Martin Nekola's guest appearances

Martin Nekola

CREECA Lecture Series Podcast

Prague Talk

James Joyce

Mark Baker

Brian Taylor

Dom Joly

Benedict Allen

Christine E. Evans

Greta Stocklassa

Ivan Král

Petr Sís

Adam Ondra

Peter Bugge

Sean Roberts

Helen Epstein

Petr Jašek

John Reuter

OwlTail

Historian Martin Nekola has just brought out Czech New York, a book detailing the Czech community in the Big Apple, where 40,000 once lived on the Upper East Side. Here he discusses many interesting aspects of the Czech impact on the city, from early arrivals to the post-1948 emigres hounded on suspicion they were Communist spies.

EP43: Martin Nekola

The exile after the coup in 1948 and the fate of Czechs abroad, who sought the return of freedom and democracy to their homeland, enslaved by the Communists, are an integral part of our modern history. However, this phenomenon is still neglected and the general public has only fragmentary information about it.  Researchers are still unable to agree on the intensities of individual waves of emigration between 1948-1989.  The most likely figure would be probably 250,000 people in total. The estimate of Czechoslovak State Security at the end of 1948 states 8614 refugees. Their first steps in the free world brought these people into the so-called displaced persons camps in Western occupation zones of Germany and Austria or in Italy. The first periodicals were published, the first seeds of political activity were born and later developed by numerous exile groups and entities. Almost seven dozens of newspapers, magazines and newsletters, and nearly one hundred ninety Czechs institutions, including political organizations, parties, academic clubs or think-tanks, operated in the free world after 1948. Despite the promising start and international support, the so called Council of Free Czechoslovakia, meant as the umbrella body for the entire exile, writhed in crisis, fell apart and reunited again, its members were wasting time with endless quarrels and were continuously losing the confidence of the exile public and their donors from the U.S. government. As time passed, the atmosphere in the exile changed, new topics, challenges and leaders raised. Dr. Nekola will discuss all aspects of the Czechoslovak Cold War exile (with a particular focus on the USA) in his contribution. If you would like to reach Dr. Nekola with comments or questions, feel free to reach out to him at marnekola@gmail.com.

Czechoslovak Exile After 1948 — Martin Nekola (09.28.17)