1/10/22
Book translated into English in 1969 . He was one of the few Czechoslovak writers translated into English.(1919 -1994)
1968 August 30th he woke up and it was extremely quiet , no cars or trucks or trams making a noise, the Russians had arrived in Bratislava. General Kadoj speech in the Czechoslovak general assembly had started this crises. 5 Warsaw Pact countries had invaded and all tanks had a white line down the middle so that the different countries, from different sides could identify each other across the 4114 km Czechoslovak frontier. Poland, East Germany, Hungry and Bulgaria were all countries that hated Russia but part of the Pact that invaded her.
1938 Czechoslovakia was deserted by her democratic allies England and France. Czechoslovakia had spent a fortune to protect the country, which was hermetically surrounded and sealed by enemy states. Both Eduard Benes and Klement Gottwald didn't fight. Gottwald prepared to take the party underground and then fled to Moscow. Gottwald was head of the Communist Party and had they fought they would at least have had a seat at the victory table. All decisions were made behind their backs.
Yugoslavia under Tito owed Stalin nothing for liberation. The Slovak Clerical Fascist state had been Hitler's ally. The Slovak Popular party helped Hitler destroy the remnants of the Czech and Hitler occupied that.
When WW2 ended the Czech we waiting for the Russians to enter and drive out the Germans they entertained them and fed them as heroes and gave them sex freely so they didn't have to rape. The Communist Party lost 28,000 fighting the Germans, killed and tortured fighting the Germans in Bohemia and Monrovia.
1968 600,000 troops arrived one for every 20 Czechoslovaks, 12 divisions. Tanks rolled in destroying fields paving. The Russians broadcast Czech in a German accent and Slovak with a Russian accent, they said they came to liberate with imbecile inventions. Goebbels said a lie told 100 times becomes the truth . No Czech politician joined the occupation forces.
Ladislav reported on Israel's Six day war and in 1967 the Soviet Ambassador had approached Levi Eshkol and asked why Israel had 2 divisions of panzers on the Syrian border. Eshkol wanted to take them to see that this was a lie, but they refused to go.
1968 The army invading arrived without field kitchens believing as in 1945 that the Czech would provide this. Motorized kitchens and water tanks had to quickly be sent as nobody would betray instructions sent over the free radio, very different from 1945. The 6 months of freedom from Burocratic Dictatorship had done wonders for the society as the public regarded the occupation as something that had gone wrong.
Mobile broadcasting trucks or broadcasting from the edge of the forest, or the Danube islands. The Czechoslovak army put its broadcasting equipment that was meant to be used against the west, was put to the Free Radio use. At times the radio announced when there would be a TV program. The broadcasts were by well known voices that the public knew , were calm and assured and were several times of the day and the public followed the instructions exactly. Rumor's were that Dubcek Cemik and Smirkovsky were arrested and negotiating. The Russians could find nobody to cooperate. Revolution demanded the return of Dubcek and Svabado from Moscow. There were careers to be made by working with the Russians, but for the first time no Quislings arrived.
Eventually the Czechoslovaks will work with the Russians just to get bread.
In communist society because nothing works always have to find an individual to blame for failure and not the system. In the show trails, put on witnesses were forced to say the opposite of what they knew to be the truth.
1948 when Israel became independent Ladislav was there as a reporter on the war and wrote his first book in Czech. The US hoped to weaken Britain and the Soviets wanted to deal a blow to the feudal Arab leaders.
Jews trained in Czechoslovakia as fighters and sent to Israel ceased to be communists, while Egyptians whose socialism was supported were a waste to time to the Soviets.
1952 The Slansky trial - The best weapon in abnormal society is a Political scandle and anti-Semitic worldwide Zionist conspiracy, this was state sponsored antisemitism and innocent people were found guilty, at the same time there was the Doctors plot.
1953 Beria was shot at a meeting just after Stalin died - 2 weeks later it was reported in Tass that he had been tried and executed for espionage. "You don't have to be a Jew to be a Zionist agent"
1956 Russian troops were in accordance with the treaty of the Soviet and Hungarian governments, not so with the Czechoslovaks.. Dubcek without Russia's permission had had free elections , economic reforms had ended censorship. Democratic socialism horrified Ulbricht ,Kosygin and Brezhnev. Gomulka deceived the Polish people. Dubcek put democracy into practice. The Russian invasion had nothing to do with the fears of these leaders. The Czechoslovaks produced 70% of the types of goods produced in the world, but the west would not buy them only the Third World wanted to buy these outdated tractors for cheap. To increase production they produced shoddy goods. There is a constitutional right to employment thus the anomaly of artificial employment.
In North Vietnam Haiphong harbour, US planes saw Soviet weapons arriving but were not allowed to bomb as it would create a war with Russia.
1962 An American news agency said they can't have a full time reporter in Prague as nothing happens there, by 1964 there were many reporters, as the situation seemed to be moving as the Czechs were getting ready for a resolution in western eyes.
In Moscow they agreed to remain in the Warsaw Pact and censorship will reestablished even though in the constitution no censorship is allowed on a legal basis . Dubcek's crime - he was a servant and not a dictator of the people. Novotny was not purged but realized that his position was untenable he had been editor of the press that was the mouth piece of the party loyalists .Under Dubcek the press telling the truth and the circulation increased. The Czech press said there was not a single political prisoner and it was true.
Ladislav was 14 when Hitler came to power. The USSR had saved Czechoslovakia from extinction but had then gone into power politics and expansion, but had deserted the principles of the revolution. Dubcek, Carnik and Smarkorsky returned from Moscow with guarantees that were worthless before they were made.
Stalin had sent the Kirghiz and Chechens to Siberia on the grounds that they had collaborated with the Nazis. Russia is a free giant power made up of nations that are not free. Russian Public know nothing but what others allow them to know. They are not a self assured nation and know nothing of the bible and when they get to the west realized they have been deceived. After WW2 they had to rebuild the country work done mostly by women as there were no men left. Expansion is a sign of weakness to cover internal failure and cover the crises within. Antisemitism is the same. Brezhnev saw himself as a Red Napoleon. The Soviets knew to leave Tito as he would fight. Stalin was in the end thrown out of the mausoleum as he had had a personality cult.
When the writer saw friends they were horrified that he was still around in the country and they were sure he would be a prime target of the KGB so he took a taxi to the Austrian border and had no problem getting through and lived in exile.
On the night of 20–21 August 137 Czechoslovaks died during the invasion.[ It was not until the 2000s, following the publication of texts dating from 1968 other writers material on this period was published.
1969 At the International Ice Hockey championship in Stockholm the score ended up Czechoslovakia 4 – Occupation forces 3! The whole Czechoslovakia population turned out onto the streets to celebrate causing riots that the loyalist police put down and this was used as an excuse to depose Dubcek.
1989 Dubcek was with Vaclav Havel in the Velvet Revolution and received the Sakharov prize that year.
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August 21st. The Rape of Czechoslovakia by Colin Chapman 124 pg. 1968 13/2/24
Warsaw Pact maneuvers had been a front for a possible invasion.
Dobryin the Soviet Ambassador in Washington from 1962 to 1986. He informed L.B.Johnson that what was happening was an internal affairs' of t he Soviet Union, Dean Rusk was secretary of State. The USSR was dealing with counter revolutionaries.
The invasion was considered necessary as Dubcek government was getting to friendly to West Germany, and this would have broken the balance of power. The Communists leaders of East Germany , Hungary and Poland felt threatened. The Red Army sent 3 armies into Bohemia and only 1 into Slovakia as Bohemia was more pro Western. The Hungarian invader asked for food as the expected to be provided by their fellow countryman.
The Red Army were well disciplined considering the provocation they were under.
The invasion was meant to end the 7 and a half month of freedom
In 1948 proper democratic election were held and the Communists won 38% of the votes. Stalin forced they to accept a fully Soviet style government and to renounce participation in the Marshall plan.
1966 Professor Ota Sik drew up a plan that would improve the economy.
Dubcek was arrested and Soviet Quisling were meant to take over but the protest were so strong that the Kremlin had to negotiate and agreed to leave Dubcek but he had to tow their line and Soviet "advisors" were sent to be present.
In 1921 the Kronstadt sailors rebelled against the Communist terror, they wanted proper elections and a free press. Later the Hungarians revolted in 1956. Now Czechoslovakia for the same reason, this occupation that followed was no where near as bloody as the ones in 1921 and 1956.
Alexander Dubcek 1921to 1992 died in a car crash, considered mysterious.
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Archivist on a bicycle edited by Helen Epstein and Wilma Igges 2015 138pg. 5/12/2023
In 2014 Jiri (78)and Dagmar (74) Fiedler were found stabbed in their apartment by a thief who was caught.
Jiri was a linguist , writer , translator and editor by profession. He was born in 1935 in Olomouc. He was not Jewish even though his name Fiedler could be.
1945 After the war the family moved to Prague and he was at The King George school with Vaclav Havel and film-maker Milos Forman and Ivan Passer. This was a school for carefully selected students but the Communists closed it as it was class biased in 1953. You weren't allowed to talk about Jewish existence in Czech lands now and Jewish cemeteries and building were completely neglected. Perhaps by documenting these he found a sense of freedom under this repressive regime.
1963 Ralp Yablon a philanthropist paid to by 1564 scroll that remained in the State Controlled Jewish Museum. The Westminster Synagogue set up a trust to distribute these to where they were needed Documented in Out of the Midst of the Fire by Phillippa Bernard.
He also studied Servo Croatian. Starting in 1960 he toured Bohemia an Monrovia collecting information on extinct Jewish communities and build up an enormous achieve in his apartment that he sheared with his wife and children. His wife was supportive of him.
1991 After the Velvet Revolution he was able to publish Jewish Sights in Bohemia an Moravia. He was given money to help publish this but where he helped people in their genealogical search never asked for money. As soon as the Jewish Museum was returned to the Jewish community by the Czech government in October 1994 he worked there till 2012 He created an electronic encyclopedia of Jewish communities in Czech lands. He finally could dedicate himself fully to his old love.
He worked at the Albatros Publishing House in Prague dealing with the publication of children's books. The translated dozens of books into Polish and Serbo Croat.
Jihlava a village has the house where Gustav Mahler grew up.
Jiri was 10 when the Nazi occupation ended and he saw their retreat. He came across old Yiddish newspapers and deciphered the letters like hieroglyphics. and taught himself Yiddish. He chanced upon a bilingual journal in German and Yiddish and did not give up until he had penetrated the mysteries of East European Jews. He had studied linguistics at the Charles University, but his passion was taking photos of churches old synagogues and cemeteries. If it hadn't been for Jiri a lot of Czech modern Jewish history would have been lost. Sometime he had to flee the place he was documenting or explain what he was doing. Everything was controlled by the secret police and he had to explain to them that he was doing nothing illegal. The Jewish community representatives behaved like cowards and rudely rejected him. Even the Rabbi informed the Secret Police. Between 1948 and 2007 he kept detailed dairies of his riding around.
Visitors knew to get dropped off nearby and not reveal to the taxi the address they were going to.
After the Soviet Invasion of 1968 jobs at the Jewish museum were kept for loyal party members. Jiri never had much luck getting information from the Jewish achieve till after 1989..
Czechoslovakia had no friendly relation with Yugoslavia
All Jewish spoils of the holocaust were brought to Prague. You had 1400 torah yadim and Kiddush cups inscribed with family names. 1982 The Precious Legacy of Judaic Treasures from the State Jewish Museums in Prague was created.. Jewish building had been converted to other uses, perhaps a warehouse. Less than 10% of the community survived the Nazis.
1990 he was invited to the Jewish Council meeting in the USA to a conference of Jewish Monuments and designated the Czech research director. He went for a tour of synagogues in NY and was given a personal tour of the White House by Mark Talisman who had been appointed by Jimmy Carter to set up the US Holocaust museum.
1992 Ruth Gruber wrote Jewish Heritage Travel: A guide to Easter and Central Europe. Jiri's help was invaluable to her. After 1995 synagogues were returned by the state to Jewish communities and some building have been restored or rented out.
1848 There was a plagues and research was do on the victims, some were buried in mass graves. of it .Jiri was also in great demand in the Jewish Gen Society.
The synagogue in Kolyne was repaired and opened.to great fanfare.
The Jewish museum in Prague deals with 800 Czech communities that once existed.
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