Related articles
Current AffairsEgyptian foreign minister: Czech EU presidency should talk to Palestinians, too
One of the things Czechs want to focus on during the country’s upcoming
EU presidency is deepening Europes relations with Israel. The Czechs are
even hoping that a first-ever summit between the EU and Israel could be
held at some point during the first six months of 2009. On Monday, the
Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmad Aboul Gheit came to Prague for talks with
Czech President Václav Klaus, Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg and
other officials. His mission was to make sure that the voice of the Arab
world is also heard, and that the Czech presidency follows a balanced
policy towards the Middle East. More
Czech BooksHana Pravda: a love stronger than death itself
“I’m now going to write down some of the things which have happened
over the last few days. I’ve got such a short memory, I’m afraid, and
this is a way of making sure that I don’t forget.” These are the
opening lines of a diary that was written in 1945 by a young woman as she
gradually emerged from the hell of the concentration camps, hoping, against
the odds, to see her husband again. The woman’s name was Hana Pravda, and
she died in London on May 22 this year at the age of 92. Hana spent much of
the second half of her life in Britain, where she had a long and very
successful career as an actress. But it was a career that had been brutally
cut in two by the Second World War, and had begun at a very different time
and place: in the early 1930s in her home city of Prague.
More
Current AffairsHolocaust victims remembered by new ‘Stones of the Vanished’ project
If you stumble across a little brass plaque on a walk in Prague’s Old
Town next week, then the chances are it is going to be a ‘kámen
zmizelého’ (‘stone of the vanished’). The project, organized by the
Czech Union of Jewish Students, will eventually see stones commemorating
victims of the Holocaust embedded in pavements all over the capital. The
idea comes from Germany, as does the man making the memorials, Gunter
Demnig. But the project coordinator at the Czech end is Petr Mandl. I met
him on Wednesday morning to ask first about the name of the project:
More
Current AffairsEducational centre to open at former Roma concentration camp
A former Roma concentration camp in South Moravia was turned into a holiday
resort in the 1960s. Now the site is set to become a documentation and
educational centre with a permanent exposition on the Romany Holocaust –
the first institution of its kind in the Czech Republic.
More
Current AffairsWinton Train to retrace route of kindertransport that saved the lives of hundreds of Jewish children
This Monday, Sir Nicholas Winton, the British stock exchange clerk who
quietly saved more than 650 Czech Jewish children from the Holocaust and
told no one for more than 50 years, turned 99. In Prague, the occasion was
marked by representatives of Czech Railways as well as the Film Academy of
Miroslav Ondříček in Písek. Together, they announced an ambitious new
project called The Winton Train, which will retrace the route of the
original Prague-London kindertransport which saved so many. Young
filmmakers, inspired by Mr Winton’s deeds, will be among those who will
take part in the journey.
More
Current AffairsCzechs mark Holocaust Remembrance Day
Yom HaShoah or Holocaust Remembrance Day victims - a day of commemoration
for the approximately six million Jews who perished during the Second World
War - was marked in many parts of the Czech Republic - in synagogues, at
public gatherings and in private, by families whose lives were directly
affected by the Holocaust. Anyone passing through Prague’s Náměstí
Míru on Wednesday could stop to take part in a public reading of the names
of Holocaust victims. The event was organised by the Terezín Initiative
Institute, the Czech Union of Jewish Youth and the Foundation for Holocaust
Victims. I caught up with one of the organizers, Michal Frankl, and asked
him to say a few words about this event:
More
+1
+10
