http://www.radio.cz/en/current/witness A moment that changed my life. Some of the events that have shaped Central Europe recounted through vivid personal memories. en Wed, 24 Mar 2004 00:00:00 +0100 Wed, 24 Mar 2004 00:00:00 +0100 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Radio Prague CMS 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Radio Broadcasting cr@radio.cz (Cesky Rozhlas) webmaster@radio.cz (CRo Webmaster) http://www.radio.cz/en/article/52026 You may remember an interview we broadcast last year with Zdenek Macal, when he was appointed chief conductor of the greatest of all Czech orchestras, the Czech Philharmonic. Despite a huge international reputation after many years with top orchestras abroad, Macal was not particularly well known in his native Prague. The Czech Philharmonic had been going through a difficult few years, with financial problems, internal disputes and even fears that its artistic standards were suffering. So Zdenek Macal inherited a difficult job. Today, just a few months later, critics are united in praising his work with the orchestra. Not least among them is Petr Vlha, the secretary of the Year of Czech Music, who sees the changes at the Czech Philharmonic as little short of miraculous: Tue, 23 Mar 2004 23:59:59 +0100 urn:uuid:234196db-f79e-5724-807e-37617e583a0d http://www.radio.cz/en/article/51773 In recent years Czech versions of hit television programmes from the West have proved hugely popular. Among them are "The Weakest Link" and the latest big success, the Czech version of "Pop Idol". But the first of this wave of international programmes to make a big impact in the Czech Republic was "Milionar", which you may know as "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?". Jan Flemr appeared on "Milionar" three years ago, stalling at the final question but still taking home half a million crowns. Here he recalls the experience, and the question which stumped him. Tue, 16 Mar 2004 23:59:59 +0100 urn:uuid:bb5a58a4-a4b7-56b3-9d28-050d46fa5ff1 http://www.radio.cz/en/article/51527 We don't usually use archive recordings for Witness, but today we'll make an exception. This year is the 65th anniversary of the tragic day in March 1939, when German troops marched into Prague, beginning six years of Nazi occupation. At the time, Franta Kocourek was one of Czechoslovak Radio's star reporters. Four days after Bohemia and Moravia had been declared a "Protectorate of the German Reich", he reported live on the huge military parade that the Germans had organized on Prague's Wenceslas Square. He made no attempt to conceal his sense of horror at this show of Nazi military might. This was the first of many acts of defiance that soon led to Franta Kocourek being arrested. He died in Auschwitz in 1942, at the age of forty. Part of his live report from the balcony of the Hotel Sroubek on Wenceslas Square, on the 19th March 1939, survives to this day, and has become legendary in the history of Czech broadcasting. Tue, 09 Mar 2004 23:59:59 +0100 urn:uuid:b7234a33-1b84-5421-8b3b-9d58d4c7b11e http://www.radio.cz/en/article/51247 Maxim Velcovsky is one of the Czech Republic's best young artists, though it wasn't his work but his appearance in a massive advertising campaign for mobile phones which brought him to widespread public attention. Maxim has a very distinctive look: he is tall with huge "afro"-style hair and was, while the ad campaign was at its height in 2001, one of the best-known faces in the country. He has also appeared in TV ads made in the Czech Republic for other markets around the world. Here Maxim Velcovsky describes the experience of having his face all over the Czech media, at the height of his "fame". Tue, 02 Mar 2004 23:59:59 +0100 urn:uuid:13722a05-5aaf-5967-addc-90e1f4644d8c http://www.radio.cz/en/article/50987 It is exactly 75 years since the first Czech set foot on the Antarctic. His name was Vaclav Vojtech, and he travelled with an expedition organized by the American Richard Byrd. Vojtech returned a national hero. To this day there is a Czech presence on the White Continent, with a research station on Nelson Island in the South Shetlands; later this year a new Czech polar station is to be shipped to James Ross Island in the same area. One person who has become obsessed with the Antarctic is Dagmar Havlova, the one-time dissident and sister-in-law of the former Czech President Vaclav Havel. She was one of the initiators of the station on Nelson Island, and this year is planning her fifth visit. Here she talks about what draws her back to the Antarctic again and again. Tue, 24 Feb 2004 23:59:59 +0100 urn:uuid:5b3d70f8-7d41-59cb-a552-c8a5864e6070 http://www.radio.cz/en/article/50715 Pavel Theiner was eleven when his family left Prague in 1968. From his London exile Pavel's father became one of the most prominent figures in the Czech émigré literary community, and Pavel grew up unable to return to the country where he had spent his childhood. But today he is back in his native Prague with his wife and four-year-old daughter, working as a media researcher. Here he remembers his grandfather, a man who has remained important in Pavel's life, even though he died when Pavel was still small. Tue, 17 Feb 2004 23:59:59 +0100 urn:uuid:79c00b10-3c5e-577c-af37-6c55cdad3522 http://www.radio.cz/en/article/50474 Ever since he was a teenager Zbynek Svehla has been a passionate triathlete. Triathlon is possibly the most grueling sports discipline of all, combining swimming, cycling and running, and the sport's greatest challenge is the annual Ironman Triathlon in Hawaii. When Zbynek broke his back ten years ago, losing the use of his legs, he didn't give up his dream of completing Ironman. He was at last able to take part in 2001 - using a handcycle for the cycling section, and an adapted wheelchair for the marathon. He went home disappointed, after failing to complete the cycle section within the cut-off time. Last October, Zbynek had a second try, and became the first ever European wheelchair athlete to complete the event. It was an extraordinary achievement. But, as Zbynek remembers, there was a moment, in the heat of the Hawaiian sun, when he thought the cycle section would once again thwart his dream. Tue, 10 Feb 2004 23:59:59 +0100 urn:uuid:6be0398a-b2a3-54c1-a729-dc106d356db0 http://www.radio.cz/en/article/50191 In the days of the Cold War people who came into regular contact with foreigners were kept under close police scrutiny and were put under intense pressure to report on details of their meetings. In the early 1960s the South African musicologist Geoffrey Chew spent a year studying in the city of Brno. His landlady was a highly cultivated woman, who spoke several languages. She was also a reluctant police informer, but she got round this rather distasteful problem in a neat and elegant way. On a recent trip back to Brno, Geoffrey Chew remembered the time. Tue, 03 Feb 2004 23:59:59 +0100 urn:uuid:50d92cde-f90f-5c7a-bcc9-68a0f771c6be http://www.radio.cz/en/article/49925 At the end of January it will be exactly a year since Vaclav Havel stepped down after thirteen years as president, first of Czechoslovakia and then the Czech Republic. One person who spent a lot of time with Havel during his early days as president just after the fall of communism, is the journalist Jiri Vejvoda, now Czech Radio's chief producer of arts programmes. Here he remembers some of the insights he gained at the time. Tue, 27 Jan 2004 23:59:59 +0100 urn:uuid:c55c5964-c810-591d-833e-4d9b77e2b398 http://www.radio.cz/en/article/49661 Juraj Szanto is a medical journalist, and has had a long career in Prague as a dentist. He originally comes from the part of southern Slovakia that was annexed by Hungary just before the Second World War. When the war broke out, his father was sent to the Russian Front and his mother was imprisoned in Budapest for her links with the resistance. Juraj was fifteen when his mother was released in 1944, but this was just the time when the Nazis began to transport Hungarian Jews to the death camps in the east. Juraj and his mother were among thousands of people in the city who found refuge in the Swedish Embassy, under the protection of the now legendary Raoul Wallenberg. Here Juraj remembers not just Wallenberg, but also other Swedish diplomats in Budapest, who helped to save tens of thousands of lives, including his own: Tue, 20 Jan 2004 23:59:59 +0100 urn:uuid:75369611-0946-5408-ace5-3a97656145b6