Vitek 

Jerry Vojacek, JoAnn Vojacek 

Stephen Vrana, 

Charles Waligura 

Patsy Veselka Wells, John Wells 

Wayne Wendt, Sallie Wendt 

Dorothy A. Wheeler 

Norman J. Zetka, Tracey P. Zetka 

Dollye & Kenneth H. Zezulka 

Marie Koranek Zinnante 

Nelda Zbranek 

If you are not on this list you need to 

be here! We invite you to join this 

distinguished group of members that 

have made a lifetime commitment to 

the Czech Center Houston. 

Board of Directors 

Effie M. Rosene, Chairman 

James E. Ermis, Vice Chair 



Chris Hlavinka 

Harry E. Mach 

Sally Miller, PhD 

Wesley Pustejovsky 

Betti Friedel Saunders 

Officers 

Effie M. Rosene, CEO 

W. G. Bill Rosene, 

VP, Administration, Secretary 

James E. Ermis, President/ 

Treasurer 

Honorary Czech Consuls 

Generals 

Raymond J. Snokhous, 

(Texas) 

Kenneth H. Zezulka 

(Louisiana) 

Honorary Board 



Gladys Kahanek 

The Mareks – Marek 

Family of Companies 



Grace Skrivanek 

John R. Vacek 

In memoriam 

Allen Chernosky 

Bernice Cernosek Havelka 

Tim & Rosa Lee Kostom 

Oleta & Louis Hanus 

Thelma Burnett Maresh 

William E. Souchek 

Naomi Kostom Spencer

Introduction to Bohumil Hrabal 

Bohumil Hrabal was the most popular writer 

in Czechoslovakia, both with the reading public 

and other writers. He had a great following in 

France, Spain, Italy and Germany too, but in 

English he never found a congenial translator. 

Some writers processed the world through the 

eye, some through the ear; Hrabal had both a 

superb ear and a superb eye. He was well versed 

in classical philosophy, with a doctorate in law, 

which he claimed he was sparing no effort to 

make himself forget. A master stylist who had 

started out as a poet, he wrote entertaining fiction, 

driven by manic rhythms and exploding 

fireworks of brilliant metaphors. He had the 

wisdom to stay close to home in his writing, both 

his parents, his Motor-Mouth Uncle Running on 

Apple-Strudel Sentences, and his German-born 

wife had become famous personages in Czech 

letters. 

“A writer should be humble; he should live 

roughly the way the other people live,” Hrabal 

once described his writing ethos in an interview. 

“If possible, he shouldn’t live in luxury…When 

my Grandma and Grandpa got married, they 

had: Grandma an alarm clock, so they could get 

up on time, and Grandpa: a half-liter beer mug. 

I started out the same way. And that’s what it’s 

about, it’s a question of being common in a way, 

of suppressing yourself so that you don’t wind 

up surrounded with certain comforts, bookcases 

and central heating and so on…You could say 

that I was a rich man now, but I spend most of 

my time in Kersko, in my cottage, where the only 

water I have is the water that I pump out of the 

ground…And lug it in buckets like all the regular 

folks used to do it…I do things the old way, 

I get at them through the tactile sensation and 

impression, everything passes through me, I see 

my water, I pump my water up, I lug it around 

in those buckets. These are all apparently little 

things, but I live off them…” 

Hrabal didn’t begin to live off his writing till he 

was well into his forties. He had worked at a provincial 

railroad station during the war, sweated 

in the foundries of Kladno after the Communist 

revolution of 1948, had been stagehand for several 

years, had scrapped forbidden books while 

running a paper recycling press. All the while, 

he conducted his life in bars and taverns. He took 

buses and went to soccer games with everyone 

and wrote about it on an old manual typewriter. 

And he embraced the streets, canteens, dead-end 

jobs, bars, hospitals, soccer stadiums, the whole 

of the Czech life, investing the God’s plenty 

in all its murderous and poetic forms with a 

mythical monumentality– the one belief that ran 

through all his writing held that anything that 

existed was beautiful, simply because it was. 

Hrabal’s creative temperament had always 

been Dionysian. He had communed with the 

surrealists at different points in his life and his 

writing method owed something to their working 

style. He would look, listen, think and patiently 

collect images, ideas, scraps, of dialogue, feelings; 

he’d let them stew in his subconscious; 

he’d wait till he was filled to bursting with them. 

Then came the purging flood, his major works 

had been written in short bursts of Intense, 

Subconscious, Driven, Light-Headed, World- 

Falling Away, Machine-Gun salvos, with mauled 

typewriter keys chopping into one another and 

stacking up, with sheets of paper just rolling 

through his machine “at times the flow-rate 

of paper through my typewriter clocked eight 

minutes a sheet.” Early in his career, he would 

rewrite his texts five or six times, and later he 

preferred to work “alla prima,” but the books 

were always stunning. 

Whenever I found myself in Prague, I tried to 

pay Hrabal a visit. He was an old man when I 

first met him. He was born in 1912 and had been 

living a life of habit for years, so he was always 

easy to find. He had buried his wife and many of 

his old friends and never had any children. He 

lived alone in a modest two-room apartment in 

the working neighborhood of Vysočany. Every 

morning, he bought some ground beef, got on 

a diesel bus, and headed to his cottage in the 

woods of Kersko. 

The boxy two-story structure stood under tall 

pines, beside a well with a manual pump. Hrabal 

kept his cats there, sixteen of them at the last 

count– his beloved, silky black tom Cassius too 

a fixture of Czech literature. He would pet and 

feed the cats, then write and read for most of the 

day. In the afternoon, he’d get on another bus for 

the hour-long ride back to Prague. 

On most evenings of the week, Hrabal could 

be found in the small back room of an Old Town 

pub, called “Golden Tiger,” which served the 

golden, creamy, foamy Pilsner Urquell beer. Its 

guests were fiercely territorial, “That joint’s like 

a synagogue,” the young poet Jáchym Topol 

described it once to me, “Everybody has his own 

chair there…” 

Hrabal held court at the head of a barren, pinewood 

table for a dozen admirers. Some were 

intellectuals, some bore tattoos, some had come 

a long way to see him: translators, Bohemists, 

foreign fans, freaks. “This guy killed a cop,” 

Hrabal introduced a strapping Slovak to me 

once. For three or four hours he listened, sniffed 

tobacco, talked, and signed books. He sampled 

the homemade culinary delights that people 

brought him and drank beer. He sang or recited 

long passages from Yesenin or Apollinaire. And 

then, between seven and eight in the evening, the 

bartender called Hrabal a cab. By then the old 

writer had usually downed four, six, sometimes 

ten big steins of beer and the poor circulation 

in his legs made them hurt. He would collect 

his little University of Chicago backpack, pay 

the tab, usually for everyone, and go home to a 

sleepless night. 

Excerpted from Commies, Crooks, Gypsies, 

Spooks & Poets by Jan Novak 


6 

The following is an excerpt from Bohumil 

Hrabal’s book I Served the King of England 

I looked at Mr. Walden the way I looked at all 

salesmen, because whenever I looked at them 

enough, I’d find myself wondering what kind of 

underwear they had on, and what kind of shirts 

they wore. And I’d imagine that they all had 

dirty underpants and dirty shirt collars and filthy 

socks, and that if they hadn’t been staying with us 

they’d have thrown those socks and underwear 

and shirts out the window, the way they used to 

in the Charles Baths, where I was sent to live 

for three years with my grandmother. My grandmother 

had a little room in an old mill, almost 

like a closet, where the sun never shone and 

where it couldn’t have shone anyway, because 

the window looked north and besides it was right 

next to the mill wheel, which was so big that 

it entered the water at the first-floor level and 

reached the third floor at the top of its arc. My 

grandmother took me in because my mother had 

me when she was single and turned me over to 

her mother, my grandmother, who lived right next 

to the baths. This little room that she sublet in the 

mill was her entire fortune in life and she praised 

the Lord for hearing her prayer and giving her 

this little room next to the baths, because when 

Thursday and Friday came around and the traveling 

salesmen and people with no fixed address 

came for a bath, my grandmother would be on 

the alert from ten in the morning on. I looked 

forward to those days, and to the other days as 

well, although underwear didn’t come flying out 

of the bathhouse windows as often then. As we 

watched out of our window, every once in a while 

one of the traveling salesmen would fling his 

dirty underpants out of the window, they would 

hover for a moment in the air, displaying themselves, 

then continue their fall. Some of them fell 

into the water, and Grandma would have to lean 

down and fish them out with a hook and I had 

to hang on to her legs to keep her from falling 

out. Sometimes shirts that got thrown out would 

suddenly spread their arms like a traffic cop at 

an intersection, or like Christ, and the shirts 

would be crucified in midair for a moment, then 

plunge headlong onto the rim or blades of the 

mill wheel. The wheel would keep turning, and 

the adventure of it was, depending on the situation, 

either to leave the shirt or underwear on 

the wheel until the wheel brought it around again 

on its rim, around and up to Grandma’s window, 

when all she had to do was reach out and pick it 

off, or to use a hook to unwind it from the axel. 

In this case it would be flopping about as the 

wheel turned, but Grandma would manage to 

rescue it even so, pulling it through the window 

into the kitchen on her hook. She’d toss it all 

into tubs, and that evening she’d wash the dirty 

underwear and shirts and socks, then throw the 

water back into the millrace as it surged under 

the paddle of 

continued on page 7

Bohumil Hrabal (continued) 

the mill wheel. Later in the evening, it was wonderful 

to see white underwear suddenly fly out of 

the bathroom window in the Charles Baths and 

flutter down through the darkness, a white shirt 

against the black abyss of the current, flashing 

for an instant outside our window, and Grandma 

would hook it right out of the air before it could 

float down into the depths to land on the gleaming 

wet blades. Sometimes, in the evening or at 

night, a breeze would blow up from the water, 

bringing a fine mist with it, and the water and the 

rain would whip Grandma’s face so hard that she 

would have to wrestle the wind for possession of 

the shirt. Still, Grandma looked forward to each 

day, and especially Thursdays and Fridays, when 

the traveling salesmen changed their shirts and 

underwear because they’d made some money 

and bought new socks, underwear and shirts 

and then tossed the old ones out the window of 

the Charles Bath, where Grandma was lying in 

wait with her hook. Then she’d wash them, mend 

them, put them neatly in the sideboard, and eventually 

take them around to the building sites, to 

sell them to the masons and the day laborers. She 

lived modestly but well enough to be able to buy 

rolls for the two of us, and milk for her coffee. 

It was probably the most wonderful time in my 

life. I can still see Grandma waiting at night by 

the open window, which wasn’t easy in the fall 

and winter, and I can still see that rejected shirt 

caught in an updraft, hovering for a moment 

outside our window and spreading its arms. 

Grandma deftly pulled it in, because in another 

second the shirt would fall akimbo, like a white 

bird shot out of the sky, down into the black gurgling 

waters, to reappear like a tortured thing on 

the rack of the mill wheel, without a human body 

inside it, rising in a wet arc and then coming 

back down the other side, and slip off the wheel 

and fall into the rushing black waters, to be 

swept down the millrace under the black blades 

and far away from the mill. 

Ed: Bohumil Hrabal’s books and especially this 

one are must-reads. You won’t stop laughing! 

Jan Novak’s contemporary works are certainly 

worth your while as well. 

Former Honorary Czech Consul Dies 

Former Dallas City Council member and 

former Honorary Czech Consul for North Texas 

from May 1995 to May 2003, Jerry Garland 

Bartos died following a lifetime of devotion to 

his family, friends and community. He was a 

successful small-business man who fought for 

causes he believed in, from reforming school district 

business affairs to lifting flight 

restrictions at Love Field. 

Elected to the Dallas City Council 

in 1987 he served until 1993, and 

during his three terms showed no 

fear in rocking the establishment’s 

boat and also serving one term on the 

Dallas Independent School District 

board of trustees. 

Mr. Bartos, 75, died Friday, 

November 28, 2008, of complications 

of pancreatic cancer at his 

7 

1964, he founded Bartos Inc., an air-purification 

engineering firm. 

He became active in church, civic and public 

affairs. He participated in the DISD’s volunteer 

teaching program and urged businesses to 

become more active in the schools. 

He was involved in numerous activities 

as chairman of the Greater Dallas 

Planning Council’s “A Beautiful 

Clean Dallas” campaign and was 

named Small Businessman of the 

Year for the SBA’s Dallas region. He 

volunteered for the National Trust 

for Historic Preservation and served 

on the Tri-Ethnic Committee in the 

early days of the DISD desegregation 

process. He served for many years 

as Honorary Consul to the Czech 

Republic. “He was very dedicated 

daughter’s home in Austin. Julie 

Bartos of Houston said her "What I've learned is that if 

father’s efforts to lift flight you want to participate in 

restrictions at Dallas Love Field the public arena, you either 

were his greatest achievement. have to give up and go along 

“He did so much, it’s hard to say or you have to get tough in a 

... but as far as successes go, that hurry because you're going 

was right up there,” Ms. Bartos to be in for the hardest battle 

said. In 1991, Mr. Bartos formed you ever fought," he said in 

Friends of Love Field to push for 1981, at the end of his term. 

expanded use of the inner-city 

airport. Council member Mitchell Rasansky, 

who serves in Mr. Bartos’ former district, said 

the former council member’s death was “a great 

loss for the city.” Mr. Bartos was not only a great 

advocate of Love Field, but “he was heavily 

involved with his constituency,” Mr. Rasansky 

said. He was always quick to return telephone 

messages from anybody who called him, whatever 

their position in life. “He was a regular guy 

like you and me,” Mr. Rasansky said. Mr. Bartos 

was an important voice, said council member 

Linda Koop, who leads the city’s transportation 

planning. “He was a leader in transportation and 

transit issues, and his knowledge will certainly 

be missed,” Ms. Koop said. 

Although Mr. Bartos could fight for a cause, 

he also had a gentle side, his daughter said. “He 

was a lot of fun, and he was very loving and kind 

and generous,” his daughter said. “He was the 

most fun-loving man I’ve met to this day.” 

Mr. Bartos was born in Dallas and grew up in 

Corpus Christi, where he saved $1,000 by the 

time he was 16 years old, doing a range of jobs 

from picking cotton to chopping Johnson grass 

along the railroad right-of-way. He graduated 

from Highland Park High School, where he was 

an ROTC cadet. 

On September 19, 2008 the Czech Center After earning a bachelor’s degree in engineer- 

took a double punch following Hurricane Ike in ing from Southern Methodist University in 1954 

the form of a truck climbing a city curb and then and serving two years as an Air Force com- 

mounting a eighteen inch retaining wall, leveling munications officer in Illinois and Germany he 

a oleander bush to strike one of the columns of returned to Dallas settling in the Love Field area 

the building. We are currently negotiating with in 1957. He started his career as a salesman for 

the driver’s insurance company. 

a national air-conditioning company and was an 

assistant vice president by the time he was 28. In occasional emails and visits. 


to family history and his homeland,” 

his daughter said. In 1973, 

he was elected to the DISD board 

of trustees, where he fought for 

financial reform within the district, 

which he later said was 

harder than he anticipated. 

He purposely sought only one 

term. “On the school board, 

you’re constantly battling factions 

from the federal, state and 

city level, as well as battling a monolithic educational 

structure. But no matter what kind of 

public job you’re holding, you can’t say you’re 

doing a good job if you’re worried about getting 

re-elected.” 

Mr. Bartos sold his company in 1999, which 

became Bartos Industries, but stayed with the 

company at no salary to help the new owners 

establish themselves, his daughter said. He continued 

to be a consultant to the company the rest 

of his life but spent about 40 percent of his time 

at his cabin in Ennis, Mont., where he enjoyed 

hiking and nature. He did not actively work on 

causes in retirement because, “He had a hard 

time giving of himself, because he could not 

commit full time,” his daughter said. “And that’s 

just the kind of fellow he was, all or none.” Mr. 

Bartos’ last great effort was battling cancer. His 

pancreatic cancer was diagnosed one year ago, 

and he was told he had three to six months to 

live. “Being the bound-and-determined, hardheaded 

fellow that he was, he did really well,” 

his daughter said. “He managed to stick around 

for another complete year, which is what he 

wanted.” Mr. Bartos is survived by four daughters, 

Julie Bartos of Houston, Marla Bartos of 

Dallas, Dr. Sara Bartos of Austin and Meghan 

Bartos of Paris, France. 

Dallas Morning News 

Ed: Jerry was an enthusiastic supporter of the 

Czech Center Museum Houston from its inception 

by his membership and donation for a gold 

inscribed marble tile on the honor/memorial 

wall dedicated to his daughters. We will miss his

Saint Nicholas Visits the Museum 

The celebration of Saint Nicholas is a large tradition 

celebrated in the Czech Republic as well as 

most other European countries on December 5 th 

each year. St. Nicholas, in tow with his two sidekicks 

the Angel and the Devil, make their way to 

the homes of small children delivering sweets and 

candies to those well behaved. The Czech Center 

Museum Houston hosted an extraordinary night of 

music, song, food and fellowship open to members 

and friends alike on the eve of his coming. The 

center was enthused to receive over 170 RSVP’s, 

some coming in only hours before the night began. 

What ended up being close to 200 guests arrived 

out of the cold, greeting and mingling downstairs 

in Brno Gallery. Just before 7:00 pm, everyone was 

ushered upstairs into Prague Hall, complete with 

lovely holiday adornment. After a welcome by justback-from-Prague 

Effie Rosene, Chairman of the 

Board, and a wonderful blessing over the evening’s 

festivities by Father Paul Chovanec, the delicious 

food was served. Flavorful multi-bean soup, a fresh 

Mediterranean salad, wholesome stuffed cabbage 

rolls, spilling-out stuffed peppers, creamy whipped 

mashed potatoes and delectable sautéed vegetables 

filled the menu. Super sweet and irresistible apple 

baklava completed the dessert, all catered by upand-coming 

Chef Omer of Café Pita. Throughout 

the dinner, guests were serenaded with the magical 

international sounds of Czech, American, Croatian 

and Polish Christmas carols with the accompaniment 

of long time friend composer and board 

member of the Czech Center Museum Houston, 

Robert Dvorak on piano. Christiana Gentry, 

Czech Queen, sang a number of beautiful traditional 

Czech carols. Adrijana and Kruno Rojnica 

with their pianist Catherine Sahinen sang beautiful 

traditional Croatian songs, and an impromptu, 

first time guest Tom Jones, African-American, 

well known choral director, lead the crowd through 

Silent Night. Once the plates were empty a wonderful 

surprise arrived. It was St. Nicholas, Father 

Paul Chovanec, himself with his trusty sidekicks, 

the Angel and Devil, 

young newlyweds Jacob 

and Andrea Pustejovsky. 

Each child was welcomed 

to meet and speak with 

St. Nicholas about his/her 

Christiana Gentry 

Saint Nicholas with Jacob Pustejovsky 

as the devil 

Polish Performers 

Victoria, (facing center) Valerie Kerschen’s niece 

awaits her turn to visit with St. Nicholas 

Saint Nicholas a.k.a., Rev. Paul Chovanec and 

Angel, Andrea Pustejovsky 

year and were most often saved from being engaged by the Devil, 

with the beautiful Angel’s promise that the children would do better 

next year. Although some young ones were afraid of the large 

man with his powerful red cape, long white beard and a mighty 

staff, everyone enjoyed his visit and most of all his tasty treats. Just 

after St. Nicholas and his team had to hurry on to yet other holiday 

parties, mother and daughter, Katarzyna Johnson and Eliza Masewicz (recently asked to 

join Houston’s Grand Opera), sang stunning renditions of Polish carols which brought a 

wondrous close to the evening. Guests began to bid their holiday wishes, hug goodbye and 

head back into the cold. A wonderful handful stayed to help clean-up and chat longer after 

the festivities ended. The Annual Saint Nicholas Celebration is a warm, festive, and unique 

way to spread holiday cheer at Christmas time, enjoy delicious food, and even get a special 

peek at a magical and wonderful heritage tradition. 

Thea Curry 


8 

CCMH Annual Christmas elves decorate the Foyer Tree: 

(l) Jerrydene and Rudolf Kovar, Carol Williams and 

Paul and Lanell Pyka 

Remembering a Friend 

The Houston Chronicle had an obituary 

for Leslie C. Kahanek, Czech 

Center Honorary Board Member, 

with his picture, an extraordinarily 

handsome man in his World War 

II Army Air corps uniform – not 

unlike the looks of a movie star. 

Leslie and the love of his life wife, 

Gladys Froehlich met while he was stationed at 

Ellington Field Houston (Leslie was from Prague, 

Oklahoma). Following his military service and professional 

career at HNG/Enron the two spent much 

of their time volunteering at their church and were 

Founding Members of the Czech Center Houston from 

1995. They both volunteered weekly or more, Gladys 

managing the Prague Market Gift Shop in Northwest 

Mall where we were positioned 7½ years while in our 

Capital Campaign to build the Czech Center Museum 

Houston in the Museum District, opening to the public 

September 1, 2004. Gladys and Leslie wrote they 

hoped we would understand their energy level wasn’t 

so great anymore and had to live a quieter life. 

We did understand, but their spirit remained always 

with us as they continued their unflagging support of 

Leslie’s heritage. Honorary Board Members on March 

15, 2002 they were recognized at the annual Gala 

at the Warwick Hotel with then Czech Ambassador 

Martin Palous sending congratulations to their excellent 

commitment to voluntarism for the Center. While 

Gladys is vivacious even now, Leslie was low key but 

significant in how he engaged every person he was 

near. This dear friend left his mark on us and without 

saying on their lovely children, daughter Diana and 

family and son Charles and family. 

We look at their picture every day on our Honor Wall 

and yes we have wonderful fond memories of great 

people who touched our lives. A memorial service 

celebrating Leslie’s life was held at St. Mark Lutheran 

Church January 17, 2009. 

The family requests donations may be made to St. 

Mark Church, the Czech Center Museum Houston or 

to the charity of your choice. 

Effie Rosene

Thomas John Bata - Shoemaker to the World 

It is with great sadness that the Bata Family 

and the Bata Shoe Organization announce 

the sudden passing of Thomas John Bata, at 

Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto 

at the age of 93. 

As “Shoemaker to the World,” Thomas J. 

Bata was a man of outstanding qualities and 

achievements who had a positive influence on 

the lives of many millions of people throughout 

the world. 

He was born in Prague and educated in 

Czechoslovakia, England and Switzerland. His 

father Tomas had founded the Bata 

Shoe Organization in 1894. After 

his father’s premature death in an 

aircraft accident in 1932, Thomas J. 

Bata was guided by his late-father’s 

moral testament: that the Bata Shoe 

Company was to be treated not as 

a source of private wealth, but as a 

public trust, a means of improving 

living standards within the com- 

munity and providing customers 

with good value for their money. 

He promised to pursue the entrepreneurial 

and humanitarian ideals of 

his father. This became his life’s work. 

Anticipating the Second World War, Mr. 

Bata, together with over 100 families from 

Czechoslovakia, moved to Canada in 1939 to 

develop the Bata Shoe Company of Canada 

centered in a town that still bears his name, 

Batawa, Ontario. 

The Second World War saw many Bata businesses 

in Europe and the Far East destroyed. 

After the Second World War, 

the core business enterprise 

in Czechoslovakia and other 

major enterprises in Central and 

Eastern Europe were nationalized 

by the communists. 

Thomas J. Bata was particularly 

proud of his association 

with the Hastings and Prince 

Edward Regiment. He joined 

the Regiment during the Second 

World War and served as a 

Captain in the Canadian Reserve Army and as 

Honorary Colonel from 1999 to 2007. 

Mr. Bata’s consideration for others led 

to his work with numerous charitable organizations. 

He was Chairman of the Bata 

Shoe Foundation. His dedication to Junior 

Achievement International, Trent University 

and York University in Canada and the Tomas 

Bata University in the Czech Republic reflected 

his special interest in the education of young 

people. 

His business qualities included vision, 

dedication, energy and drive for excellence. 

He was also an exceptional mentor to those 

who worked with him. He saw business as a 

contributor to human well being internationally. 

He always made it a priority to ensure 

that his businesses not only contributed to the 

Thomas Bata 

September 17, 1914 to 

September 1, 2008 

Mr. Bata on his return after the fall of 

communism visited his father’s grave. 

He was guided by his father’s moral testament 

that the Bata Shoe Company was to be treated 

not as a source of wealth, but as a public trust, 

a means of improving living standards within the 

community and providing customers with good 

value for their money 

economies of the new markets he entered, but 

also made a positive difference in the lives of 

his employees and their communities. Many 

Bata operations were established with medical, 

educational and social facilities for 

Bata employees. 

He saw business as a contributor 

to human well being internationally, 

participating in several 

leading business organizations. In 

Canada, he was a former Director of 

Canadian Pacific Airlines and IBM 

Canada, a founding member of the 

Young Presidents Organization, 

Chairman of the Commission on 

Multinational Enterprises of the 

International Chamber of Commerce 

and Chairman of the Business and 

Industry Advisory Committee to 

OECD. He was particularly fond of India and 

was a founding member of the Canada India 

Business Council. 

In addition to his many university doctorates, 

he was a Companion of the Order 

of Canada and received the Order of T.G. 

Masaryk in Czechoslovakia. In 2007 he 

proudly received the First Lifetime Award for 

Responsible Capitalism in the 

United Kingdom. 

Mr. Bata continually stimulated 

those around him to be passionate 

about their work and 

to continually aim higher. He 

was a true inspiration to everyone 

he met. His vision was to 

“shoe the world.” His vitality, 

wisdom, generosity and sense 

of humor endeared him to people 

of all ages. He enjoyed 

spending time with his family and friends, 

whether at home or exploring unfamiliar 

destinations, skiing, swimming or playing 

tennis. In fact, he continued to enjoy sporting 

activities until shortly before his death. 

Tomáš Bata returned to his homeland in 

the same year 1989 the Communist regime 

collapsed. The first place he visited was the 

grave of his father who founded the family 

shoe empire. Tomáš Bata Sr. died in an aircraft 

accident in 1932 in his own plane during 

a flight from Otrokovice, South Moravia to 

Switzerland. 

He was preparing legal steps against the 

Czech state in order to get compensated for 

his family’s wealth, confiscated after the 

Second World War on a pretext of a war-time 

collaboration with the Nazi occupiers. 


9 

The heir of a global shoe empire, started by 

his father and uncle in the Moravian city of Zlín 

between the two world wars, lived in Toronto. 

The Prague City Court annulled the 1947 sentence 

against Jan Antonín Bata, uncle of Tomáš, 

clearing both his name and the way to claim 

back the family property. 

Tomáš Bata confirmed he wants a full reparation. 

In an interview he explained that he wants 

satisfaction not only for himself, but for all 

people affected this way. “It’s not just something 

marginal, it’s a crucial principle concerning 

many people. Be it a single-family house, 

be it a hennery, be it a nice enterprise the law 

applies for everyone,” he has said. The Bata 

family is to seek a financial redress, rather than 

fighting for the return of the functionalist buildings 

which make the city of Zlín an attraction 

for architecture-buffs. 

The famous building 21, one of the first 

skyscrapers built in Central Europe, will thus 

likely remain a seat of the local authorities. 

Altogether, the property’s worth is estimated at 

billions of Czech crowns. 

When asked about the relations between he and 

his uncle, allegedly problematic, he answered 

slyly: “Have you ever heard of a problem-free 

family?” Then he explained that in their case, 

they eventually reached an agreement, making 

him the universal heir to the family business. 

Tomáš Bata was awarded with the Responsible 

Capitalism Award by the British Ministry 

of Finance in London. On that occasion, he 

expressed his belief that honesty and ethics 

should always be part of business. “It is fair, 

proper, and ethical entrepreneurship that serves 

the public,” he said. 

Also, he expressed an overall satisfaction with 

the present situation of business in the Czech 

Republic, but pointed out there is still room for 

improvement eighteen years after the fall of the 

communist regime. 

He was an example of how ideals and qualities 

can and will continue to inspire all of us. In 

his own way, Thomas J. Bata has left his “footprint” 

on humanity. Mr. Bata is survived by 

his much loved wife and partner, Sonja (born 

Wettstein), son Thomas George who is the 

present CEO and Chairman of the Bata Shoe 

Organization; and three daughters, Christine, 

Monica, Rosemarie, and their families. The 

funeral service was on Friday, September 5 

2008 in North York, Canada, and a second commemoration 

event took place on September 16, 

2008 in Zlin, the Czech Republic 

Ed: Some years back we attended an 

International Rotary Club meeting in the Bata 

Family home in Zlin on invitation of young 

George Hrdlicka, a Houston Accountant. 

There is something that falls short of perfection 

in every book, without exception, something 

influenced by the age, even something ridiculous; 

just like everyone, without exception, has 

weaknesses. Josef Skvorecky

From the Chairman (continued from page 2) 

About Prague, it continues to exude medieval history and charm wherever 

you look. Dinner at the Opera Gardens Café was fabulous. The thirty 

dollar cab ride to get there 

from Hradčany’s beautiful 

Schwarzenburg Palace of 

Art and Lobkowitz Palace 

was a downer! Mass at the 

Cathedral Tyn in Old Town 

surrounded by the Christmas 

adornment on First Advent 

Sunday was indescribable. 

Jan took us through the 

Bohemian Highlands, how 

beautiful, where we stopped 

in Přibram, where he first 

lived and taught English, to eat a delicious lunch at Restaurace Svejk. 

We celebrated our 55th wedding anniversary on December 1, 2008 

feting twenty friends to dinner in a charming 

village café in Hlohovec (one mile inside the 

Czech Republic from the Austrian border). 

The řizky Vidensky was pork steaks filled 

with ham and cheese, a delightful šopsky 

salad of cucumber, olives, tomatoes and a 

delectable sheep cheese, Hlohovec’s specialty 

potato salad, great rolls, cake and appropriate 

wines and much conversation. Like Gene 

Dietch, I speak bad Czech fluently! The 

next morning at 4:00 a.m. we left from an 

elegantly decorated Vienna airport to arrive in 

Amsterdam at 8:30 a.m. to a virtual Christmas 

wonderland of decoration, including an illuminated 

airplane suspended from the ceiling. 

As always, it was good to get home to family, 

the Museum and friends. We enjoyed more sunshine from the airport 

to our home than we had seen the three weeks in Europe! But it was a 

great trip. 

Wherever we go we continue to promote, delicately of course, our 

state, our country, and certainly our international city. Keep in mind 

you are a citizen of the world when 

you know your roots, from where 

you came, who you are, and how you 

fit in with our entire world’s other 

people and cultures. We owe it to our 

children and they owe it to theirs to 

know how we can all manage to live 

together. 

The economy is not! We have all 

been impacted, this year especially. 

Lunch meeting in Prague with 

Gene and Zdenka Deitch 

Andrea White, center, and attendees at her 

“We’re All Neighbors” Luncheon 

Jarek Slichta, 

Hunter and Goose 

That too will pass; we must have 

faith and do what we can to help it. 

Spend wisely. I can’t imagine anyone 

not being honored, adult or child, to have a contribution sent in their 

honor, i.e. to the museum. Fundraising these past two years has been 

more difficult than ever. We can only express deep gratitude for your 

gifts to the CCMH which is an asset to the city, to the state, to our USA, 

and to international relations. Houston Endowment has made a grant, for 

which we are so grateful, to begin phase one of the build out of our third 

floor so needed for our library, exhibit space, venue and more storage/ 

office space. Any additional help for this very necessary project would 

be appreciated. And we are grateful to all of you for your caring, your 

volunteer hours and gifts of any size. 

The first of November seemed to come to Houston earlier this year 

2008. It was very much welcome however after the usual overly warm 

summer and an especially depressing and damaging bout contending 

with Hurricane Ike on September 11th and the many more weeks to 

follow. Many suffered more than we at the CCMH and while we were 

The Dervays and Rosenes at the AFoCR Gala 


10 

grateful it wasn’t more, 

yet it was not easy, but 

Life does go on. 

The city’s longest running 

festival, the Fall 

Slavic Saints Cyril and 

Methodius Festival was 

an enjoyable and needed 

respite psychologically. 

Immediately thereafter besides daily museum operations, we became 

engaged in an important fundraiser. The American Friends of the Czech 

Republic (AFoCR), a Washington, DC based 501[c][3] organization is 

joint venturing with the City of Prague to return a bronze monument of 

U.S. President Woodrow Wilson to commemorate his assistance to 

Tomas Masaryk, first president of the First Republic, in promoting a 

Czechoslovak democratic government in 1918. (The statue had been 

destroyed by the Nazis in 1938.) 

On the tenth of November I enjoyed greatly another birthday at the 

office and in fact we commandeered any staff and volunteers we could 

to celebrate and I made a great decision to begin a Rosene Legacy Fund 

for some good Czech Center purpose – believe 

me, there are many great purposes – and general 

admission to the party was a one dollar ($1.00) 

contribution instead of the usual flowers, chocolates 

or other possible beautiful gifts. I had $5.00 

and thought what a great beginning, which I 

would invest “safely” while trying to enhance that 

collection. Actually I think it would be great if 

others would start meaningful funds like that. It 

was really easy! 

On November 12th we had a great group 

Alzbetka, Jarek’s 

granddaughter 

for viewing and talk in Brno Gallery followed 

by an authentic Slavic luncheon in Prague 

Hall with Champagne, music by our maestro 

Board member Robert Dvorak, and many of the group after touring 

shopped in Prague International Gifts. These very interesting and 

interested guests were from all over the country from the west to 

the east coast and in between associated with the AFoCR and in the 

City to attend the evening’s Gala. We were honored to meet these 

gracious people who came from afar to see us. We took the opportunity 

(James Ermis, Vice Chair 

and President was also attending) 

to present Gail Naughton, 

Executive Director of the tragically 

flooded National Czech and 

Slovak Museum and Library of 

Cedar Rapids, Iowa a gift check 

towards eventual restoration of 

this great institution. 

The evening’s AFoCR fundraising 

Gala at the J.W.Marriott 

Bill and Effie Rosene’s little car in the 

snow and ice in Hlohovec, CR 

Galleria benefiting its mission was indeed a grand one, such as the 

city has not seen before beginning with Mayor White, President 

and Mrs. George H. W. Bush, (Czech President Vaclav Klaus on 

video), former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, numerous 

ambassadors, multiple Honorary and Consul Generals, state and 

city political personages, Czech organization leaders, a substantial 

segment of Houston’s society and philanthropic movers and shakers 

and the great number of officials and friends of the AFoCR. You 

surely read it in the Houston Chronicle’s Shelby Hodge column! We 

know Galas, having administered some fifteen and numerous kinds 

of events and have attended others. This one was awesome! Two 

Great American Heroes and our “local” friends Captains Eugene 

Cernan and James Lovell (both of Czech and Slovak heritage) 

were awarded a Civil Society Vision Award for their work in space 

exploration on this evening. (continued on page 11)

From the Chairman (continued from page 10) 

Many members of the CCMH 

attended to help this great 

cause. If you were not fortunate 

to attend this beautiful 

gathering you can still be 

a real documented participant 

by sending a contribution to 

Phil Kasik AFoCR Monument 

Fund, 4410 Massachusetts Ave. 

N.W. #391, Washington, DC 

20016. I understand next year’s 

reinstallation and dedication of 

this monument in Prague that 

so long stood at the Wilsonovi 

Train Station will be incredibly 

special as well! 

Here in south Moravia, the 

wine country, we arrived two 

days after that Gala to a really 

cold winter. The Grape Harvest 

had just ended rather late, the pressing still going 

on. The gatherers celebrated with an annual 

feast. The harvest was an especially 

good one. The young wines were 

all ready to taste and exquisitely 

delicious they are! You may not 

know this but since in the European 

Union, the Czech Moravian wines 

are major gold medal winners in the 

International Wine Competition in 

Paris and elsewhere. (They have 

always been winners in regional 

competitions.) Bohemia Sekt of 

Stary Plzen is, of course, a major 

producer and receives their grapes/ 

wines from this region. The French, 

you know, look forward to their 

young Beaujolais 

on November 20th. 

These are occasions of 

great celebrations of 

joy and national pride. 

The Czech do theirs on 

Svaty Martinsky Day 

(St. Martin’s Holiday) 

on November 11th 

with the same celebrations, 

joy, national 

pride. I have it from 

my dear wine maker 

friend Jarek Slichta, he 

swears this is true, that 

Beaujolais actually 

originated right here 

in Moravia. A vintner 

whose wife’s name 

was Bozena was told 

at the Harvest’s young 

wine debut “Bože 

– let!” That means 

“Bozeno – pour” (the 

Stan and Reinette Marek, with Harry 

and Cora Sue Mach(shown below) 

co-underwriters of AFoCR pre Gala 

reception at the Czech Center 

Jerrydene & Rudolf Kovar 

Beatrice Mladenka-Fowler & 

Jesse Fowler 

CCMH Gala 2008 

Attendees 

James & Danna Ermis 

Gala 2008 Honorees 

wine). And that is from an 

authentic source! 

We had no idea cold could be so 

Cold. Not like we know cold in 

Houston in the early morning of 

an occasional “Norther.” This 

cold is constant. But people 

still go to work, do their shopping, 

little Alzbetka (Elizabeth) 

3 ½ months old goes for a daily 

long pram outing snow or rain 

and Annie’s mother Hermina 

Drobilicova, age 94 goes to 

daily mass a few blocks away! 

Art Exhibits currently on view 

in the Presidents Room at the 

CCMH include the prominent 

Czechoslovak American artist 

Andy Warhol (born 1928 - 

1987 to Carpatho-Rusyn immigrants 

from Mikova in the Slovak Republic of 

the former Czechoslovakia) who challenged 

the world to see art differently with 

a collection of his beautiful wellknown 

pieces and Czech Moravian, 

Alfons Mucha, father of the Art 

Nouveau period. Both collections 

are contributed by Honorary 

Board Member, Dorothy (Mrs. 

Allen) Chernosky and daughter 

Lynn Chernosky Swaffar. You 

will certainly want to take advantage 

of the beautiful collectible 

art bags – Jackie, Marilyn, Bugs, 

Flowers, Campbell Soup, etc., and 

collectible Museum quality framed 

pictures of Mucha’s lovely ladies 

series, The Seasons, 

The Arts, etc., as 

well as no longer 

published Mucha 

Art books on sale in 


Ambassador Bill Cabaniss 

Dr. C. Richard Stasney 

and Susan Stasney 

Ed & Sharon Middlebrook with daughter Sarah, Czech 

Queen and Retta Chandler on right 

Prague International 

Gifts Shop. The all 

volunteer operated 

shop has never looked 

more inviting, better 

stocked, with unique collectibles 

and giftable heirlooms. 

Please help the 

Center by your visit and 

you will take away much 

more art and history than 

you knew before. We 

exude a peaceful non hassle 

spirit! You must also 

try the authentic Czech- 

Slovak Holiday Christmas 

(and other celebrations) 

gingerbread hearts available 

for sale. 


11 

Dr. Jankovic’s Gift 

Member Doctor Joseph Jankovic shown 

below with Effie Rosene and wife Cathy has 

generously gifted the Czech Center with archival 

documents worthy of future study. In 

presenting the documents to the Czech Center 

to Chairman Rosene he noted “I am pleased to 

be able to make the donation on behalf of my 

uncle. I hope that the display will serve as a 

legacy to his life and to his generosity.” 

His uncle, Mr. Leon Weiss, CPA, bequeathed 

the documents to his nephew, Joseph Jankovic, 

MD in 2008. Mr. Weiss, born in Chust, formerly 

Czechoslovakia on October 5, 1930, was 

liberated from Auschwitz at the age of 15 and 

worked as a messenger in the Nürnberg trials 

until 1947 when he arrived to the United States. 

Currently, a CPA in Los Angeles, he purchased 

the documents from Jacob Zeitlin (Zeitlin & Ver 

Brugge Booksellers, Los Angeles, California), 

in 1969. The original documents include: A 

letter, written in English, from Thomas G. 

Masaryk (March 7, 1850 - September 14, 

1937), the founder and first president of the 

Republic of Czechoslovakia addressed to 

Major Baird, dated January 24, 1906; A letter, 

written in German, from Thomas G. Masaryk, 

to Mr. Heller, dated September 19, 1906; A 

letter, written in French, with a drawing of Karl 

Capek (January 9, 1890 – December 25, 1938), 

a famous Czech playwright. Capek introduced 

the term “robot,” which first appeared in his 

play R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots) in 

1921. Translation: “The only perfection which 

distinguishes modern civilization is mechanical 

perfection; the machines are splendid, impeccable, 

but the life which serves them or is served 

by them is neither splendid nor brilliant, neither 

more perfect nor more beautiful.” 

Ed: Thanks to Dr. Joseph Jankovic for his 

thoughtful gift and for sharing these documents 

with us. Dr. Jankovic is a Professor of 

Neurology, a Distinguished Chair in Movement 

Disorders and Director, Parkinson’s Disease 

Center and Movement Disorders Clinic, 

Baylor College of Medicine, Department of 

Neurology. 

Honorary Board Members Mary and Frank Pokluda shown 

with their Model T at a Rally at the Bush Library in College 

Station. I am told it gets 41 mpg! Anyone for a ride?

Rescuer Revealed: One Man’s Story 

In 2001, Peter A. Rafaeli right, 

the honorary consul general of the 

Czech Republic in Philadelphia, 

received a call from the Czech consul 

general in New York, inviting 

him and his wife to Manhattan to see 

a video his office was set to screen. 

The caller knew that the Rafaelis 

were Holocaust survivors and believed that 

the subject of the documentary would interest 

them. 

“This is really a positive story,” the consul 

general emphasized to his Philadelphia colleague, 

who noted that his political instincts 

kicked in at that point. Rafaeli understood the 

message, and so packed his wife into the car 

and made the trip north. 

He could hardly have imagined at that 

moment how completely his life would be 

transformed. The documentary was called 

“Nicholas Winton: The Power of Good,” 

and was the work of a young Czech Jewish 

filmmaker, Matej Minác, whose mother was 

also a survivor; neither name meant anything 

to Rafaeli, though all that would change in a 

matter of hours. 

The film depicted how, in late 1938, Winton, 

then a 28-year-old British stockbroker, planned 

to take a ski trip with a friend to Switzerland. 

Winton did lots of business in Europe, and had 

heard the war rumors and knew about the abuses 

of the Nazis. But he was looking forward to 

a little downtime on this particular visit. 

At the last moment, however, he was convinced 

to make a detour to Prague; his friend 

said there was “something urgent” he’d have 

to see for himself. Winton was taken to refugee 

camps where Jewish children of all ages 

from the Sudetenland, many of them already 

orphans, were living in horrific conditions. 

The young businessman 

understood instantly that 

these youngsters would 

soon become Hitler’s 

victims if someone 

didn’t act at once. 

Rather than take up 

his Swiss holiday, he 

returned to London and 

began writing letters to 

government officials around the world, asking 

if they would take in these children. He was 

rejected by almost all, including the United 

States; only Sweden and England said yes. 

With a small staff of volunteers, including 

his mother, Winton worked tirelessly for the 

next nine months to secure freedom for his 

charges. 

The first group of 20 left Prague on March 

14, 1939. Though the German army took over 

all of Czechoslovakia the following 

day, Winton and his staff kept working, 

sometimes forging papers to get 

the young ones past the Nazis. By the 

time World War II began on Sept. 1, 

Winton and his assistants had managed 

to save 669 children via eight 

different transports. 

There was a ninth set to go on Sept. 1, containing 

250 children, the largest transport of 

all, but the Germans put a stop to departures. 

According to Winton, none of these children 

survived the war. 

After the rescue mission, Winton returned 

to England, and never spoke to anyone about 

that time, not even to the woman he would 

marry; that is, until she found the extensive 

documentation in 1988 when she was cleaning 

out the attic. 

The material included records and lists and 

tagging numbers, as well as pictures of the 

children and some of their parents, and even 

letters that mothers and fathers had written to 

their offspring. When Winton’s wife asked for 

an explanation, her husband said that it was all 

part of the past 

and should be 

burned. His wife 

Greta insisted 

that it was not 

fair to do that, as 

the letters were 

from parents 

who might not 

have survived 

and should go 

to their children, 

if they were still 

Vera Gissing as a child, and shown at the right with 

filmmaker Matej Minac as they joined together to tell the 

story of Nicholas Winton was one of the lucky children 

Winton saved. 

Nicholas Winton, did his best to save as 

many children as he could before WWll 

broke out. But the final transport September 

1, 1939 was stopped by the Nazis. Vera 

Glauberova and her sister Eva were 

scheduled to depart. They died in Auschwitz 

and Riga 

alive. But she couldn’t budge her husband. 

She then offered the documents to a 

number of institutions. 

All declined, until 

she approached Yad 

Vashem, which took 

every scrap. Winton 

simply shrugged his 

shoulders and changed 

the subject. 

Not until Minác began 

making his film and 

some of Winton’s “children,” who’d never 

known the identity of their savior, began 

searching him out, did this amazing man begin 

to discuss the past. 

To say that the video changed Rafaeli’s life 

would be an understatement. But it’s only 

part of the Winton saga that’s inspired him. 

Their pasts intertwined. It turned out that 

Rafaeli’s past was entwined with the film in 

a surprising way: He was born in the same 


12 

Czechoslovakian town as filmmaker Minác in 

Bratislava, now the capital of Slovakia. 

And Rafaeli’s life story has as much variety 

and as many layers as Winton’s. After his 

Holocaust experience, the consul emigrated to 

America, but not without considerable struggle 

and long delays. 

He went into the auto business (after 

completing his high school education) and 

ran a dealership for almost two decades in 

Baltimore, where he and his wife raised their 

two daughters. Then, 

from 1984 to 1997, he 

ran a dealership here in 

Fort Washington. 

Since his retirement, he 

has acted as the honorary 

Czech consul and is also 

the president and treasurer 

of the American Winton and his mother 

Friends of the Czech 

Republic, a group that is intimately involved 

in getting the Winton story out to the world. 

In the first steps of Rafaeli’s own Winton saga, 

the honorary consul began screening Minác’s 

film at various venues in the Philadelphia 

area, beginning with Reform Congregation 

Keneseth Israel in Elkins Park in 2003. 

But matters took a different, though related, 

turn when he visited his homeland 

the following year, for the 60th anniver- 

sary of the liberation of southwestern 

Czechoslovakia, and met up with Minác 

again, whom he’d first met in 2001. 

“This time, this young guy shoves a 

book in front of me, in Czech, called 

“Nicholas Winton’s Lottery of Life,” 

Rafaeli explained in a recent interview. 

“He’s written it and is also distributing it free 

of charge to children throughout the country, 

with the help of the Czech government, as part 

of Holocaust education.” 

“Then he asks me, ‘You don’t happen to 

know anyone who would want to translate it 

for me and get it published?’ I told him I was 

a naturalized citizen of the United States, but 

had not been an English major but rather a 

business major” (Rafaeli got his degree attending 

Johns Hopkins University at night), “but I 

said I would try.” 

Reading and then translating the book had 

probably an even greater effect on Rafaeli 

than seeing the film. “I am the self-appointed 

proudest citizen of this amazing country, 

which took me in and gave me a wonderful 

life when no other place would have me,” he 

said. “ But when I read in Minác’s book how 

President Roosevelt blew Winton off and 

would not let 

(continued on page 13)

Rescuer Revealed (continued from page 12) 

the children in, I was devastated. From that 

moment on, I decided I would try to undo 

some of what FDR had done by getting Winton 

recognized.” 

Rafaeli’s rendering, and like its Czech author, 

the translator is working to have it distributed 

throughout the country to promote education 

on the Holocaust. 

The initial seed money for this part of the 

project came from the Czech foreign ministry, 

while Hadassah in the United 

States is, according to Rafaeli, 

the largest single financial contributor. 

The video is now being 

distributed by Charles and Rita 

Gelman, who have an agreement 

with Minác. “They’re a retired 

couple who did very well and have their hearts 

in the right place,” said Rafaeli. “They’ve set 

up a foundation. And there’s close co-ordination 

between us, mostly in the area of teacher 

education.” 

But Rafaeli has gone even further than that 

to honor Winton. In 2006, with assistance from 

U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter’s office, President 

George W. Bush wrote to thank the British 

rescuer. In 2007, with the help of attorney Tom 

Boggs, the son of the late U.S. Rep. Hale Boggs 

(D-La.), with whom Rafaeli had once worked, 

and Boggs’ law partner Jeff Turner, the Czech 

consul drafted House Resolution 583, recognizing 

Winton’s rescue efforts. Then the late 

U.S. Rep. Tom Lantos (D-Calif.) and his wife 

Annette (both survivors) worked to have the 

resolution read into the Congressional Record. 

The honorary consul has met with Winton, 

who’s now Sir Nicholas, but whose friends call 

him “Nicky,” and wasn’t disappointed, as can 

be the case with “heroes.” Rafaeli said he found 

him to be “a very gregarious, witty, sharp, 

sharp, individual. I hope he lives till 120.” 

(Not a stretch; Winton turned 99 on May 19, 

2008) The Englishman is as self-effacing as 

many other Holocaust rescuers. When Rafaeli 

told him about House Resolution 583, Winton 

asked: “Why would the most important government 

of today be interested in what I’ve 

done?” 

“And he meant it sincerely,” continued the 

consul. “This was not false humility. I was glad 

I could tell him, ‘Nicholas, the good news is 

they’ve done something to make a wrong right. 

They didn’t do it voluntarily. But it’s an important 

thing and, considering the world we live in, 

maybe even more important.’” 

Asked why Winton never discussed the 

rescue and resisted until others sought him 

out, Rafaeli cited a passage in the book which 

states that Winton admitted that he “felt guilty 

that he couldn’t do more for the children of 

the last transport. The thought that none of 

these children survived still haunts him.” “It 

was definitely a guilt complex,” said Rafaeli. 

“He had left no stone unturned in his efforts to 

save the children, and then 250 kids, who were 

scheduled to leave on Sept. 1, all perished.” 

Rafaeli explained that Minác is working on a 

sequel that will focus on “Nicky’s children,” the 

“young ones” Winton saved who are still alive. 

More turn up every day, said Rafaeli, whenever 

the documentary is shown. In the sequel, added 

the consul, “they are going to reconstruct the 

last train out of Prague (the last transport that 

didn’t make it) and they plan to film it on Sept. 

1, 2009. As Winton’s children 

find out about this plan, every 

one of them wants to take the 

ride, and they are in their 80s.” 

Rafaeli noted that he has one 

problem left to solve, one thing 

that remains undone, the lack 

of recognition of Winton by the United States 

Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, 

D.C. “Believe me, I won’t give up until I die or 

something is done.” 

So what drives Rafaeli? Why has he worked 

so tirelessly? “Although I’m not a Winton child, 

from the time I saw the documentary, I’ve identified 

with him because of his philosophy of the 

power of good. He said once that there was a 

difference between passive goodness and active 

goodness. He said that active goodness is ‘the 

giving of one’s time and energy in the alleviation 

of pain and suffering. It entails going out, 

finding and helping those in suffering and danger, 

and not merely leading an exemplary life, 

in the purely passive way of doing no wrong.’ 

He wrote that in a letter in 1939 when he was 

just 29. It’s an extraordinary thing.” 

“I didn’t save anybody’s life,” continued 

Rafaeli. “But I’m grateful for what happened to 

me. And I think this is the right thing to do, pure 

and simple. You’ve got to pay back.” 

Ed: We heard of the documentary through the 

Embassy. The Embassy put us in touch with the 

Gelman Foundation who sent our first copy 

of the book. Then Peter called us with details 

for ordering the books. It has become a major 

ourtreach program with the CCMH. Since 

August 6th we have given books, hundreds, to 

educators from all the states including many 

internationally who speak English. We are 

proud to have an opportunity to participate in 

the worthy mission of learning or relearning 

history. We owe Consul Rafaeli greatly for his 

excellent translation and Matej Minac for the 

marvelous Documentary production. Please 

note last edition Spring Summer 2008 of the 

Czech Center Museum Houston cover. 

Robert Dvorak performs, Jane Cyva at the podium at 

Urbanek memorial 


13 

Dan Urbanek Memorial 

The Czech Center 

Museum Houston has lost 

another stalwart member 

who will be greatly 

missed. Dan is remembered 

by his friends “as 

the courtly gentleman he 

was to the core of his 

being,” said Effie Rosene 

in a letter to his friend and 

executor, Jane Cyva and 

to his family. Dan was a long time trainer and 

speaker for the Dale Carnegie organization, 

founded in 1912. Dale Carnegie Training has 

evolved from one man’s belief in the power of 

self-improvement to a performance-based training 

company focusing on giving people in business 

the opportunity 

to sharpen 

their skills and 

improve their 

performance in 

order to build 

positive, steady, 

Dan Urbanek and Jane Cyva 

Members Dinner 2007 

and profitable 

results. Certainly 

this training gave 

him his poise and comfort around others. He 

met Jane Cyva, who was also a member and 

they were friends as a result of this association. 

We met Dan in the year 2000. After his wife 

Colleen died he arranged to have a Memorial 

Tile inscribed in her memory. After our building 

was open for a time, we realized we really 

needed a service elevator and Dan rose to the 

c h a l l e n g e 

of loaning 

us funds to 

install this 

vital piece of 

equipment. 

After Dan’s 

death his will 

stipulated the 

forgiveness of the loan and included a stipend 

for the Center also. 

Fittingly, Ms. Cyva arranged a memorial service 

here at the Center on September 27, 2008, 

which was Dan’s birthday and was celebrated at 

the same time as people were told at the service 

would be upbeat and not a somber remembrance 

time complete with a birthday cake. 

Boardmember Robert Dvorak entertained during 

the luncheon served. Testimony was given 

by Ms. Cyva, Dan’s niece and Effie Rosene, 

who said “We know Dan is with us in spirit 

during our Holiday Parties, Members Dinners 

and Galas even when he wasn’t here. We really 

miss him and are glad to know you and more 

his family with whom we recently became 

acquainted.” Dan was surely acquainted with 

a quote by Dale Carnegie,“ Act enthusiastic 

and you will be enthusiastic.” Dan didn’t act 

it, he lived it. 

Don’t be afraid to give your best to what seemingly 

are small jobs. Every time you conquer 

one it makes you that much stronger. If you do 

the little jobs well, the big ones will tend to take 

care of themselves. Dale Carnegie

Bohemian and Moravian Pioneers in Colonial America 

Although a major exodus of Czechs to America did of Prague who came to Roanoke, NC in 1585 Comenius (1592-1670). They were true heirs of 

not take place until after the revolutionary year of with an expedition of explorers, organized by Sir the ancient Unitasfratrum bohemicorum, who found 

1848, there is plenty of evidence on hand attesting Walter Raleigh (1552-1618) and commanded by a temporary refuge in Herrnhut (“Ochranov” in 

to numerous cases of individual migrations from Raleigh’s cousin Sir Richard Greenville (1542- Czech language) in Lusatia under the patronage of 

the Czech lands not too long after the New World 1591). It is noteworthy that this expedition origi- Count Nikolaus Zinzendorf (1700-1760). Because 

was discovered. 

nated from Plymouth, England, thirty years before of the worsening political and religious situation 

As surprising as it may sound according to the Pilgrims set sails from the same port on their in Saxony, the Moravian Brethren, as they began 

some scholars, Czechs could actually claim some historic voyage to America. Due to lack 

calling themselves, had to seek a more 

credit for the discovery of the New World. I am of provisions for the colonists and the 

permanent home and also a new ter- 

referring to German author Franz Loeher, who inherent dangers from the Spaniards 

ritory where they could freely profess 

made the claim that Martin Behaim, rather than and the Indians the expedition had to 

their faith and expand their mission 

Columbus, or for that matter Amerigo Vespucci was be abruptly called to an end on June 19, 

activities. The North American conti- 

the true discoverer of America. Loeher celebrates 1856 when Sir Francis Drake (1516- 

nent with its abundance of fertile land 

Behaim, whom he considers to be a German, not 1590) was asked to take the whole com- 

and large Indian population was ideally 

only as the first European to view the coast of pany of colonists back to England. 

suited for their aims. After initial visits 

America off Brazil in the year 1483 but also as 

the instructor in western navigation of both later 

Who were the first Czech permanent 

settler in America we cannot say with 

Augusten Herman 

to St. Thomas in 1732 and Greenland 

in 1733, ten selected Brethren sailed in 

discoverers and explorers, Columbus and Magellan. certainty. It is certain, however, that among the November 1734 to the English province of Georgia, 

Although Loeher’s claim was later disputed, and first settlers was the famed Augustine Herman arriving in Savannah in February 1735. In the sum- 

even ridiculed, Behaim was known to take part (1621-1686) from Prague. He was a surveyor mer of the same year a second group, under the 

in the expedition of Diego Cap (1485-1486) that and skilled draftsman, successful planter and leadership of Bishop David Nitschmann, followed. 

followed the coast of Africa to Cape Cross. His developer of new lands, a shrewd and enterpris- This group comprised twenty-five persons, the 

most important work, which places him among ing merchant, a bold politician and an effective majority of whom were from Moravia or Bohemia. 

the greatest geographers of the Renaissance, was diplomat, fluent in several languages - clearly one Among the passengers on the ship was John Wesley 

his terrestrial globe, the earliest extant known that of the most conspicuous and colorful personalities (1703-1791), the founder of the Methodist Church, 

has been preserved in Nuremberg. What role this of the seventeenth century colonial America. After who became acquainted with the Brethren, attended 

globe played in the actual discovery of the New coming to New Amsterdam (present New York) he their services, worshiped with them, and lived 

World is not known. As the name indicates, Behaim became one of the most influential people in the in their homes during his initial stay in Georgia. 

was not a German at all but rather a Bohemian. Dutch Province which led to his appointment to Through the efforts of Bishop Ntschmami, the 

The name Behaim is the old German equivalent the Council of Nine to advise the New Amsterdam Brethren were soon organized into a congregation. 

of the later used term Boehme (i.e. Bohemian) Governor. One of his greatest achievements was Brother Anton Seiffert, a native of Bohemia, was 

which, prior to the usage of family surnames, was his celebrated map of Maryland and Virginia com- ordained as their preacher and named their elder. In 

commonly used to designate individuals coming missioned by Lord Baltimore on which he began 1736 they built their first church in North America. 

from Bohemia or the Czech Lands. According to working in earnest after removing to the English Despite their efforts, the Moravians did not find 

the family tradition the Behaim family moved to Province of Maryland. Lord Baltimore was so Georgia adequate for their religious pursuits and in 

Nuremberg from Bohemia after the death of the pleased with the map that he rewarded Herman 1740 the majority decided to leave for Pennsylvania 

Czech Duke Vratislav I. 

with a large estate, named by Herman “Bohemia which offered better conditions. 

The news of the discovery of the new World reached Manor,” and the hereditary title “Lord.” 

Another group of Moravian settlers, called by early 

the Kingdom of Bohemia as early as the first decade There was another Bohemian living in New Moravian historians “The First Sea Congregation,” 

of the 16th century, during the reign of Vladislav Amsterdam at that time, Frederick Philipse arrived in Philadelphia in June 1742. The largest 

the Jagellonian (1471-1516). Proof of this is given (1626-1720) who became equally famous in his contingent of Moravian Brethren ever to come 

by the existence of an early print in the Czech lan- own right. He was a successful merchant who to America arrived May 17, 1749 in New York, 

guage, “Spis o nowych zemiech a o nowem swietie eventually became the wealthiest person in the with the John Nitschmann Colony, along with 

o niemzto jsme prwe zadne znamosti nemeli ani kdy entire Dutch Province. He descended from an Christian David of Zenklava, Moravia, the founder 

tzo slychali,” the origin of which was placed to about aristocratic Protestant family from Bohemia who of Brethren’s Herrnhut, and Matthew and Rosina 

1509. lt is an adaptation of the renowned letter of had to flee from their native land at the outbreak Stach, Moravian missionaries in Greenland. 

Amerigo Vespucci addressed to the Medici family, of the Thirty Years’ War. 

The highest ranking dignitary among the early 

appended with other texts. The Czech version Preserved records document that other natives Moravians was Bishop Daniel Nitschmann (1691apparently 

preceded the other European nations in of the Czech lands lived in New Amsterdam, 1749), a native of Suchdol, Moravia, who devoted 

this regard since only the Latin original exists from some of who might have been there even prior to his entire life to the Moravian Church. He fled in 

that period. The printer and publisher of this rare the arrival of Augustine Herman and Frederick 1724 to Herrnhut and was immediately engaged in 

print is purported to be Mikulas Bakalar, origi- Philipse. One can find in the archives of the evangelic work in Germany and Russia. In 1732 he 

nally Stetina, of Pilsen, Bohemia. 

Reformed Dutch Church the record of a marriage went, together with Leupold Dober, to St. Thomas, 

The first visitors from the Czech lands in the New between a Moravian by name of J. Fradel and Virgin Islands, as the first Moravian missionaries 

World were an anonymous group of miners from Tyn Hersher which took place on February 1645. “among the heathens.” In 1735 he was consecrated 

Jachymov, Bohemia who, prior to 1528, were sent Several other Czech sounding names appear in the first bishop of the renewed Unity by Bishop 

to Little Naples (present Venezuela) to establish the the Dutch records. There is also evidence of Jablonsky of Berlin, the grandson of the famed John 

silver mines in that country, while in the employ the presence of Czechs in Virginia, as attested Amos Comenius, thus assuring the continuation of 

of the banking house of the Walser family. The by early ship passenger lists. Czech names also the evangelic work of the ancient Unitasfratrum of 

project apparently ended with failure since during appear in some documents in Massachusetts and Bohemian Brethren. The following year he led the 

a short time the Walsers gave up their efforts of Connecticut. 

Moravian colony to Georgia. In 1740 he arrived 

mining silver there and the miners returned home. The first significant wave of Czech colonists in Pennsylvania and in 1743 purchased a track of 

We also have a record from that period regarding a to come to America was that of the Moravian land on the Lehigh River where he founded a small 

Moravian jeweler in Mexico who was accused in Brethren who began arriving on the American colony from the abandoned settlement in Georgia, 

1536 of heresy and sentenced to do public penance shores in the first half of the eighth century. which he named “Bethlehem.” In 1744 he returned 

and expulsion from the Spanish territory. The first Moravian Brethren were the followers of the to Saxony later extending his labors 

documented case of the entry of a Bohemian on the teachings of the Czech religious reformer and 

(continued on page 15) 

North American shores is that of Joachim Gans martyr Jan Hus (1370-1415) and John Amos 


14

Pioneers (continued from page 14) The Czechoslovak Coup 

to New York and North Carolina. During his lifetime 

he visited the principal countries of Northern 

Europe and the West Indies, making almost fifty 

sea voyages. In 1755, returning to Pennsylvania 

he resided in Weissport and Lititz, and later at 

Bethlehem. 

Thanks to the foresight and historical sense 

of George Neisser (1715-1784) from Zilina, 

Moravia, we have a detailed account of the early 

events in Bethlehem as well as of the history of 

the Moravian Church during its formative years. 

Rev. Neisser was the first archivist and diarist of 

Bethlehem, its first schoolmaster and postmaster. 

Nathaniel Seidel (1718-1782), a descendant of 

Bohemian emigrants in Silesia, served for twenty 

years as the President of the American Provincial 

Board of the Elders. 

David Zeisberger Jr, whose parents abandoned 

their considerable estate in Moravia and fled for 

conscience sake to Herrnhut, after coming to 

America in 1738 embarked on an intensive study 

of Indian languages which provided a foundation 

for his illustrious career among American Indians, 

lasting more than sixty years. His able assistant, 

Moravian John Heckewelder, also attained prominence 

as a missionary among the Indians. Besides 

his missionary labors, he was a postmaster, a justice 

of peace, as well as justice of the court of common 

pleas. Thanks to Zeisberger’s and Heckewelder’s 

writings we have preserved accurate documentation 

of the life and the customs of American 

Indians. 

Another noteworthy personality among the 

Moravian Brethren was the organ builder David 

Tanneberger (1728-1804), born on the Count 

Zinzendorf estate in Berthelsdorf. He was a skillful 

joiner, was a notably good tenor, and played the 

violin. He learned the organ-building craft and soon 

became well-known for his unique technical skills. 

Organs of his manufacture were in high repute 

and were shipped all over eastern Pennsylvania 

from his Lititz shop, even to such distant places as 

Albany, New York. 

The members of the Demuth family who 

came originally from Karlov, Moravia, were 

tobacconists by trade and successful merchants 

whose shop in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, still in 

existence, is the oldest of its kind in the entire 

United States. Some of their descendants were 

talented artists, particularly Charles Demuth, 

water-color illustrator and still-life painter, who 

were considered the predecessor of Andy Warhol. 

Cultural contributions of Moravian Brethren 

from the Czech lands were distinctly notable in the 

realm of music. The trumpets and horns used by 

the Moravians in Georgia are the first evidence of 

Moravian instrumental music in America. Johann 

Boehner (1710-1785) from Zelena Hora, Moravia 

is the first recorded Moravian instrumentalist. 

The program of music in Bethlehem was greatly 

stimulated by the arrival in 1761 of two talented 

musicians, Jeremiah Dencke, a Silesian, and H. 

Nitschmann, a Moravian. Johann Frederick 

organist of the Bethlehem Church was also a composer 

of note. Peter of Silesia is considered the 

first Moravian composer in America, having composed 

over 80 hymns. The America-born Christian 

Till of Bohemian ancestry, who succeeded Peter as 

the Bohemian and Moravian presence in Colonial 

America would not be complete 

Many important issues were discussed amongst 

the Allied leaders during the wartime conferences 

of World War II. Unfortunately, many of the 

agreements made at these historic conferences 

were broken in the postwar years. The events 

that led up to the Czechoslovakian coup of 1948 

exemplify this sad fact perfectly. 

Eastern Europe became an issue for the Allied 

leaders to discuss when the Soviet army began 

to occupy this area in 1944. Many proposals of 

how these states would be administered were 

considered. One plan was Winston Churchill’s, 

which called for the region to be divided into 

spheres of influence similar to how Germany 

was divided. Churchill was also a proponent of 

the plan to allow the governments-in-exile of 

these nations (that were operating in London at 

the time) to return to power in their homeland 

once the war was over. 

Josef Stalin opposed both these plans, as 

he had Czech and Polish nationals in Moscow 

who were being trained to lead their respective 

nations when the war was over. They would lead 

a communist government and be backed by the 

army, which would already be present in these 

states. Stalin also told the Allied leaders that it 

would be in the national interest of the Soviet 

Union to have a heavy presence in the region 

so Eastern Europe could serve as a buffer zone 

between the Soviet Union and what they perceived 

as European aggression. 

Realizing that Stalin was voicing a legitimate 

Pioneers (continued) 

without saying a few words about the descendants 

of the first known settlers from the Czech 

lands, i.e. Augustine Herman and Frederick 

Philipse. The finest legacy Augustine Herman 

left behind was his living legacy, represented by 

his progeny. Although his male line and with this 

also his name became extinct in 1739, Herman’s 

three daughters and the female issue of his grandson 

left numerous descendants “filing the annals 

of the worthy and the rich.” Based on numerous 

genealogical and historical sources, I have 

been able to identify a number of distinguished 

personalities, U.S. senators, congressmen, state 

governors, Supreme Court Justices, members of 

President’s Cabinets, and other men and women 

of substance, who are linear descendants of 

Augustine Herman. The same holds true about 

the descendants about Herman’s contemporary, 

Frederick Philipse. I like to conclude with an old 

saying “Cesi se nikdy ve svete neztrati.” 

Miloslav Rechcigl Jr. 

Ed: Mila Rechcigl, as he likes to be called, a 

scientist, scholar and amateur historian, current 

President of the Czechoslovak Society of Arts 

and Sciences (SVU) was born in Mladá Boleslav, 

Czechoslovakia. His father was a prominent 

politician in pre-World War II Czechoslovakia, 

having been elected as the youngest member to 

the Czechoslovak Parliament and who held the 

position of President of the Millers Association 

of Bohemia and Moravia. After the communist 

takeover, Mila escaped from his native country 

and in 1950 immigrated to the United States, 

becoming a naturalized citizen in 1955. A graduate 

of Cornell University with B.S., M.N.S., and 

Ph.D. degrees, he specializes in biochemistry, 

nutrition, physiology, and food science. 


15 

concern (knowing Russia had been invaded from 

the west several times throughout history), the 

Allied leaders allowed the Baltic States and part 

of Poland to come under the Soviets’ influence. 

Stalin, for his part, promised free elections in 

Poland, and it was inferred in the other Baltic 

states as well, at the Yalta conference in 1945. 

But history was to show that the Baltic states 

would enjoy no such freedom. A communist 

government was installed in Romania, the Polish 

elections were cancelled, the elected prime minister 

of Bulgaria was forced out of the position 

(and the country) and the leading activist against 

communism in Bulgaria was arrested and executed. 

Bulgaria became a People’s Republic in July 

of 1947 and Romania in December of 1947. 

The case of Czechoslovakia demonstrates most 

clearly how the Soviets went against Stalin’s 

wartime promise and imposed communism on an 

unwilling nation. Since the war, Czechoslovakia 

had worked to achieve a non-aligned policy that 

best served its national interests. When it came 

to foreign affairs the Czechs tended to ally themselves 

with the powerful (and geographically 

close) Soviet Union, but domestically the Czech 

government was restoring the democracy that 

had existed there in the time between the two 

world wars. To hasten their economic recovery 

after World War II, the Czech government was 

in favor of accepting aid offered in the Marshall 

Plan. 

But the Soviets did not intend to allow any 

state within their sphere of influence to become 

a democracy; this threatened the security offered 

by the buffer zone that the Soviets had created. 

Stalin first told the Czech leaders that they were 

not to accept the aid from the Marshall Plan, 

and then formed the Cominform to combat the 

Marshall Plan and the “American imperialism” 

that it represented. Czechoslovakia was 

an unwilling participant in this organization, 

and as a result did not receive aid for recovery. 

It suffered the same fate as the other nations in 

Eastern Europe that Stalin had denied the right 

to participate in the Marshall Plan; its economy 

deteriorated while those of the western European 

states began to recover. 

But economic stagnation was not all that 

was in store for the Czechs. As a reaction 

to the Greek communists’ attempted ouster of 

the government and the increasing presence of 

the Soviets in Turkey, U.S. President Harry 

Truman announced the Truman Doctrine. The 

Doctrine stated that the U.S. would “provide 

economic and military support to Greece and 

Turkey and to any other country threatened by 

communism.” 

Stalin rose to this challenge of his authority in 

Eastern Europe. Supported by the Soviet Army 

and Soviet influence, both of which were already 

strong in Czechoslovakia, the communists carried 

out a coup in Prague in February of 1948. 

Though bloodless, the coup was nonetheless 

nasty. Leading politicians who advocated democracy 

were arrested and imprisoned, and the communists 

infiltrated the government. Shortly after 

the coup the Czech president, Edvard Benes, 

was ousted from power and replaced by the 

leader of the Czech communist party, Klement 

Gottwald. The last independent government in 

Eastern Europe had become communist. 

Source: The Cold War Museum

Letters 

Dear Effie, How sweet you were to send me 

the interesting book! I read just a bit of it, and I 

can’t wait to really dig in. Reading is one of my 

main hobbies. Thank you so much for the gift 

and for all you have done for my family. David 

so enjoyed his tickets you gave him previously. 

Unfortunately, I will be driving my daughter 

to college at Gala time. I will miss being a part 

of it this year. Hope it is as successful as it was 

last year! 

Fondly, Suzi Hornbuckle, Kingwood 

Thank you and Effie for the nice article about 

Helena and me. “Pozdravi” to you both. Also, 

I enjoyed reading Irena Rorvene’s article about 

Slovak life in Binghamton. That’s where I was 

born and what she writes parallels my own life- 

only I’m old enough to be her mother. Helena 

is the editor of the newsletter, “Morava Krasne” 

as well as “Slovakia” newsletter. My parents 

were both from Moravia. Mother, Rozalis 

Palesckova was from Streznice and Dad was 

from Rateskovice. They were young when they 

came to U.S., and met in Binghamton. We were 

all born in U.S, but I didn’t speak English until 

I started school, almost age 6, in a one room 

country school house. I didn’t mean to write my 

life’s history. Thanks for your help. 

Helen Baine Liverpool, NY 

Annette and I had a grand time at the Czech 

Center Gala. You and Bill should be commended 

for all your dedication and effort in making 

the Gala a great success. Both of you amaze us 

with your tireless and abounding energy. You 

certainly deserve a big “THANKS.” 

Paul & Annette Sofka 

I’ve meant to send these to you since the site 

visit before ‘ole [hurricane] Ike rolled into town 

and tore things up! It was a real pleasure to be 

with you and I look forward to more visits to 

the center. Enjoy the DVD’s of “Uncle Jesse.” 

Hope this finds you well and happy. 

Ann Hamilton, Houston Endowment Inc. 

Dear Effienka and Bill, 

Thanks for your sweet note. We had such a 

nice time showing Sandra around our beautiful 

center. I just knew you would like her. She’s a 

warm, caring person! And what a surprise that 

she bought all those chances! I also told her to 

let her friends know what a lovely place we 

have for weddings, showers, luncheons, etc. 

She does know a lot of people that can afford it. 

I talked Len into springing for a chance, ha, and 

one is for me. Be sure they get into the drawing 

box. Thanks again, God Bless, Na Shledanou, 

Lorraine (Rod) Green 

September 2008 

Dear Mr. and Mrs. Rosene, 

Thank you for giving me the chocolates 

and the stickers. That was very kind of you 

to think of me. I hope that you are doing well 

after Hurricane Ike came into town. Thank you 

again, 

Victoria Kerchen-Alberto (age 6) 

I want to thank you for your generous response 

to accept copies of Holy Infant Jesus. I keep the 

center in my thoughts, prayers, and efforts to 

promote your work. In Christ, 

Father Damien, Sugarland TX 

Thank you for honoring us at the 14th Annual 

Benefit Gala of the Czech Center Museum 

Houston on Saturday, August 23, 2008. It was 

a lovely evening of dinner and dancing among 

the people who wish to remember their Czech 

heritage. Effie, you and Bill were so kind to 

remember us for volunteering in the early 

years and for James’ continued participation 

in volunteering. We have fond memories of the 

beginning of the Czech Center and of the many 

ways you have been thoughtful of us. You both 

take everyone under your wings and treat them 

like family, and through it all you both strive 

to be good guides in the operation and vision 

of the Czech Center. We can’t say “thank you” 

enough to the two of you who have put your 

hearts and souls and fifteen years of your lives 

into this endeavor. We can only tell you that 

we appreciate your efforts and support them. 

James has been unwavering in his desire to be 

a volunteer for the Czech Center. Again, thank 

you for honoring us. We enjoyed the evening 

and the company, especially seeing your family 

again. Love, James & Danna Ermis 

Dear Effie, 

Bill and I wanted to congratulate you on a 

wonderful Gala Celebration. You should be 

very proud of your Czech Center and the great 

support generated by your enthusiasm and 

leadership. I enjoyed visiting with Bill, but I 

can assure you he was working every minute 

to make sure things were running smoothly for 

you! The dinner was delicious, and a fun time 

was had by all. See you in November. 

Fondly, 

Catherine Cabaniss, Birmingham, AL 

Dear Effie, I so enjoyed meeting you, Mr. 

Rosene and Mr. Saunders yesterday at what 

I have determined to be the best kept secret 

in town! I am delighted to know that such a 

beautiful facility exists, and it is one that offers 

so many wonderful treasures from the Czech 

Republic. John and I are determined to visit and 

tour the center, hopefully this Saturday early 

afternoon. I love the part of my position here at 

The University of Texas Health Science Center 

at Houston that allows me the opportunity to 

meet people such as you and to learn of hidden 

treasures to be enjoyed and shared. I relayed 

my adventure to Betsy Frantz, Vice President of 

Fundraising and Advancement Programs, and 

she is anxious to visit the Center as a possible 

venue for our annual office Holiday Party. I will 

coordinate calendars next week and determine 

a time when we can meet you and see the ballroom 

together. Many thanks and best wishes to 

you, your staff, and volunteers. 

Ellen S. Wallace 

Honey is the only food that doesn’t spoil! 

Life not only begins at forty, 

It also begins to show! 


16 

Effie & Bill, 

Being of Czech heritage, I sincerely wish it 

would be geographically possible (we reside in 

Scottsdale, Arizona) for me to volunteer at the 

Czech Center Museum Houston. As a 25+year 

museums volunteer with 5000+ volunteer 

hours, I can attest to the many pluses of being 

a volunteer. I started volunteering at the Heard 

Museum in Phoenix, AZ prior to retirement 

being on the horizon. Not only does a volunteer 

provide services where one is truly needed, 

but the learning and growing opportunities are 

never ending. How often I’ve heard retiring 

folks, say, “What will I do with my time? I’d 

like to volunteer, but I don’t know where.” I 

was so grateful I connected and developed new 

interests long before retirement. Now, among 

our collecting interests, volunteering, and travel, 

I continue to remain involved, busy and very 

happy. It is unfortunate you have to make this 

plea [asking for more volunteers]. Hopefully 

members in the Houston area will rapidly realize 

they are “losers” for not taking advantage of 

an excellent opportunity. Respectfully, 

Jean Hullicek, Scottsdale, Arizona 

Ed: Trudy Davis was interested on the origins 

of her family, but we first made contact by 

her desire to purchase a meaningful gift from 

Prague International Gifts so we were interested 

in where her family had immigrated from 

in the Czech lands. Herewith are excerpts from 

the e-mail correspondence. 

Trudy: Yes, my parents were very special 

people. Tenant farmers all of their lives. They 

had thirteen children - my twin sister and I 

were the last ones. We have eleven surviving 

children. We lost one of my brothers when I 

was a teenager and last December, lost another 

to a heart attack. 

My parents were both born in a village 

in Czechoslovakia; I believe it was in the 

Moravian region. I know how to pronounce 

the name, but not how to spell it. (It was 

Damborice) My father was 4 years older than 

my mom and he came over when he was just 

a few months old, then four years later, my 

mother’s family came over when she was just 

a few months old. I thought it was interesting 

that they were both born in the same village 

and their families did not know each other 

until they came to the United States. Both my 

parents were from large families - My mother’s 

maiden name was Mokry and my father was a 

Rosipal. My mother and father had three brothers 

and sisters who married each other - so the 

Mokry/Rosipal families are intertwined in all 

directions. 

My mother’s father thought it was very 

important to become a U.S. citizen, so as soon 

as he was able, he became a citizen thereby 

making his entire family US citizens. My 

father’s father was not so impressed with being 

a citizen; therefore, my father had to register 

each and every year of his life as an ‘alien.’ I 

had six brothers, all who served in the US military, 

two (continued on page 17)

Letters Head (continued from page 16) The Business of the Arts Czech Celebrate Visa Waiver 

serving during war time. One brother served 

in the Korean War and the youngest served in 

Vietnam. We all felt that Dad was a citizen 

even though he was not legally listed as one. 

He could not read nor write. My mother had to 

show him how to write his full name of Joseph 

whenever he registered for Social Security 

because he had always just signed his name 

“Joe.” 

He was an extremely proud man. We all 

laugh when we recall the story of an insurance 

agent coming to the farm and introducing himself 

as John Smith, Agent, and my father shook 

his hand and said “Joe Rosipal, Farmer.” Years 

later, my brother had a wooden plaque made 

with that expression carved into it. After my 

parents died, he kept that plaque and has it 

hanging in his home. 

I guess that is why we decided many, many 

years ago to start having combined family 

reunions - to attempt to keep the family history 

going. I only have one uncle left - all the others 

have passed, so we are trying to learn as much 

of our family history as we can. We all believe 

that it is terribly important to keep the Czech 

history alive for the next generations. 

Bill: What a great story! Please continue to 

find out all you can. The village you are thinking 

about is probably Damborice, south east of 

Brno. It is maybe twenty miles from our small 

home near Breclav in South Moravia. That is 

where Mary Jane Rozypal and her sister go. 

You should get to know her and I can give you 

her name and address if you don’t have it. 

We would be in the Czech Republic right now 

if some things hadn’t interfered in our life but 

we plan to go probably mid June. We visit a 

potter in a little village south of Damborice and 

we have returned home passing through there 

just to see it. I am certain that you have living 

relatives there. If you can find your father’s or 

mother’s village of origin and their birthdates to 

verify we know a researcher that can trace your 

family tree back to the 1600’s as we have had 

Effie’s (my wife) done. 

Trudy: You are right, it is Damborice and I 

know that Mom always spoke about being 

from Moravia. Of course, people who did not 

know better used to call us Bohemians and 

Mother always took great offense to that - she 

said that Bohemians were like gypsies and we 

were from Moravia, not Bohemia. I will get the 

information on Mom’s and Dad’s birthdates and 

maybe check into the research - it would be so 

very interesting to find these things out. I will 

find out all kinds of info at the Reunion. My 

niece went to the Czech Republic with a college 

group and she took a picture of the village sign 

showing Damborice and with the village in the 

background and it looked so beautiful - like a 

picture postcard. I would love to travel there. 

My mother’s sister was 18 years older than she 

and she would tell mother about taking loaves 

of bread in wheelbarrows to the village ovens 

on their designated day to bake - it was so very 

interesting to hear how they lived. 

In Houston the nonprofit arts are a $626.3 million 

industry in Houston supporting 14,115 fulltime 

jobs and generating 69.5 million in local 

and state government revenues. This is equal 

to the estimated economic impact of almost four 

Superbowls ($165.5 million each.) 

Houston is home to more than 500 non-profit 

arts organizations. 

The Houston Museum District is one of the 

largest museum campuses in the country. It 

includes 18 institutions within walking distance 

of each other. 

Houston is one of only a few U.S. cities to offer 

world-class, year-round resident companies in 

all of the traditional performing arts: Houston 

Symphony, Houston Grand Opera, Alley Theatre 

and the Houston Ballet. 

Annual expenditures by Houston’s nonprofit arts 

organizations total $270 million; an additional 

$365.3 million in event-related spending is generated 

by their audiences. 

Houston art and culture events attract 9.2 million 

visits per year. This is more than twice the 

number to attend Houston’s three major league 

professional sports teams in 2005 and almost half 

the number of total annual visitors to the city. 

Houston’s corporate leaders identify our vibrant 

arts sector as a fundamental tool for workforce 

attraction and retention. The arts are seen as 

a cornerstone, making Houston an increasingly 

international and culturally diverse city and generating 

restaurant and hotel business. 

Ed: The Czech Center Museum Houston is proud to 

be included as one of Houston’s eighteen fine museums 

in the business of the arts and culture! 

Humor 

If you had purchased $1,000 of shares in Delta 

Airlines one year ago, you would have $49.00 

today. 

If you had purchased $1,000 of shares in AIG 

one year ago, you would have $33.00 today. 

If you had purchased $1,000 of shares in 

Lehman Brothers one year ago, you would 

have $0.00 today. 

But, if you had purchased $1,000 worth of beer 

one year ago, drank all the beer, then turned in 

the aluminum cans for a recycling refund, you 

would have received $214.00. 

Based on the above, the best current investment 

plan is to drink heavily $ recycle. It is 

called the 401-keg. 

A recent study found that the average American 

walks about 900 miles a year. 

Another study found that Americans drink, 

on average, 22 gallons of alcohol a year. That 

means, on average, Americans get about 41 

miles to the gallon. 

Makes you proud to be an American! 

Meeting you and “meeting” the Center at 

Andrea White’s We’re all Neighbors was wonderful, 

beautiful and enlightening! I was introduced 

to one of Houston’s jewels and so appreciated 

your hospitality. 

DeeDee Dochen, 

DDD Marketing Communications 


17 

November 17, 2008 marked a major milestone 

in US-Czech relations as travel by Czechs to 

the U.S. without visas became a reality. Deputy 

Prime Minister Alexandr Vondra highlighted 

the event’s significance by traveling to the U.S. 

on the first flight of “visa-free” Czech travelers. 

On his way to Washington, Minister Vondra 

passed through customs in New York using his 

personal, not diplomatic, passport, inaugurating 

the new visa-free regime. November 17, 1989 

goes down in history as the date the Velvet 

Revolution began, and the double significance 

of the November 17 date was not lost as Minister 

Vondra spoke at a special reception celebrating 

the visa waiver hosted by Ambassador Petr 

Kolár at the Czech Embassy in Washington. 

Expressing his elation, Minister Vondra underscored 

the importance of the change and how it 

will affect all types of Czech travelers. Citing 

the removal of the “last cold war barrier in 

the relationship,” Minister Vondra singled out 

American Friends of the Czech Republic for 

helping bring it about. For Czechs, joining the 

visa-waiver regime means they no longer need 

to go through the tedious and costly visa application 

process at the U.S. Embassy in Prague 

prior to making a trip to the U.S. In addition to 

enabling Czechs to make unencumbered tourist 

visits to the U.S., the change will enable them 

to more effectively conduct business, facilitate 

educational opportunities, and improve cultural 

ties. Artists, performers and scientists/professors 

will all be able to make visits for important 

technical meetings, performances and conferences. 

Visa-free travel truly strengthens the 

US-Czech relationship. 

AFoCR Newsletter 

Hurricane Ike’s Calling Card 

After Hurricane Ike departed 

with its one-hundred mile an 

hour wind and accompanying 

rain, volunteers the next day 

were faced with taking care 

of wind-blown rain that penetrated 

the roof line on the west 

Volunteer Larry Anderson 

side of the building dampened 

walls and wet the carpet to a distance of about twelve 

feet from the wall on the first floor. Volunteers moved 

furniture, emptied display cases onto tables to move 

them in order to wet vacuum the carpet. The Center 

is faced with some sheetrock repair and painting and 

baseboard that was warped and needs to be replaced. 

Larry & Fr. Paul Chovanec drying the Chapel 

The organization’s insurance has a high deductible so 

it will not be a resource to use to repair. Thanks to 

hard work of volunteers we were back in business 

two days after the hurricane.

“Schengen in Bohemia” or The Late Demise of the Iron Curtain 

The Schengen Agreement was a set of agreements 

made by European states which consequently 

has abolished border controls between 

EU member countries (and also 4 non-EU 

countries - Switzerland, Norway, Iceland and 

Liechtenstein) for citizens of those countries. 

In essence it has eliminated all border controls 

within the Europe Union meaning that as a 

citizen of an EU country (or the four non-EU 

as above) you can roam freely from country to 

country. However if you are from outside the 

EU, for example the US, then you will need a 

Schengen Visa - however this does mean that 

you can then roam freely within the EU for the 

length of your visa. An example of this is that 

you will see at the airports in Europe that are 

three customs channels nowadays - Green, Red 

and one marked for EU 

At the end of 2006 the Czechs border controls 

disappeared. What does this mean for the “average 

Czech”? In purely practical terms: if you 

go by car to say, Germany, you no longer have 

to stop at that low square 

building that looks like a 

petrol station, dig out your 

papers and show them to 

the fellow in the uniform. 

The Czech Republic had 

belonged to the European 

Union for four years now, 

and so even for the past 

while they didn’t look 

too much at your papers 

anymore, they just asked 

“Going on vacation?” and 

waved you through. So 

without the border check 

there is less of a holdup, 

less hassle. 

But it’s not quite that simple with the borders 

– actually it goes a bit “deeper,” shall 

we say. For people who lived at least some of 

their adult (or adolescent) lives under communism, 

the borders are not just a line between 

countries, a staking out of territory. The words 

“border” and “border area” still evoke a sense 

of adventure, of darkness and foreboding. The 

borders are a symbol of the vast prison that 

most Czechs grew up in, a symbol of fear 

and the police state. A wall behind which lies 

freedom, beyond which one may not pass – a 

place of dying, half-decayed villages, a “noman’s 

land” of high-voltage barbed wire, where 

people were shot and died. When I say the word 

“border,” I always think of the border separating 

us from the west. 

There is great interest in the former “iron curtain” 

on the part of the public. Czech Television 

recently broadcast a special documentary series 

on the border, and there are internet pages 

devoted to the topic as well. But it is questionable 

whether these “Eastern” feelings are 

understood by people in the former Western 

Europe; whether they are able to understand 

that “Schengen” is not just a complicated technical 

and economic mechanism for making life 

simpler. It does carry a certain risk, but it also 

marks the end of a terrible chapter in history. 

For some people it even provides an effective 

inoculation against “personal psychological 

problems” (something I will explain at the end 

of the text). 

I’m reading a police report from 1949. State 

Security unit Mokriny was tipped off by a citizen 

of the village of Nebesa that “a while ago 

an unfamiliar young man asked for directions 

and the distance to the state border.” The patrol 

caught up with him, and Officer Kalivoda 

began to shoot. The man ran and Kalivoda fired 

again, after which “he found him lying on the 

ground on his back, his hands pressed to his 

stomach, from which the officer concluded that 

he was wounded…He then saw that his trousers 

were unfastened and his intestines were coming 

out.” The wounded man was treated and 

taken to the hospital; from his documents the 

police learned that his name was Josef Polek, 

but “despite immediate medical care… he died 

in the hospital about 10 minutes after having 

undergone an operation.” 

Polek was a typical victim of the border. He 

would never have been given permission to 

leave the county, so he tried it himself in the 

western border region of Karlovy Vary. And 

because the borderlands were teeming with 

informers, it was enough for a “proper citizen” 

to pick up the telephone and Josef Polek was 

shot down like a dog. How many people suffered 

the same fate? Statistics from the Office 

for the Documentation and Investigation of 

the Crimes of Communism state that between 

1948 and 1989, 145 people were shot to death 

trying to flee to Austria or Germany, 96 were 

killed by electricity, 11 people were confirmed 

drowned while trying to escape, while another 

50 were found by the police in the rivers in the 

border regions. In addition, 16 people “committed 

suicide.” 

During the period 1948-1989 many more 

unfortunates were of course arrested than killed. 


18 

I will probably always remember the story of 

Otto Neumann, who came from mixed Czech- 

German family. They caught him on October 

30, 1949 as he was trying to join his sweetheart 

(herself originally a German-speaking 

Czechoslovakian citizen) who had emigrated 

from Czechoslovakia. He went the same way 

as Polek, trying to go over the border near the 

town of As. He was not especially prepared; 

all he had with him was a map and a pistol he 

had found in the forest after the war. In Cheb 

he naively confided to a taxi driver that he was 

headed “over the hills.” The taxi driver offered 

to take him to his friend, a border smuggler and 

took him straight to the police instead. 

Otto Neuman last remembered: “They told 

me to get out of the car. A solider was standing 

there with a submachine gun. He led me 

inside and told me to open my pack. There he 

found my maps. He looked at me and suddenly 

said, “Hands up!” I knew this was trouble. On 

my left stood another solider with a machine 

gun and opposite me a police man. There was 

nothing I could do. I started to 

put up my hands, but then I said 

to myself, it’s now or never. I 

reached into my pocket for the 

revolver. The sight caught in my 

pocket. The policeman jumped 

on me and knocked me to the 

ground.” They beat Neumann, 

and he got nineteen years for 

treason and attempted murder. 

He wound up in the Uranium 

mines, and never saw his girlfriend 

again. 

Stories about events on the 

border are usually verifiable 

through memoirs and archival 

documents. For example, there 

were hundreds of agents who went back and 

forth across the border. These were often exsolider 

who had fled communism and then 

begun to cooperate with Western intelligence. 

Sooner or later they ended up in the hands of 

the Czechoslovak State Security (secret police) 

and were sent to labor camps, like the writer 

Ota Rambousek or the eastern front veteran 

Jarolsav Grossman, both turned in by informers. 

The State Security also used the border as 

bait, as in operation Kameny (“Stones”), in 

which the police created a cynical piece of 

theatre to catch unfortunates yearning to get out 

of Czechoslovakia. The supposed smugglers 

were actually secret police agents. They left the 

would-be escapes to a “German patrol,” again 

played by agents in disguise. They were then 

debriefed by an “American officer” (another 

agent) and questioned about their anti-communist 

friends, only to be then “kidnapped” again 

by State Security agents and taken “back” to 

Czechoslovakia, where 

(continued on page 19)

Schengen (continued) The Nauenberg Story 

they were charged and their friends arrested. 

Of course the whole charade took place a safe 

distance inside the border. 

After 1953, a two-and-half meter fence was 

put up around the border and charged with high 

voltage, the so-called wall of death. The fence 

was the idea of Ludvik Hlavacka, a State 

Security officer. He was reputed to have been 

a Gestapo confidant. In the 1950s he was an 

investigator for the State Security in Uherske 

Hradiste, where he constructed an electric torture 

device. After studying in the USSR he was 

made the head of the border guard, and finally 

Deputy Minister of the Interior. According 

to historians Hlavacka was one of the people 

who were directly responsible for the deadly 

installations on the border. The border guards 

Hlavacka commanded, who chased and shot 

people, were presented by communist propaganda 

as heroes, tough men protecting the 

“people’s democratic” system. When I was six 

or seven years old I met some border guards at 

Pioneer camp. They demonstrated the training 

of a “self-motivated attack dog” that was able 

to bring down the “violator.” In the Border 

Guard Museum there was a preserved mounted 

dog named Brek, who had personally assisted 

in the apprehension of some 50 “violators,” and 

was accordingly decorated by the state. 

People succeeded in crossing the border by 

various means throughout the entire era of 

communist rule. In 1951 an engineer hijacked 

a train to Germany with more than a hundred 

people on it; thirty-four of them remained in the 

West. In 1961, a home-adapted truck smashed 

through the barriers with seven people on 

board. In 1966, two people galloped away from 

a police patrol on horseback. During the “normalization” 

era of the 1970s and 1980s, people 

tried to flee by hiding in the trunks of western 

tourists’ automobiles or, in one case, got away 

in a small tank pieced together in a barn. One 

of my friends from France helped get a persecuted 

Czech musician out – he resembled her 

French friend, so she got him though on her 

friend’s French passport. To close this article, 

allow me to say something personal. Sometime 

in 1988, my friend Svatopluk and I thought of 

a plan to get to the West. I was sixteen, and 

it was a pretty adolescent idea: Svata had a 

cousin in Austria who regularly traveled to 

Prague. So he got the idea (archives show that 

he was not alone) of hiding in his Audi, in the 

trunk or behind the back seat. He said no one 

ever checked his cousin – it was a sure thing. 

Fortunately his cousin was a sensible person 

and told Svata no way. But the plan impressed 

me, and remained firmly in my memory – and 

certainly it contributed to the fact that whenever 

I crossed the border after 1989, I felt a slight 

tingling and a relieved, almost blessed feeling, 

when we got to the other side. A polite policeman 

is still a policeman; a formal border check 

is still a check. Now it’s all gone, and it seems I 

feel somewhat more normal than I did before. 

Adam Drda, Heart of Europe 

It was the summer of 1976, and I was sailing 

the Scandinavian seas on the cruise ship Daphne 

when I happened to meet two charming women, 

a mother and her daughter, whom had a dramatic 

Holocaust story to tell. The mother was Erna 

Sachs Nauenberg. The daughter is Lucrecia 

Nauenberg El Abd. Instead of recounting my 

story, I will have Erna tell it: “My husband was 

Walter Gerhard Nauenberg, born January 29, 

1897. I was born September 26, 1903. We lived 

and were educated in Berlin. We were trained 

as medical doctors and worked at the Berlin 

hospital. Three children were born to us: Eva 

in 1933, Michael in 1934, and Uriel in 1938. 

In 1938, my mother, Emma Kalmann, was the 

only surviving member of her generation in 

our family. 

My husband and I served as physicians to several 

consulates in Berlin. By reason of special 

medical service we rendered, we formed a particularly 

close friendship with the Ambassador 

of the Republic of Columbia. When a visitor to 

a consulate in Berlin needed medical attention, 

we were called. 

With the rise of Hitler and Nazism in 1933, 

we realized that we had to flee Germany, but 

Emma was too frightened to leave. Because of 

Emma’s reluctance, we found ourselves with 

three small children under the age of five still 

in Berlin in late 1938. 

It was on Kristallnacht (the Night of Broken 

Glass) November 9, 1938, when the Gestapo 

came to our home banging on the front door, 

hunting my husband. It was a terrible night. The 

Nazis systematically looted homes and stores, 

set fire to synagogues and instigated mass 

rioting all across Germany. The Ambassador 

of Columbia, aware of the gravity of situation, 

came to the back door of our home on 

Neuewinterfeldstrasse to warn my husband and 

offer asylum. With the Gestapo outside of our 

front door, the Ambassador helped my husband 

escape through the back door and took him 

directly to the Columbian Embassy. After the 

rioting had died down somewhat, my husband 

called me from the embassy and told me to 

leave everything and come there with the children 

immediately. I was eight months pregnant. 

The Gestapo did not take the children and me 

on Kristallnacht because the leader of the group 

said he did not want to deal with the mess of a 

woman giving birth in Gestapo headquarters, 

but he stated they would come back for us the 

next day. 

After that dreadful night, my husband never 

returned to our home in Berlin. It was a fine 

home, furnished with fine antiques including 

a beautiful Bosendorfer grand piano my 

husband loved to play. I left everything. The 

Columbian Ambassador granted my husband 

a visa and arranged for him to be spirited 

across the German border into Holland where 

he boarded a ship for Columbia. He made one 

last telephone call to us from Holland before 

leaving Europe; upon being told of the birth of 

Uriel on December 16, Beethoven’s birthday, 


19 

he pleaded with me to name him “Ludwig” 

in honor of the great composer. However, in 

1938, the Third Reich had issued a decree that 

all Jewish women were required to choose the 

names of their newborns from a governmentmandated 

list. At the time of our son’s birth, 

the name on the list that was the least offensive 

to me was Uriel. I always wanted to give my 

male children names of archangels. My first 

son was named Michael, the name of my father 

as well as the one of the archangels. Uriel was 

nicknamed “Uli.” 

After “Uli” was born, the Columbian 

Ambassador arranged visas to Columbia for our 

children and me, as well as our nanny because 

I was by then the official physician of the 

Embassy. As we prepared to leave Germany, 

the Gestapo came to our home everyday to 

inspect items we proposed to take with us from 

Germany. The one professional memento they 

allowed me to take was the microscope I used 

in my medical office in Berlin. My three children 

and I, with our nanny, boarded a boat in 

Hamburg bound for Barranquilla, Columbia 

(one of the few places in South America that 

would accept refugees fleeing Nazi Germany). 

We arrived there on June 6, 1939. What of my 

mother, Emma Kalmann? She was unable to 

overcome her fear of leaving Germany, and 

despite all efforts to persuade her, she remained 

there. For many years we were unable to learn 

her fate but eventually learned that she perished 

at Theresienstadt Concentration Camp in 1943. 

Some of the leading politicians in Columbia 

were xenophobic about the sudden influx of 

educated Europeans and made life difficult 

for us. My husband and I were forced to take 

repeated medical examinations in Bogota before 

we were allowed to practice. We were without 

money, and trips to Bogota for the exams were 

very costly. In Berlin, in the early 1930s, a 

young Columbian girl whom was a guest of the 

Ambassador became deathly ill; my husband 

and I were called to provide medical care for 

her. The girl lived. When the girl’s mother 

learned that we were in Columbia and we were 

the physicians who saved her daughter’s life, 

we became guests in her home when we were 

in Bogota, thus creating a life long friendship. 

The girl’s mother was named Lucrecia, and 

when our daughter was born in 1947, we named 

her Lucrecia to honor the Columbian woman’s 

unbounded kindness.” 

The Nauenburg family emigrated to the land 

of the free and the home of the brave in 1954. 

Walter Gerhard Nauenberg died June 15, 1987. 

Erna Sachs Nauenberg died April 13, 1990. I 

am deeply indebt to my very special friend, 

Lucrecia El Abd, for refreshing my recollection 

of this intriguing and enchanting story. 

Charles Saunders – The Campus Cub 

Youth is happy because it has the ability to 

see beauty. Anyone who keeps the ability to see 

beauty never grows old. 

Franz Kafka 1883 - 1924

World’s Greatest Athlete? 

With the Olympic Games approaching, The 

Wall Street Journal set out to answer this parlorgame 

question: If Earth had to send one man to 

the Intergalactic Olympics, who should go? 

Identifying the world’s greatest male athlete 

turned out to be easy to argue but difficult to 

answer empirically. No matter how impressive, 

world-class athletes mostly excel at single 

tasks. Olympic gold medal weightlifter Hossein 

Reza Zadeh can, in two quick motions, lift 580 

pounds over his head, the equivalent of a yearold 

heifer. Marathon world record holder Haile 

Gebrselassie can run a mile in an astonishing 

four minutes, 45 seconds, and repeat the 

performance 26 times in a row. Put either man 

on a tennis court or pitch them a 95-mile-perhour 

fastball and they might whiff as badly as 

any weekend hacker. 

Sports physiologists don’t have a system to 

rank all athletes. University of Texas exercise 

physiologist Ed Coyle said doctoral students 

have tried in the past “only to have their 

professors shut them down after months of 

continuous work.” 

The Journal sought to identify the world’s 

greatest athlete with an approach that, while 

not completely scientific, took a number of 

measures into account. A panel of five sports 

scientists and exercise physiologists was given 

a list drawn up by the Journal of 79 male 

athletes. Candidates had to be active in their 

sport and among the all-time best. (Women will 

be featured separately in a future article.) 

The panel weighed individual performance 

stats, along with their subjective judgments 

about the relative difficulty of each sport, to 

give an overall grade to the athletes. The judges 

graded athletes on speed, reflexes, stamina, 

coordination, as well as power, strength and 

size. The finalists, they said, exhibited a wide 

range of athletic skill in highly competitive 

environments. 

There were some surprises. Tiger Woods, a 

dominant figure in professional sports, didn’t 

crack the Top 10. Panelists said they didn’t give 

golfers much weight when assessing overall 

athletic ability. Michael Phelps, one of the 

greatest U.S. swimmers of all time, also missed 

the top tier because, the judges said, swimmers 

generally don’t perform well out of the water. 

Such endurance athletes as marathoners and 

Tour de France cyclists also failed to impress. 

Too one-dimensional, the panel said. 

The Journal gave the performance stats and 

achievement records of 79 male athletes to a 

panel of 5 judges, and asked them to rank the 

competitors based on six criteria: speed; vision 

and reflex; stamina and recovery; coordination 

and flexibility; power, strength and size; and 

success and competitiveness. The final category 

examined success, records held and victories, 

as well as competitiveness, based on the sport’s 

popularity. Soccer, for example, the world’s most 

popular sport, was judged the most competitive. 

The panel gave a total score for each athlete in 

the first round. Sixty athletes were eliminated in 

the second round, either because of low scores 

or because they were not first in their field. 

Our panelists then made the final ranking. Yale 

statistician John Emerson helped normalize the 

scores so no single panelist could exert undue 

influence. 

The winner was Roman Sebrle. The Czech 

decathlete could jump over Shaquille O’Neal. 

He could throw a 16-pound ball the length of a 

53-foot yacht. From a running start, he could leap 

over a two-lane highway. Mr. Sebrle has ideal 

size, according to physiologists, and expertise 

over a range of athletic pursuits, employing the 

speed of an NFL back and the vertical jump of a 

National Basketball Association forward. Some 

judges questioned whether Mr. Sebrle could 

withstand a tackle by an NFL lineman, but none 

questioned his talent in the 10 track and field 

events that make up the decathlon. He has won 

Olympic gold and silver medals for the Czech 

Republic and is the current world champion. 

Ed: Thanks to member Marion Freeman 

sending this article from the Wall Street Journal, 

June 20, 2008 

Lady Bird Lake Creator Dies 

The engineer who helped create Austin’s Lady 

Bird Lake Gil Pokorny died at 83 oversaw 

construction of Longhorn Dam, which created 

the city’s famous downtown lake. He was a 

man who could fix or build anything and when 

he wasn’t helping tune his sons’ British sports 

cars for autocross racing, Pokorny was working 

hard to supply electricity to Austin. Pokorny, 

who in his 40-year career with the City of Austin 

Electric Utility (now Austin Energy) supervised 

the construction of the dam that created Lady 

Bird Lake. When he retired he was manager 

of power production for the city. He was the 

engineer who oversaw the creation of a number 

of power plant units and hydroelectric dams 

but it was the Longhorn Dam, which when 

finished in 1960 turned the Colorado River that 

ran through downtown Austin into what is now 

Lady Bird Lake that had the biggest impact on 

the city, said family friend Joe Vining. “How 

that changed the way the city is viewed was 

incredible and the side benefit of the Longhorn 

Dam was monumental,” said Vining, a former 

employee of Pokorny’s now senior vice president 

of economic development for the Round Rock 

Chamber of Commerce. Growing up in a farm 

outside the city, graduating from the University 

of Texas in 1945 he served in the Navy, and then 

got a job with the city utility working his way 

up from a meter reader at the power plants to a 

position as Manager of Power production. Phil 

Pokorny described his father as a quiet man 

who never took much credit for what he did. 

He gained happiness from helping other people. 

At the same time, he was a devoted dad who 

loved watching sports car racing, and got his 

children in on the fun, helping to build and tune 

the cars they raced. His son said, “He was one 

of Austin’s unsung heroes.” There is a plaque 

bearing his name at Longhorn Dam. 

Patrick George, Austin American-Statesman 


20 

CCMH 2008 Gala 

Gala 2008 on Saturday, August 23, 2008, the 

14th Annual Benefit Gala, A Night of Music, 

Dinner, Dance, Live and Silent Auction, a major 

fundraising event for the Czech Center Museum 

Houston took place here at the Museum. The 

evening began with wine and hors d’oeuvres 

first phase Auction viewing in Brno Gallery. 

The silent auction was the result of over fifty 

donations. The trip drawing sales started with 

over ninety-two chances purchases. 

At 7:00 p.m. festivities begin in Prague Hall 

with music and further Auction viewing including 

a Henry II 1840s Rosewood Mirrored Armoire, 

Designer Apparel, Vacation Get-a-ways, Fine 

Jewelry, a Trip to Prague and much more. A 

great buffet dinner featuring carved meat in two 

buffet lines followed with University of Texas 

Professor Gary Kocurek speaking on How to Buy 

a Castle and other Realty in the Czech Republic, 

a subject which on the surface might seem not too 

interesting. However Professor Kocurek’s talk 

was presented with verve and enthusiasm based 

on his own personal experience in buying and 

selling in the Czech Republic that the audience 

was enthralled. A spirited live auction followed 

featuring vacation home stays in this country 

L. to R. Dr. Stasney, Ray Snokhous, Wesley Pustejovsky, 

Ray Vitek, Ambassador Cabaniss, Effie and Bill Rosene 

and at the Rosene’s vacation home in the Czech 

Republic. The drawing for the trip for two to 

Prague was held and Edwin Hlavaty of Caldwell, 

Texas was declared the winner. (When notified 

later of his winning the drawing, he said that he 

would be unable to go and donated his trip to Effie 

Rosene. This munificent gesture will ultimately 

allow the proceeds from the sale of drawings to 

benefit the Czech Center. Our thanks to Edwin.) 

Chairman Rosene proposed a champagne toast to 

the Center which was followed by the listening 

and dance music of Bill Cowan and the Sounds 

while the Auction closed. 

Major thanks go to Gala Chairs Nina and Ray 

Vitek who inspired many of the 200 attendees 

to join us for this beautiful event by urging guests 

to shop for Christmas for friends and family while 

you are helping a good cause, the only Baroque 

Palace in town, to build out the much needed 

third floor for Library and Museum Exhibit 

Space. Our thanks go to the many volunteers 

that helped bring this to fruition especially Henry 

and Barbara Hermis. Partial proceeds from the 

evening were donated to the National Czech and 

Slovak Museum and Library in Cedar Rapids, 

Iowa to assist in restoration caused by flooding. 

A check for this was presented to Gail Naughton, 

Director of the NCSML at the Pre Gala party here 

at the Center preceding the American Friends of 

the Czech Republic Gala at the J.W. Marriott on 

November 12, 2008. 

Ed: A gala production is always a monumental 

undertaking involving many weeks before of 

preparation and many weeks after “winding 

down” and accounting for the proceeds and 

thanking all the participants and donors.

The Creation of Czechoslovakia 

When at midnight on October 28, 1918 the 

journalist, commentator and freedom fighter 

Jan Hajsman returned to his flat exhilarated 

and exhausted, he realized that he had witnessed 

a historic turning point: 

“I was incapable of thought. I kept coming 

back to this: in the morning I got up as 

a subject of Austria; now I am a citizen of a 

free Czechoslovakia state. How strange! In 

the morning the sun came up over a subjected 

land, over a nation which, scattered to the 

four corners of the earth, worked with all its 

might, fought for freedom, and in the evening 

the sun set on a liberated nation. How strange, 

how strangely it all happened! A fairy tale, a 

miracle!” 

It must have seemed like a miracle to Czechs 

back then, when they read or heard the proclamation 

adopted by the Czechoslovak National 

Committee at 5:00 p.m. on that eventful day: 

“Czechoslovak nation! Your age-old dream 

has become a reality. On this day the state 

of Czechoslovakia has taken its place among 

the independent, free, civilized states of the 

world. The National Committee empowered 

by the trust of entire Czechoslovak nation 

has, as the sole and legitimate power, taken 

into its hands the apparatus of your state, 

Czechoslovak nation! All that you do from this 

moment onward you do as a new, free member 

of the family of independent nations.” 

An independent Czechoslovak state! No one 

had even considered such a thing before the 

outbreak of World War I. The Czech political 

parties and Czech politicians assumed that the 

Czech nation would continue to live within 

the Habsberg monarch. The more daring ones 

demanded that the “lands of Czech crown,” 

Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia form a single 

unit within their historical boundaries, which 

would be confirmed by Emperor Franz Josef 

accepting the Crown of Saint Wenceslas. 

Considering the pre-war modesty of Czech 

politicians, who limited themselves to achieving 

their goals within a federalized Habsburg 

monarch, October 28th seemed an un-heard-of, 

incredible success: on that day the formation of 

a completely independent state was announced, 

one that consisted not only of the historical 

lands of the Czech crown, but Slovakia as well 

and later Sub-Carpathian Ruthenia (now part of 

the Ukraine). 

No wonder then, that for contemporaries 

October 28th, the day that became the symbol 

of the creation of the Czechoslovak Republic 

felt like a miracle, and the date became the 

cornerstone of the Czech historical dream. For 

Frantisek Soukup, one of the “Men of October 

28,” a member of the National Committee 

that declared the creation of an independent 

Czechoslovak state and later a cabinet minister, 

Member of Parliament and Senator, the creation 

of an independent Czechoslovak state was 

almost mystical culmination of the history of 

the Czech nation: “And on that October 28 the 

entire history of the Czech nation passed before 

our mind’s eye. On that October 28 the whole 

era of the Hussite republic flashed through our 

soul, led by the revolutionary martyr Jan Hus 

and Jan Zizka, the Hussite military leader, 

whose names were borne on the flags of the 

Czechoslovak legions a half millennium after 

their time.” In his passionate style Soukup 

praised to the heights the first President of 

the Czechoslovak Republic, Tomas Garrigue 

Masaryk: “That Apostle of Humanity who 

organized an army, refused all compromise and 

declared that war and revolution must be fought 

to the end. A statesman who in Washington 

proclaimed the independence and constitution 

of our Republic, and with the great Woodrow 

Wilson laid the foundations for a new Europe… 

The leader of a nation the arrival of whom was 

greeted by millions with open arms, calling in 

mystical intoxication from the depths of their 

souls: ‘Behold the redeemer!’.” 

The date of the creation of the Czechoslovak 

Republic, October 28th, was proclaimed a 

national holiday by the Act on Sundays and 

Holidays, passed on March 21, 1925. The date 

was celebrated every year during the interwar 

era. In the garrison of towns military reviews 

were held, and parades of uniformed legionnaires, 

members of Sokol athletic clubs, workers’ 

physical fitness clubs and riflemen’s clubs, 

firemen, people dressed in their national costumes, 

artisans in the uniforms of their trade. In 

banquet halls and on the squares, by memorials 

and by bonfires, speeches were made, as well 

as concerts and paper lantern parades, soil from 

battlefields where the legionnaires had fought 

was brought home and ceremonially placed in 

the ground, liberty trees were planted. 

At the time, October 28th appeared to be 

the Czech’s final historical triumph. But nothing 

is absolute and definitive in history, much 

less the dreams and victories of small nations. 

State independence is not merely sovereignty, 

the Presidential standard flying over Prague 

Castle and fanfares from Bedrich Smetana’s 

opera Libuse. For a small nation in an exposed 

position in the heart of Europe, independence 

brought risk. 

Celebrations of the tenth anniversary of independence 

in 1928 were especially ostentatious. 

There was plenty to brag about. A great threevolume 

luxury publication, Ten Years of the 

Czechoslovak Republic, was a proud retrospective 

on the new state in the heart of Europe and 

the progress it had made; there was optimism 

for the future. 

Ten years later everything was different. The 

Liberation Memorial, a proud symbol of the 

independent Czechoslovak state and its army, 

was scheduled to be dedicated on Vitkov hill 

in Prague on October 28, 1938. The ceremony 

never took place. After the catastrophe of 

Munich and the defeat of the state, there was 

nothing to celebrate. Voices were even heard 

calling October 28th a failure of vision, an 

expression of Czech megalomania, a failure to 

comprehend the harsh reality of the struggle 

between national egoisms, in which the biggest 

always win. The majority of the nation 


21 

disagreed, however. On October 28, 1939, the 

first Independence Day after the Nazi occupation 

and the shriveling of Czechoslovakia into 

the “Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia”, 

a large demonstration turned out against the 

German occupation. Praguers were still loyal to 

the state that had been founded in 1918: from 

the resistance movement arose the rallying cry 

“Another October 28!” 

Then came May 1945 and liberation, and 

October 28th could be celebrated once again 

as a national and state holiday. But it also 

became the date of nationalization decrees 

that foreshadowed the Communist takeover. 

Under the Communist regime October 28th 

was not celebrated as Independence Day but 

as Nationalization Day. The Communist propaganda 

slogan of the 1950s “Without November 

7, 1917 there would be no October 28, 1918” 

was an attempt to portray the creation of the 

Czechoslovak state as the direct result of the 

Bolshevik Revolution in Russia. Criticism of 

such ideological and political constructions, 

along with calls to restore October 28th as a 

state holiday, resurfaced as son as the monolithic 

Communist regime relaxed its grip (for 

example at the congress of Czechoslovak historians 

in 1966). 

A demonstration on October 28, 1989 directly 

preceded the fall of totalitarianism, which was 

often interpreted as a return to the values of 

interwar Czechoslovakia, that is, expressed 

symbolically, to the values of October 28. 

However, in many ways it seems as if Central 

Europe has turned back the clock to before 

1918. In the past the holiday of October 28, 

1918 was connected with October 30, 1918, 

the date of St. Martin Declaration, in which 

Slovak politicians declared allegiance to a 

common Czech-Slovak state. Today the alliance 

of October 28 and 30 no longer exists, 

as the Czech-Slovak state no longer exists. 

Today October 28th is celebrated in the Czech 

Republic only. However, both in modern Czech 

and Slovak history, as well as in the history of 

Central Europe, it has an important symbolic 

value and remains a fundamental historical 

milestone. 

Jan Galandauer, Heart of Europe 

A Volunteer Markets the CCMH 

Allen Livanec presents a check to Effie Rosene 

to engrave an Honor Tile. Allen marketed 

and solicited money at his family’s reunion. 

Everyone can be one of our V.P.s of marketing! 

You can too!

The Courtyard that Honors and Remembers Forever 

The first phase of the installation of Honor and Memorial Tiles were completed in time for the Grand 

Opening Festivities. The gold inscribed tiles, numbering 387 in all sizes, is a magnificent tribute to 

those honored and those honoring their friends or loved ones. The contributions made to etch these 

tiles has been a significant factor in our fundraising along with a major gift by Keith and Norma 

Ashmore applied to the construction of the courtyard and the contribution to underwrite the beautiful 

“Mary’s Gate,” by Mrs. Frank Pokluda. The courtyard furnished with a Bronze Little Mermaid 

sculpture fountain, a gift of Marta Latsch, wrought iron tables and chairs, a gift of Bessie Pekar and 

family proves to be a restful area to view the tiles. 

The second and third phases added additional tiles with the contributions to be applied to the finish 

of the third floor of the building, which is vitally needed. 

We will continue to accept donations for a now fourth phase. It is 

necessary to order a sufficient number of marble tiles to be etched 

in order to be economical. So please use this highly public method 

to honor a friend or loved one. Celebrate your contribution to the 

Czech Center by honoring someone important in your life or your association with this organization. 

Inscribe your name or your honoree’s name on a tile as a lasting and meaningful memento 

of thoughtfulness and support of the mission to provide a unique new site to celebrate the culture, 

language, scholarship and the arts of Bohemia, Moravia, Slovakia and Silesia. 

The tile sizes and contribution levels are as follows: 4” x 12” - $250.00; 6” x 12” - $500.00; 8” 

x 12” - $750.00; 12” x 12” - $1,000.00; 12” x 12” and the $5,000.00 sizes are framed in gold leaf 

and enjoy a prominent position on the top row. Prospective purchasers may request a form which 

displays the number of letters that may be used for each denomination tile or may be found on the 

Czech Center’s website at www.czechcenter.org by pointing to Support your center, point to Honor 

Wall and e-mail or mail the form to us. If you do not have Internet access we would be happy to 

mail a form to you, or if you need assistance, please call 713-528-2060. Volunteers who care for the 

attractive landscape are: Cecilia and Bob Forrest, Rudolf Kovar and Allen Livanec. 

Czech Wedding Traditions 

The Czech Republic has many wonderful wedding traditions 

dating back through the ages and drawing on two 

distinct regions of the country, Bohemia and Moravia. 

Prague Weddings would like to offer you a guide to some 

of those very unique Czech Wedding Traditions you may 

find yourself exposed to when choosing to marry in our 

beautiful country. Adhering to these customs can make a 

ceremony come to life and create the right atmosphere for 

immortalizing “your once in a lifetime dream wedding.” 

The Groom is tested by having to select from a chopping 

block and axe or a bottle of wine prepared for the groom 

at the threshold of the bride’s house. If he takes the axe 

it was a good sign - he would be a good houseman. If he 

decided for a bottle of wine, he would be a drunkard. 

The Bride is tested as she enters the groom’s house for the 

first time. There was a broom ready in the room and she 

had to sweep the room briskly and put it back to its place. 

This act showed that she wanted to be a good housewife. 

Friends provide protective magic by throwing nuts, grain, coins or 

figs outside the newlyweds’ house. It is not connected with children 

this time but it is a sacrifice for the gods of the house and home. The 

sacrifice should reconcile the gods with the newcomers with a new 

family. 

Nieces of the bride and groom or daughters of their friends lead the 

wedding parade to the church throwing and scattering flowers before 

them. This is a pagan tradition too, for flowers are said to attract the 

goddess of fertility. 

Friends form a wedding guard of honor aisle for the newlyweds to 

walk through. They try to make it difficult. Symbolic meaning: overcoming 

difficulties in marriage. 

After a wedding ceremony the groom’s friends pull a rope outside 

a church. The rope is decorated with flowers, ribbons and also with 

empty bottles and they allow them to continue their journey if they 

are paid off by the groom. The groom has to pay off the sins of his 

youth. 

Gabriela Slichtova weds 

Zbenek Hrebacek in Hlohovec, 

South Moravia in November 

Why does the groom carry the bride over the threshold 

of their new home? It is said that he wants to outwit evil 

spirits who lurk under the threshold and take care of the 

house. Other meaning: symbolic beginning of a new life. 

The bride dances in a circle with closed eyes and single 

girls try to get a bit of her veil (it is better to use a cheap 

veil for this occasion). Men form a protective circle 

around the bride to prevent the girls to get to her. If the 

circle is broken through, it symbolizes the farewell to 

innocence and virginity. 

Kidnapping of the bride symbolizes the bride’s separation 

from her parents and the beginning of a new partnership. 

Later, when the reception is almost over friends 

kidnap the bride. If the groom does not find her he has to 

pay a ransom. Note: Time limit should be set so wedding 

guests do not wait hours for the bride’s return. 

Bridesmaids are single girls who accompany the bride to 

church. This has a specific meaning: evil spirits who wanted to harm 

the bride would mistake her for the bridesmaid. This is why bridesmaids 

should have dresses similar with the bride’s dress. 

Kolache are traditionally small buns that are baked few weeks 

before the wedding to be given to relatives, friends and neighbors 

as an invitation to the wedding reception. Kolache should have at 

least three fillings and are considered to show the culinary art of the 

housewife. 

As a sign of longevity the friends of a bride might plant a tree in 

her yard and decorate it with colored ribbons and painted eggshells. 

Legend believed the bride would live as long as the tree. 

The night before her wedding day, her friends would also give her a 

crown of rosemary to represent wisdom, love, loyalty and remembrance 

that she would wear on her wedding day. Today, wreaths of baby’s 

breath and tiny roses are seen on the bride as well as her bridesmaids, 

a variation of the rosemary wreath. Before the marriage vows take 

place an infant is laid on the couple’s bed, to bless and enhance their 

fertility. 


22

Prague Hall 

Brno Gallery 

The Czech Center Museum Houston 

A European Palace in Houston’s Prestigious 

Museum District 

Rental space available for all 

occasions. 

Weddings, Showers, Bridal Teas, Receptions, 

Rehearsal Dinners, Anniversaries, Reunions, 

Birthdays, Private Parties, Corporate Functions, 

Breakfast Meetings, Luncheons, Award 

Banquets, Seminars, Galas, Social Events. 

Wenceslas Chapel for intimate weddings or 

renewal of vows. The Brno Gallery hosts a 

magnificent Petrof baby grand piano beneath a 

massive sparkling Bohemian crystal chandelier 

enhanced by a beautiful grand staircase of scrolled 

wrought iron and brass, museum exhibits and 

historical furnishings. Two conference rooms - 

The Presidents Room and The Comenius Library. 

Prague Hall - An elegant grand ballroom graced 

by two enchanting Bohemian crystal chandeliers, 

a Petrof baby grand piano and Alfons Mucha’s 

Art Nouveau renderings. 

The Prague International Gift Shop 

for your shopping pleasure. 

Prague International Gifts has a selection of 

Czech Desna crystal flutes, wines, cordials, 

vases and the new Bohemia glass fingernail 

files; Bohemia and Caesar finest cut crystal 

bowls and vases in clear and colors, a large 

selection of hand enameled collectibles, eggs, 

stars, bells, hearts, figurines, treasure boxes. 

The Shop is filled with heirlooms from around 

the world – Czech, Slovak, Russian, Polish, 

German, etc. There are wood puppets and 

numerous toys, Tupesy and Modra pottery hand 

painted; Bohemian porcelain; Moravian stars; 

antique laces, table linens and much more. 

For information call: 713-528-2060 

E-mail: czech@czechcenter.org 

Or visit us at www.czechcenter.org 

4920 San Jacinto at Wichita 


Moravian Slovakia - Folklore Festivals and Celebration 

Moravian Slovakia is located in the south-eastern 

part of the Czech Republic, by the border with 

Austria and Slovakia. The region has preserved – 

quite naturally – many customs which are today 

labeled folklore; for many people, Moravian 

Slovakia is a synonym for 

folk traditions. As well as 

that it is an extraordinarily 

picturesque region, rich in 

historical and architectural 

monuments and renowned 

for its natural beauty, fertile 

land and the hospitality of its 

inhabitants. 

Moravian Slovakia is rightly 

considered a region of excellent 

wine, vineyards and wine cellars (they 

can be found by almost every village). Of the 

ten Moravian wine-growing regions, eight are 

located in Moravian Slovakia. 

Visiting local wine cellars is an unforgettable 

experience for inhabitants from other 

parts of the Czech Republic - not only because 

of the excellent quality of wines served there, 

but also for their general atmosphere; the 

saying that wine and song 

belong to each other inseparably 

applies especially to 

Moravian Slovakia, because 

there are only a few other 

corners of the country where 

you can find so many beautiful 

singers and songs. In the 

local wine cellars even those 

who initially say they cannot sing start singing 

in the end. 

The fact is that the songs and music of 

Moravian Slovakia’s musicians leave no one 

cold, be it the rousing sounds of brass orchestras 

or temperamental dulcimer music (both 

of which can be commonly heard at dances). 

There are only a few other regions where you 

can find so many bands and musical ensembles, 

popular regional competitions and festivals 

of folk singers and bands. 

People in Moravian Slovakia 

like to dance and they are 

indeed good at it; verbuňk, 

a traditional men’s dance 

from Moravian Slovakia, 

has even been added to the 

most important relics of 

the UNESCO World Nonmaterial 

Cultural Heritage. 

Traditional annual celebrations 

- the Easter obchůzka (going round the 

village) and the Ride of the Kings in spring, 

summer feasts, harvest and wine celebrations 

in autumn and Christmas plays, renowned 

wine and plum-brandy tasting, pig killing and 

tasting of pork specialities, usually combined 

with music, lively Shrovetide obchůzka and 

costumed balls – all offer wonderful spectacles 


23 

for visitors, although they are ordinary parts of 

the year for the locals. 

Moravian Slovakia is perhaps the most colorful 

region of the Czech Republic. That is reflected 

in the numerous relics of folk architecture scattered 

all over the region; the 

largest compact collections 

of these relics can be found 

in Strážnice, Pavlov, Hrubá 

Vrbka, Vápenky and Vlčnov. 

However, perhaps every village 

in Moravian Slovakia 

could be called colourful. In 

some of them this can even 

be taken at face value, as 

the tradition of “malérečky” 

(women who adorn small chapels and the 

windows and doors of dwellings with colorful 

flower motifs) continues to be very much 

alive. 

The same lively colorfulness is characteristic 

of the folk costumes typical of Moravian 

Slovakia. The plural is used here by right, since 

the region, relatively small in size, boasts as 

many as 28 different kinds of folk garments! 

In some places only two or 

three villages have a common 

costume, while several 

kilometers away you can 

find distinct differences in 

the style of garments, the 

shaping of sleeves and head 

covers. All the costumes, 

however, distinguish themselves 

by rich embroidery, vivid colors and 

original ornamentation. Folk costumes are very 

popular with young people and those who have 

inherited them from their grandmothers or 

grandfathers are considered very lucky. Others 

have at least new costumes made according to 

original patterns. If an important event is held 

in a village, wearing traditional festive garments 

is a must, because this will provide the 

event with an inimitable and extraordinarily 

festive atmosphere. 

Moravian Slovakia naturally 

hosts a number of extraordinarily 

important folklore 

festivals which attract large 

crowds of visitors. The most 

famous of them is the popular 

Strážnice Festival, which 

is renowned not only in the 

Czech Republic, but also in 

the folklore-minded parts of 

Europe. The town of Kyjov regularly hosts the 

oldest folklore festival to be held in the Czech 

Republic. Taking place for the first time in 

1921, it has a characteristic name - Slovácký rok 

(Moravian Slovakia’s Year). Another popular 

event, the Horňácko Celebrations, is held in 

Velká nad Veličkou every year. 

Hana Tillmanová

VOL. XIII No. III & IV Museum • Library • Archives Fall/Winter 2008/2009 

Czech Cultural Center Houston, Texas (KULTURNI CENTRUM CESKE) 

The News of The Czech Center 

Czech Center Museum Houston 

In the Museum District 

4920 San Jacinto Street 


Tel: 713-528-2060 

Prague International Gifts: 713-528-2060 

Email: czech@czechcenter.org 

Webpage: http://www.czechcenter.org 

www.houstonreceptions.org. 

www.receptionshouston.com 

“The Czech Center Museum Houston 

belongs to all of Czech heritage, not just a 

few of us and everyone needs to be reminded 

of that. We know no one who can not give 

something. Everyone can give to the level of 

their capacity so that the Center represents 

all of Czech heritage.” 

Events 

John R. Vacek 

Conversational Czech Language Classes for 

Adults. Twelve weekly sessions on Mondays 6:30 

to 8:30 p.m. Enjoy the challenge and have fun! 

Members donation of $30.00 and Non-members 

$70.00. Comenius Library and Presidents Room. 

Beginners Children’s Czech language class. 

Eight weekly sessions Saturday mornings 10:30 to 

11:30 a.m. Donation $30.00. 

Language Students are requested to pre register 

by calling 713-528-2060. For information contact 

instructors Glenn Sternes, 713-516-7721, Sternesg@ 

HAL-PC.org or Marie Mann, 713-246-6099, cesvys@yahoo.com. 

January 29, 2009 - Concert, Viticulture lecture, 

Archival Moravian Wine Tasting, fruit and cheese 

reception. 

February 12, 2009 – Thursday 6:00 - 8:00 P.M. 

Reception and photo exhibit, Brno Gallery for Czech 

artist Stepan Grygar (Prague) appearing as a contributing 

artist in FOTOFEST Houston. 

March 7, 2009 - Saturday 7:30 P.M. Moores Opera 

House University of Houston CCMH Boardmember 

Robert Dvorak’s West Point Symphony. World 

premier in its entirety to non-military audience 

713-743-3175. 

March 28, 2009 – Saturday 6:00 to 9:00 P.M. 

Annual Members and Friends Dinner Meeting and 

Silent Auction. Entertainment by musicians from the 

Czech Republic 

April 2009 - Film series featuring The Power 

of Good, the documentary of Nicholas Winton’s 

The Czech Center 

Non-Profit Org. 

U.S. Postage 

PAID 

Houston, Texas 

Permit No. 10259 

exploits saving Czech children from Nazi tyranny 

and Citizen Havel Goes on Vacation. Dates to be 

announced. 

August 2009 - Czech Center’s Fifteenth Annual 

Fall Charity Benefit Gala in Prague Hall. Reception 

and Live and Silent Auction in Brno Gallery. The 

Grand Prize Drawing, a dinner and champagne toast 

will crown a festive and rewarding evening. 5:30 p.m. 

December 2009 - Members, Donors, Family, 

Friends celebrate the eve of St. Nicholas. 

Musical Series. Watch for notice of musical concerts 

presented throughout the year 

Events require RSVPs to 713-528-2060 or email: czech@czechcenter.org Website www.czechcenter.org Register and donate anytime online. 

“When we build let us think that we build forever. Let it not be such for present delight nor for present use alone. Let it be such 

work as our descendants will think of us for. And Let us think, as we lay stone upon stone, that a time is to come when these 

stones will be held sacred because our hands have touched them, and that men will say as they look upon the labor and wrought 

sibstance of them, ‘See this our father did for us’.” John Ruskin

If you lived as I did, several years under Nazi totalitarianism, and ...

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