One Hundred-Towered Prague

One Hundred-Towered Prague
by Czech Republic poet Nezval (1900-1958)

One hundred-towered Prague
City with fingers of all the saints
With fingers made for sweating falsely
With fingers from the fire and hail
with a musician’s fingers
with shining fingers of a woman lying on her back.

With fingers of asparagus
with fingers with fevers of 105 degrees
with fingers of frozen forest and with fingers without gloves
with fingers on which a bee has landed
with fingers of blue spruces
With fingers disturbed by arthritis
With fingers of strawberries
With spring water fingers and with finger of bamboo

Reflecting on my limited global travel experience, I wish to strongly recommend to friends - be sure to include Prague if you are planning to go to Europe.

Prague can offer unusually deeper cultural / historical insights than any other European city. I shall say better than Vienna, London, Paris, etc. You can witness old and new architecture; Gothic, Romanesque, Baroque, Rococo, even Art Nouveau and contemporary - castles, churches, monasteries, libraries, museums, gardens and parks. I read and heard comments by visitors to Prague saying that it was as if they were visiting a fairyland.

The above quoted Czech poet Nezval also wrote about the River Vltava running through Prague:

‘Bon voyage, Vltava!' Your bubbly string playing string for us glorious tunes along with harp while the Vysehrad* soaring up in the bright moonlight as if straining its ears to listen to Vltava".
(*Vysehrad - the name of the hill where the Prague castles or fortresses are)

Nobel Laureate poet Jaroslav Seifert also referred to Vltava as his river of hope and faith. And Bedrich Smetana dedicated his first symphonic poem “My Fatherland” (in Japanese) to Prague. The Czech name of this symphony is “The Moldau”, meaning Vltava in German. I enjoyed the Vltava riverboat cruise when I was there.

My favorite Mucha’s artwork are St.Vitus Cathedral’s stained glass windows. I remember there is a colorful area called Golden Lane where it was rumored alchemists transformed lead into gold. In reality, the area was home to the castle’s gunners and goldsmiths, where Franz Kafka once lived. The strangely named “Powder Tower” enchanted me.

I returned often to Wenceslas Square recalling the so-called Prague Spring or Velvet Revolutionary demonstrations. In the Old Town Square, I marveled at the old but still operating astronomical clock and bustling flea market.

My visit to Czech was in the spring of 2005 when I visited the Architectural College named after Jan Leztel (1880-1925), the architect who built the Hiroshima Prefecture Business Exhibition Hall Building. The building itself was destroyed by the Atomic Bomb in 1945 but the dome skeleton has been famously kept as a war memorial, now designated as a UN Heritage site. The college is in Nachod, East Bohemia, a border town to Poland through Krkonose Mountains (see riosloggers 2009).

Good Samaritans

"The persecution of Jews in the General Government in Polish territory gradually worsened in its cruelty. In 1939 and1940 they were forced to wear the Star of David and were herded together and confined in ghettos. In 1941 and1942 this unadulterated sadism was fully revealed. And then a thinking man, who had overcome his inner cowardice, simply had to help. There was no other choice."
- Oskar Schindler, in a 1964 interview.

"There is a difference between Passive Goodness and Active Goodness, which is the giving of one’s time and energy, in the alleviation of pain and suffering. It entails going out, finding and helping those in suffering and in danger and not merely leading an exemplary life in the purely passive way of doing no wrong."
- Nicholas Winton, in a letter written in 1939

"There is nothing wrong in saving many people's lives.... The spirit of humanity, philanthropy... neighborly friendship... with this spirit, I ventured to do what I did, confronting this most difficult situation and because of this reason, I went ahead with redoubled courage."
- Chiune Sugihara

Academy Award winning Schindler's List by Steven Spielberg took the world by storm two decades ago. In Europe, a decade later, a British centenarian, Nickolas Winton (born 1909), was recognized and people petitioned for him to receive the Nobel Prize for peace, as he transported 669 Jewish children from Prague to London, all of whom were adopted in England. The 2011 documentary Nicky's Family by Matej Minac won a few world film festival awards. Queen Elizabeth knighted Nicholas and CBS in United States featured him on 60 Minutes.

My American friend who read my blog reminded me of Nicholas Winton, so I referred it to my Czech friend Valerie. Valerie responded with a more detailed story about one of the Kindertransport children.

"Kindertransport Operations": several countries rescued Jewish children away from the Nazis in 1939. Poland, Germany, France, Holland, Sweden, and the Czech Republic are erecting memorial statues in memory of these successful operations.

Nicholas Winton, Jewish, born in Germany, became a British stockbroker. He was asked by his diplomat friend "how about lending a hand to the desperate Jewish families?" Canceling his ski trip to Switzerland, Nicholas flew to Prague and set up a recruiting space, first at the open Winceslas Square, then moved inside the Hotel Evropa where he stayed.

In 2005 I had a chance to visit Winceslas Square for half a day, admiring its historic significance and squinting saint statues. I visited art nouveau style hotels; including Hotel Evrope, whose façade was designed by Jan Letzel, the same architect who did the UNESCO Heritage Hiroshima dome. I'm happy to see this hotel has a connection between Jan Letzel and Nicholas Winton.

Of all the Kindertransport art sculptures, two at the Prague Railway Central Station (the statue is on the Prague main train station on the platform from where the Winton´s trains with children left for Great Britain) and London's Liverpool Street Station outshine all others, giving thanks to the courageous act of Nicholas Winton. What impressed me was that the records of Nicholas Winton were boxed and forgotten in the attic, unbeknownst to Grete, his wife. In 1988, Grete found a scrapbook from 1939 with a complete list of names and a few letters from parents of the children addressed to Nicholas. That was how Grete found out what kind of man her husband truly was.

My Czech friend Valerie lives in Pardubice, about 100 km east of Prague. She emailed to me that this past March, she attended "an evening with Lady Milena Grenfell-Baines" event at Pardubice University. (I was a lucky traveler to have once stayed at this Pardubice University dorm). Lady Milena Grenfell-Baines was one of the 669 Winton children. Valerie sent me slides of photos of this event and I'm happy to share them with my readers.

Lady Milena, upon arriving at Liverpool Street Station, London, met her guardian "the Radcliffes" who looked after her for a year when she was joined by her parents. She spoke Czech and English and at age 16, she left for France as an au pair for two years. Her father found work in Preston, Lancashire where her family re-united. At age 25 Milena met her late husband Sir George Grenfell-Baines, a well-known architect. Milena, published Czech recipe books using the Remoska, a Czech made electric cooking pot. She was on air with her cooking lessons, while organizing England-Czech sports and music exchange, as well as charity programs as sponsor/interpreter. Lately, she has been addressing European audiences regarding her Kindertransport experience.

Milena has maintained a close relationship with Sir Nicholas Winton. In 2001 Milena was presented with the Jan Masaryk ‘Gratis Agit’ award, by the Czech Minister of Foreign Affairs for remaining a faithful patriot, an ambassador of goodwill, culture and history for the Czech Republic.

Additional Resources:
1. Complete photos from "Setkání s Lady Milenou Grenfell-Baines"
2. Documentary The Power of Good
3. http://www.powerofgood.net/

Jan Letzel, Hiroshima Atomic Dome Architect

Lowland corridors were my first impressions of the Czech Republic as I traveled by train from Sachsen, Germany to Bratislava, then on to Budapest, Hungary with stopovers in Prague and Pardubice. The northern border of Czech shares the Krkonose Mountains with Poland and is as high as 1,600 meters above sea level. The mountain ridges curb south to the right and comes down to an elevation of 1,000 meters, where part of Poland is surrounded by the Czech Republic. Nachod, the gateway to Poland and noted for Primator beer brand, is situated there and has a population of 22,000. In 2005, I visited the city, with the help of my Czech friend Jiri Psenicka, a Pardubice Toastmaster.

Jan Letzel (1880-1925) had been recognized by the Japanese as the designer/architect of the "Hiroshima Prefectural Commercial Exhibition Hall" (built in 1915) and the postwar "Hiroshima Atomic Dome" , with UNESCO designation. When Hiroshima celebrated Letzel's 100th birthday, Czech writer Olga Stolskova participated. Pavel Hayslore, Letzel's great great nephew was invited to Hiroshima on August 6. 2000. Thanks to the excellent pre-arrangements of my friend Jiri, I had a chance to visit Nachod's two year College of Architecture, which was named after Letzel in 2000, the same year Hiroshima celebrated Letzel's 100th birth year; the city of Nachod honored the architect as "Letzel Year".

Jiri drove his Czech car "Skoda" that day for me. We left Pardubice, where Jiri worked and lived with his family, early in the morning and headed for Nachod, about 80 kilometers northeast of Pardubice. It was a smooth, scenic country drive, after hitting a little morning traffic in the Industrial Hradec Kralove. Prinicpal Ing. Chraska met us in his room in the company of Vera Vlckova, the Englsih teacher in charge. They treated us to breakfast before we went to Vera's English class.In my address to the English class, I gave a brief talk on the "island" Japan, rich in marine and farm products, but exposed constantly to the threats of nature, such as seasonal typhoons, earthquakes and tsunamis. I told them about the earthquakes that just hit Fukuoka after my departure and about northern Kyushu where I live, and the telephone conversation I had with my wife about the earthquake. I told the students that Jan Letzel himself experienced the Great Kanto Earthquake in 1925 that made him build the dome sturdy, which withstood even the atomic bomb. I emphasized that the Japanese people were determined not to be engaged in any war again so as not to repeat the horrors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. After my speech, I presented Japanese souvenirs that included fans, picture postcards, chopsticks. During the Q&A session, I was requested to demonstrate how to use chopsticks, and sing some typical Japanese songs. I sang the "Sukiyaki" song, a Japanese pop tune and "Sakura", the cherry blossom song.

After class, Ms. Vlckova took us to the grave site of Jan Letzel, then to the nearby castle on the hill. We had lunch at Masaryk Square (named after the first President and founder of Czechoslovakia, 1850-1937). She bit her lip when she spoke of the poor student exchange offers, despite her willingness to deepen ties with Japanese counterpart colleges. On our way back, Jiri drove me to Ceska Skalice, not far from Nachod. There is a national park and forest called Ratiborice and a summer palace a Bohemian lord built in the 18th century. It was off-season so we met no one while visiting. The brimming river was running through a scenic area with a water mill, cottages and dams.

Jiri pointed to the stone statue of a stooped grandma and children looking up to the sky, which depicted a scene from the book written by Bozena Nemcova (1820-1862). Bozena‘s two best known books are The Village under Mountains and The Grandmother (1855). The latter is about a young girl named Barunka (name is a pet form of Barbora) and her childhood with her grandmother in the countryside. Both books were inspired by Nemcova's own childhood in the village of Ratiborice, where she lived with her parents, siblings and maternal grandmother, Magdalena Novotna. Grandma, on her deathbed, asked the children to tell the bees her message. A couple of mock-up beehives can be seen on the slope of the river banks. The sprouting bare branches of poplar trees along the River Upa shone brilliantly in the sun.