Czechoslovakia
Memory of a Tragic Event: Lidice
A few months after the end of the Second World War, I sat proudly next to my war-hero father as Czechoslovakia’s President Eduard Beneš dedicated a memorial to the victims of Lidice. It was a simple cross with a circle of barbed wire, yet its symbolism was overpowering. Three years earlier, Reinhard Heydrich, the Nazis’…
Read MoreMy Best Friend, My Great-Grandfather
Many people never meet their great-grandparents. Others come face-to-face with their great-grands, but the age spread is such that a close relationship does not develop. I was lucky. I not only knew my great-grandfather, but he was my best friend. Gustav Neumann was a Czech entrepreneur who built a tiny general store in a small…
Read MoreWriting my long journey home
At book signings and in various social settings, I am invariably asked: “What made you decide to write your book?” It’s a simple question without a simple answer. I began to give it passing thoughts in the early 1990s when I began an emotional journey of reconnecting with my native country of Czechoslovakia. My father…
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