Chicago
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At the turn of the 20th Century, Chicago was known as ‘the third biggest Czech city in the world’, after Prague and Vienna.
When Communists seized power in Czechoslovakia in 1948, there was a massive exodus of Czechs and Slovaks, many of whom were drawn to the Chicago area because of the high number of ethnic Czechs and Slovaks already living there. In post-war America, Chicago was a thriving city which offered opportunities to these newly arrived émigrés. This wave of Cold War-era Czech and Slovak immigrants has contributed to the economic and cultural development of the city. Today, the influx of Czechs and Slovaks to the city continues.
The NCSML was at the Czech Consulate in Chicago presenting Recording Voices & Documenting Memories of Czech & Slovak Americans on June 1. If you missed the event and want to find out more then click here.
Below are the stories of some of the Czechs and Slovaks who settled in Chicago:
September 28, 2011
Zdeněk Bažant was born in Prague in 1937. He studied civil engineering at Czech Technical University and graduated first in his class. Zdeněk began working with a state company as a civil engineer and earned a PhD in mechanics and a postgraduate diploma in physics. In 1968, while completing a fellowship at the University of Toronto and hearing of the Warsaw Pact invasion, he decided to stay abroad. Zdeněk is a Murphy Professor at Northwestern University.
August 25, 2011
Ladislaus (Lou) Bolchazy was born in Michalovce in eastern Slovakia in 1937. In 1948, Lou's father emigrated to the U.S., and one year later, Lou and the rest of his family joined him. They lived in Yonkers, NY. Lou has a PhD in classical studies and he owns Bolchazy-Carducci Publishers. He lives with his wife Marie in Barrington, Illinois.
April 05, 2010
Marie Cada was born in the small village of Komorovice, south-eastern Bohemia, in 1919. She became an orphan at a young age and spent her early teenage years looking after the family farm with her brother.
March 07, 2011
Ingrid Chybik was born in Brno, Moravia, in 1939. During WWII, she fell ill with diphtheria which, she says, saved both her and her brother Alfred, as they were quarantined when the nursery school they normally attended was bombed. Both of Ingrid's parents were killed during WWII. In 1946, Ingrid and her brother were taken in by an aunt in Vienna. In 1952, Ingrid was sponsored to come to Chicago.
August 08, 2011
Miroslav Chybik was born in Jalubí, Moravia, in 1935. His mother Josefa and father Miroslav had met in Chicago, Illinois in the 1920s, but had returned to Europe to care for their ailing parents in 1930. In 1948, Miroslav’s older sister Ester gained US citizenship on grounds that her father had been considered an American at the time of her birth. She came to America in December 1949 and encouraged her brother to do likewise. Miroslav applied for US citizenship and left Czechoslovakia on May 25, 1950.
January 04, 2011
Dusan Ciran was born in Brezová pod Bradlom, Western Slovakia, in 1929. His family arrived in Canada in 1950, settling first in Lethbridge, Alberta, before moving to Toronto, where Dusan played for the local Hungarian football club – Pannonia. Dusan moved with his family to Chicago in 1952. He co-founded the Oil Painters of America association.
October 26, 2010
Duke Dellin was born in Prague in 1940. His father, Eduard, had studied agricultural engineering and, after a time spent at the helm of the Sugar Beet Growers’ Association, became involved in politics as the Secretary of the Czechoslovak Agrarian Party. Duke arrived with his family in Chicago in 1949, after one year spent at Ludwigsburg refugee camp. He is now partner at William Blair & Company, an investment firm based in downtown Chicago.
April 26, 2011
Pierre Dobrovolny was born in Brno in 1933. He studied electrical engineering at ČVUT in Prague and graduated in 1958. That same year he married his partner Vera. His first job was at the Research Institute for Electrotechnical Physics, but after checks were run on his background he was let go and sent to work at TESLA Hloubětín instead. Following the Warsaw-Pact Invasion in 1968, he was part of a group which set up an illegal transmitter and broadcast unofficial news about the invasion from there. He left Czechoslovakia with his family in 1969.
April 25, 2011
Vera Dobrovolny was born in Prague in 1938. She attended commercial academy and then worked for Ferromet, a steel export company. In 1955, she met her husband Pierre at a dance. She left Czechoslovakia with her family in 1969 but returned home when her youngest child Lucie fell ill in Vienna. Several months later, the family tried again. After months spent in Traiskirchen and Bad Kreuzen refugee camps, the Dobrovolnys arrived in Chicago. Vera was employed as an accountant, first at CSA Fraternal Life and then at Bosch, where she worked for 26 years.
March 14, 2011
Robert Dobson was born in Prague in 1956. His father Vilém worked in construction and died in a workplace accident when Robert was still a child. His mother, Alena, subsequently raised Robert on her own and worked as an office manager. After one failed attempt to emigrate to Switzerland (which resulted in the passport of Robert's wife being confiscated), Robert arrived with his family in Downers Grove, Illinois, in 1984.
September 09, 2011
Doris Drost was born in Olomouc, Moravia in 1920. She lived several places with her family until they settled down in Brno, where she finished her schooling. After the Communist coup in 1948, Doris and her husband John left the country with their son Rudy, leaving their younger son George with a relative. After two years, George joined them in Austria, and they moved to the United States, settling in the Chicago area. Today, Doris lives in Arlington Heights, IL.
July 25, 2011
George Drost was born in Brno in December 1946. His father left Czechoslovakia within days of the Communist coup in 1948, and his mother and brother followed two weeks later, leaving George in his grandmother's care. It took two years before George was reunited with his family. The Drost family settled in Chicago, where George says they were greatly helped by the congregation at Ravenswood Presbyterian Church. George became an attorney and, in 2000, was appointed the honorary consul of the Czech Republic for Illinois, Wisconsin and Indiana.
June 16, 2011
Helena Fabry was born in Hradec Králové, Bohemia in 1925. Her father was a cabinet maker, while her mother stayed at home and raised Helena and her younger sister Věra. Helena graduated from business school in Hradec Králové during WWII and was assigned a job at the local supplies bureau. She was involved in local amateur theater which, she says, helped her through WWII.
October 31, 2011
Rasto Gallo was born in Lučenec, Slovakia in 1970. He grew up in Banská Bystrica and attended university there. The Velvet Revolution occurred during his first year at university, and Rasto participated in the student-led protests. While studying music at the conservatory in Bratislava, he won a scholarship to the United States, and moved to Cleveland in 1997. Today, Rasto lives in Chicago.
December 19, 2011
Stanislav Grezdo was born in Piešt’any, western Slovakia in 1972. His father worked at the local nuclear power station, while his mother taught Russian and Slovak. In 1986, Stanislav moved to Bratislava to attend graphic arts school. He was there when the Velvet Revolution happened which he refers to as a ‘great time in his life.’ He came to the United States in 1999 and has lived here ever since. He currently works as a curator at the Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art in Chicago.
July 12, 2011
Savoy Horvath was born in Brno in 1933. His father was active in the Czech resistance, and Savoy shared his father's anti-Nazi and anti-Communist views. He was forced to leave the country in 1948 when he feared arrest after leading some friends across the border. Savoy stayed in a number of refugee and children's camps, and also served a short time in the French Foreign Legion before arriving in the United States in 1949. He now lives in Readstown, Wisconsin.
April 05, 2010
Jarmila Hruban was born in Radešov, on the Czechoslovak border with Bavaria, in 1926. Her father was the mayor of nearby Boubská, the principal of the local school, and a regional administrator at a national cooperative bank called Kampelička.
April 12, 2010
Zdenek Hruban was born in 1921 in Přerov, Moravia. One of the achievements that he is best known for today is the foundation of the Archives of the Czechs and Slovaks Abroad (ACASA), a collection of more than 10,000 books, periodicals and other materials housed at the University of Chicago’s Regenstein Library. Zdenek died in September 2011.
April 13, 2010
Tony Jandacek was born in Prague in 1934. His father was a journalist who worked for the Ministry of Information during WWII. In 1945, he was found not guilty on charges of collaboration and continued to work for the government until the Communist coup. Tony's father escaped in February 1948, leaving his family behind. Tony did not see his father for another three years.
December 14, 2010
Jerry Jirak was born in Prague. His parents owned a tavern in the city’s Old Town, which the Jirak family lived above. After fleeing Czechoslovakia in March 1948, Jerry lived in France, Luxembourg, Germany and Australia before settling in America in 1959. He has presented the Czechoslovak Radio Hour on Chicago’s WCEV every Sunday for almost the past 30 years.