Famous Czechs – Jan Zajic To set the scene you have to understand that the August 1968 invasion of Prague by Warsaw Pact countries extinguished the Prague Spring freedoms. Any political or social reforms were cancelled and Czechoslovakia regressed to its 1950’s state. As was increasingly common in the late 1960s, the method of the … Read More
Famous Czechs – Karel Hašler Every year thousands of people are walking up or down the Old Castle Steps at the back of Prague Castle and at the top of the steps they walk past (and briefly look at) a sculpture of a man with his legs crossed, leaning against the wall and playing a … Read More
1948 Communist Coup All over this website on the historical and political posts as well as many of the attractions you’ll see me refer to the “Communist takeover” or the “Communist coup d’etat” which is still referred to historically as “Victorious February” by our local communist party. It’s worth taking some time to see where … Read More
Book Review – Prague’s Stolpersteine Stumbling Stones Defiant in Their Memory 2008-2021 On March 24th 2019 an email arrived into my inbox with a single word in the title – Stolpersteine. The purpose of that email was to engage with people who had written about Stolpersteine (I’d called them Prague Stumble Stones) and suggest linking … Read More
Franz Kafka Monument I’ve written about the sculptor Jaroslav Rona and I’ve written about Franz Kafka so what about a post that links them. People might be confused because there will be references to two different Franz Kafka monuments in Prague. If you are looking for the huge shining Franz Kafka head which rotates then … Read More
Last Address Memorials If you enjoyed reading the story behind the Prague Stumble Stones then you might also be inspired by another growing international memorial to look out for called the Last Address. Whereas the Stumble Stones are embedded in the ground outside the last freely chosen address of a person before being deported in … Read More
Prague Jewish Garden Not so fast, this is not some horticultural post about what grows in a Jewish garden. This relates to a cemetery close to Wenceslas Square that pre-dates the current Old Jewish Cemetery by 200 years and is recognised as the oldest Jewish burial ground in the country. In the mid-13th Century a … Read More
The Pig Farm Before you read this post you might like to get the necessary background by reading the Roma Internment in World War Two post. In 1992 an American journalist called Paul Polansky was in the regional Czech town of Trebon researching the 19th century emigration of Czechs to the USA and found that … Read More
