Margaret
Albright, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations and former Secretary of
State, was born in 1937 in Czechoslovakia to Czech Jewish parents who fled to England
in 1938 shortly after the German invasion of Czechoslovakia. In London her
father, a diplomat who spoke many languages, was part of the exiled Czech government
until after the war when he returned first to Prague, and then to his post as
Czech ambassador in Belgrade, Yugoslavia. Shortly after the Soviet army invaded
Prague in May, 1945, he and his family returned to Prague and stayed until 1948
at which point they immigrated to the U.S.
Albright
tells the story of what happened to her family and her birth country during
World War II mostly through research; she was, after all, born in 1937 and was
far too young to remember or understand deeply most of what happened. Her
description of England’s experience of the war is quite vivid. And she does
have specific early memories, such as when she and her family and neighbors
huddled in the cellar of their apartment building south of London as German
bombs landed with loud explosions. Though she has many memories of having been
sent off at the age of 10 to boarding school in Switzerland, it wasn’t until
many years later that she realized that her parents sent her to Switzerland to
protect her from the difficulties and tension of living in post-war Soviet-occupied Prague.
Albright
discusses her Jewish roots at some length. An article detailing the fact that
both sets of grandparents were Jewish was published in the Washington Post
shortly before she became Secretary of State. Albright stated that
she had never been told about her grandparents’ religion but she comes to learn
to her horror that aside from her maternal grandfather who died before the war,
her three grandparents and other close relatives were all killed by the Nazis.
In this memoir she writes about trying to imagine why her parents had converted
to Catholicism and she is sorry she had never asked her parents about her
grandparents. She also wonders about how
her father's sister Greta and her husband died in the war. They were parents of a first cousin who lived with her family for a
time in England and in post-war Prague.
Because
the Nazi concentration camp Theresienstadt was in Czechoslovakia which was where
many of her relatives were imprisoned, Albright made a visit, read extensively
about it, and wrote two chapters on its existence. She details its history and
describes daily life in the camp, including its rich educational and cultural
offerings, quoting from some of the memoirs written by prisoners in the camp.
You can sense her outrage in the chapter she devotes to the carefully
orchestrated inspection visit by Red Cross officials to the camp which was transformed for the
occasion into a seemingly benign place to live, its residents well-fed and
content. She is astounded that the Nazis succeeded in “fooling” the outside
world for so long.
This
memoir is very strong in its narration of the fate of Czechoslovakia. Albright
is obviously well versed in the language, conventions, and machinations of
diplomacy and tells the story of the rise of Hitler and the German invasion
into Czechoslovakia by introducing us to its leaders. She takes us through
meetings that sealed Czechoslovakia’s fate in Munich, Yalta, and Paris. She also
spends some time discussing the Marshall Plan and the Truman Doctrine and she
brings the story of Czechoslovakia up to date with a mention of the Prague
Spring of 1968 and the Velvet Revolution of 1989. And she feels some regret
that 1993 saw the official demise of Czechoslovakia as a country. One country
became two: The Czech Republic and Slovakia.
Albright
is well aware that with hindsight it is easy to see how everything went so
wrong. Her experience as a diplomat primes her to apply the plot points
of history to current world problems – especially genocide, and she
discusses the lessons that world leaders should have learned.
This memoir includes photos of public figures and family. It also includes an index.
To read an article that questions Albright's assertion that she didn't know about her Jewish ancestry, click here.
To read an article about the visit by Red Cross officials to inspect Thereseinstadt click here.
To read a previous post of a review of a memoir whose subject is Thereseinstadt, Petre Ginz 1941-1942, click here.
To read a previous post of a review of a memoir whose subject is Thereseinstadt, The Terezin Diary of Gonda Redlich, click here.
To read a previous post of a review of a cookbook compiled by women in Thereseinstadt that was an earlier blog post, click here.
This memoir includes photos of public figures and family. It also includes an index.
To read an article that questions Albright's assertion that she didn't know about her Jewish ancestry, click here.
To read an article about the visit by Red Cross officials to inspect Thereseinstadt click here.
To read a previous post of a review of a memoir whose subject is Thereseinstadt, Petre Ginz 1941-1942, click here.
To read a previous post of a review of a memoir whose subject is Thereseinstadt, The Terezin Diary of Gonda Redlich, click here.
To read a previous post of a review of a cookbook compiled by women in Thereseinstadt that was an earlier blog post, click here.
Family
Author’s
father’s family
Arnost
Korbel – married to Olga
Josef Korbel – son of Arnost and
Olga; married to Anna (Mandula) Spiegelova
Marie Jana (Madeleine)
Korbel Albright – daughter of Josef and
Anna; (author)
Anne, Alice,
and Katie Albright – daughters of Madeleine
Kathy Korbel – daughter
of Joseph and Anna
John Korbel – son of
Joseph and Anna; married to Pamela
Jan(Horza) Korbel – son of Arnost
and Olga; married to Ola
Alena and George Korbel
– children of Jan and Ola
Margarethe (Greta) Korbelova –
daughter of Arnost and Olga; married to Rudolf Deiml
Dasa (Dagmar) and Milena
Deimlova – daughters of Margarethe and Rudolf
Irma
Korbelova – sister of Arnost; married to Oscar Pater
Herta Paterova – daughter of Irma
and Oscar
Karel
Korbel – brother of Arnost
Gert Korbel – son of Karel
Marta
Korbelova – sister of Arnost
Pedro Mahler – grandson of
oldest sister of Arnost Korbel (sister not named)
Author’s
mother’s family
Alfred
Spiegel – married Ruzena
Anna Spiegelova – daughter of Alfred
and Ruzena; married to Arnost Korbel (see above)
Marie Spiegelova – daughter of
Alfred and Ruzena
Gustav
Spiegel – brother of Alfred; married Augusta
Friends
and Acquaintances of the Korbel family
Jaroslav
Stransky
Jirina
Smolkova – married Vilem Holzer
Mica Carmio –
granddaughter of Jirina and Vilem
Frantisek
Kraus
Tomas Kraus – son of Frantisek
Places
Kysperk
(Letohrad), Czechoslovakia
Podebrady,
Czechoslovakia
Strakonice,
Czechoslovakia
Prague,
Czechoslovakia
London,
England
Terezenstadt,
Czechoslovakia
Pikwicka
Forest, Latvia
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