Oral History Discussion at the Czech Embassy

Panel focuses on democracy, human rights

On March 24, 2011, the National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library invited five oral history project participants - Juraj Slavik, Vojtech Mastny, Dagmar White, Charles Heller and John Palka - to take part in a panel discussion, entitled 'Democracy and Human Rights: Lessons from the Past for Current Czech Foreign Policy.' At the event, organized with the Embassy of the Czech Republic in Washington DC, panelists discussed their memories of WWII and the Communist coup, as well as their own reasons for coming to the United States during the Cold War period.

In this excerpt, panelists discuss how and when they began to view the United States as home:



Charles Heller: “The day we arrived in the US, on May 30, 1949, my parents ordered me to forget everything that happened on the other side of the Atlantic. And I did everything that they asked me to do. I became an American on day one. I could only speak two words ‘Sank you.’ But I became Americanized very quickly. And it didn’t take me long; I learned to play baseball, I learned to play basketball. I learned English very quickly, and I felt very assimilated. And it took me a very long time, really until about 1968 during the Prague Spring, before I had any pangs at all about my native country.”

John Palka: “Well, it’s interesting, because my story on this is quite different. There was a moment, and that was arriving in New York harbor and steaming past the Statue of Liberty and knowing that we had come to safety once again and we would never be leaving again… But my parents took a different tack than Charlie’s. They really wanted me not to lose my attachment to Slovakia. They wanted me to be an absolutely complete American, completely at home, to sink my roots in here, which I did. But they did not want me to forget, and they were very clear about that. They worked very hard at that. And one of the things they did was make sure that I retained my Slovak language. That was all we ever spoke at home. And I was surrounded by Slovak art and Slovak music all the time growing up. So, they wanted this duality for me; being a thoroughgoing American, totally aware of where I had come from. And there is a wonderful illustration of how that succeeded which I dearly love and I discovered in my mother’s files long after she’d died. And that’s a birthday card which I made for her when I was about 12 or 13 in New York. On the cover of it I had written Happy Birthday in English. On the inside cover of it I had written Št’astné narodeniny in Slovak, and on the back I had used my crayons to draw two flags, the Czechoslovak flag and the American flag both. And when I found that I thought, you know, my parents really succeeded.”

Vojtech Mastny: “I had absolutely no difficulty adjusting to the country. I was well prepared. I knew English thanks to my parents who believed that one should learn English, German and French in that sequence. I learned all three. I listened to Voice of America, I read about American history and American fiction. Walt Whitman was my favorite poet and still is. So I felt very much at home in New York when I emerged from the subway on 116th St and Broadway. I felt this is the place where I belong. I still love New York City more than any other place. I must say that I didn’t assume that I would be returning to Czechoslovakia, and that actually made the adjustment that much easier. Also, I must say that America was very good to me when I came. I was accepted as a so-called special student at Columbia, which meant that I was allowed to take the classes; I was allowed to pay the tuition… I had to borrow the money for the tuition. But the university helped me get a part-time job. With my languages I was working in the Port of New York helping immigration officers interview immigrants. And I could make it on that part-time job income. I could pay back the tuition; I could get a research assistantship at the university, which carried free tuition. Now that sounds like a dream today. And I think that shows you also how the country has changed.”

Dagmar, you were also a student when you came. Did you have a similar experience?

Dagmar White: “When we came, after we had such a bad experience during WWII, we decided we would all of us go. Because when father went by himself [to England] we stayed [in Czechoslovakia]; this time we went together. My father and my brother, an arrest warrant was already issued for them. Then they were sentenced to death in absentia. So we really found a haven here. I was studying at the time at the National Conservatory in Charles University in Prague. So I was able, as poor as… You know, when you come, we just had two sets of underwear on and that was it! So you come here and suddenly you get a scholarship to Juilliard, I was [also] at University of Kansas, I could continue with all my studies. I married an American diplomat and actually I was the one who was helping to disseminate American democracy in underdeveloped countries. And I still keep… I love America, I feel very safe here. And you know, we will now be reburying my father in Nižbor - in his native village, it is going to become a war grave - but you know I don’t know if I would completely ever feel safe there. I feel safe here, I love America, and yet I will never forget where I came from, what I did, and I am still very much involved in promoting Czech music and Czech culture, and that will always be part of me, but I love being here.”

Watch this space for a full transcript of the event.