Podpora ★ Lidskost ★ Bratrstvi´

Czech Ex-Students Assn. of Texas meets; needs help promoting Czech language classes

Czech Ex-Students Association of Texas (CESAT) had its annual membership meeting on Saturday, February 4, 2023. The meeting was called to order at 10 a.m. at the Schulenburg Public Library.

CESAT members allocated up to $3,000 (based on availability of funds) for Czech language scholarships to Blinn College Foundation. The classes are live and recorded for later viewing. With the scholarships that CESAT and member organizations of TOCA offer, the tuition for the class is free of charge. All the student needs is to buy the textbook.

Blinn College now offers nine classes of Czech (four of these are credit classes):

• Beginning Czech 1471

Fall Semester, 4 hours credit

• Beginning Czech 1472

Spring Semester, 4 hours credit

• Intermediate Czech 1371

Fall Semester, 3 hours credit

• Intermediate Czech 1372

Spring Semester, 3 hours credit

• Non-credit Conversational Czech I taken at the same time with Czech 1471

• Non-credit Conversational Czech II taken as the same time with Czech 1472

• Non-credit Conversational Intermediate Czech I taken at the same time as Czech 1371

• Non-credit Conversational Intermediate Czech II taken at the same time as Czech 1372

• Advanced Czech Fall Semester and Spring 9 weeks, non-credit Blinn College had:

• 2 university students take Czech 1471.

• 3 high school students take dual credit Czech 1471.

• 15 adults take Conversational Czech at the same time as Czech 1471.

• 6 university students take Czech 1371.

• 7 adults take Conversational Czech II at the same time as 1371.

• 10 adults take Advanced Conversational Czech in the evening.

• A total of 43 students took Czech this fall at Blinn College.

The following high schools offer Czech: Caldwell, Dime Box, El Campo, and Schulenburg.

CESAT, in cooperation with Schulenburg Public Library, continues to offer every Friday night Ceska Beseda at 8 p.m.

From November through December, Czech Christmas carols are presented. Drills on pronunciation and English translation of the carols are presented as well as the variants that are sung by three to four Czech choirs in Texas and the impact of dialect on the Carols in Texas.

From January through October, Czech history in bilingual presentations covering Czech history from 450 to the Velvet Revolution are presented with links to Texas Czech history and communities. On Saturday mornings, CESAT offers Czech language lessons for children ages five to 12 from 8 to 8:30 a.m.

Join Us in This Mission

CESAT needs the help of parents and Czech organizations in Texas to speak to high schools to request that dual credit Czech be offered and asks parents and grandparents to encourage their children to study Czech. It is the mission of CESAT to help preserve the Czech language and culture in Texas. Wouldn’t you like to join us in this mission?

Thadious Polasek Lodge 67, Schulenburg —SPJST—

Spring into family research with Texas Czech Genealogical Society on April 29

As spring arrives, it brings new beauty and color to our lives. We marvel at the beauty of the Texas bluebonnets and Indian Blankets along the road; and as we see them dotted along the way with pink buttercups, a new smile crosses our face.

As the beauty of spring fills the corners of our lives, our mind also drifts to “unfinished projects . . . things we have put on the back burner, so to speak. We hit a roadblock while looking and put the project on hold. It could be while looking into your family – past and present. Texas Czech Genealogical Society (TCGS) will offer you an excellent opportunity to find ways of traveling through, and around, the roadblock and onto beautiful answers.

On Saturday, April 29 at Caldwell Civic Center in Caldwell, Texas, you will be given the opportunity to hear four professional speakers present programs which will offer a wealth of knowledge.

Moving past entering a name in Google or Family Search, Bernard Meisner will present “Techniques and Strategies for More Effective Online Searching.” Having seen his handout sheet, you will definitely want your pencil handy, adding additional notations to the many his handout currently lists.

Those who have viewed a virtual program online with Texas State Genealogical Society have become familiar with Tony Hanson as he guides the audience. So here is a question. Have you been to Aunt Susie-Q’s house and she brings out a photo or document you would just love to have a copy of . . . but, you know she is not going to let it out of her sight? It seems as if our cell phone never leaves our sight. Come learn another use for your phone as Tony presents “Using Your Smart Phone When a Scanner is Not Available.”

During the course of time, past and present, world conflict has left many with the question: What happened to my special family member (hero)? He/She seemed to have disappeared off planet Earth while serving our country. Many of us own and have read Ken Breaux’s book, Known Only to God. Ken works closely with a number of large organizations seeking to find answers of how and when those brave men and women lost their lives during past wars. We are thrilled to let you know that Ken has released a new book, Known But to God – America’s Twentieth Century Wars and the Search for the Missing. We have been in awe with previous presentations Ken has brought, and we eagerly await learning new, current details as we move forward through searching for those MIAs or KIAs in our lives.

You have spent years collecting, saving, and building your family history. At first, it filled a small box; the box grew to a container on the closet shelf – then to two containers . . . Now, you have lots of odds-and-ends papers and/or photos you know are valuable – perhaps originals only you possess – but, what do you do with all of it? In her presentation, “Organizing Genealogy Stuff,” Barbara Coakley will give us ways to handle and preserve each special treasure.

Adding to our day’s lineup of professional speakers will be TCGS Webmaster and Lifetime Member Danny Lesikar. Danny has spent years building what is termed “Czech Family Files.” He searches and researches the world over adding daily to these files which now exceed 115,000 . . . and he offers his information to you free of charge. You will need to provide a flash drive for him to download whatever information and/or photos he has on your family. You may be surprised. Chances are he has something you do not have.

Doors to the Caldwell Civic Center will open at 8 a.m. on Saturday, April 29 with morning refreshments being offered. The day’s program will begin at 9 a.m. As with all TCGS events, lunch of grilled pork steak, mashed potatoes, green beans, salad, rolls, tea, and cake for dessert will be included in the registration fee. Spring early bird registra- tion postmarked on or before Thursday, April 13 is $45 for TCGS members and $50 for non-members. Early registration postmarked on or before Thursday, April 20 will be $50 for TCGS members and $55 for non-members. A registration of $60 will be charged at the door for members and non-members alike.

A colorful event flyer as well as a registration form is available on the TCGS website at txczgs.org. To register and pay by credit card, visit https://txczgs.square.site. To register by check, make check payable to TCGS, complete the registration form and mail to Susan Crutchfield, 507 West Street, Sealy, Texas 77474. For further information, Susan can be reached by email at scrutch3@att.net.

We look forward to seeing you at Caldwell Civic Center on April 29 as we Spring into Family Research.

Fraternally, Charlene Hurta TCGS Vice President Lodge 200, Bruceville-Eddy —SPJST—

Czech Cu l tural Calendar

Hours of Operation

Czech Heritage Museum and Genealogy Center (CHMGC), 119 West French Avenue, Temple. Hours: Open Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission is $4 for adults, $3 for those 60 or older, and $2 for kids, 12 and under. Every First and Third Tuesday Evenings: Tarok Parties—All ages and anyone interested are welcome. No admission or fee. Awardwinning tournament champions Jimmie and Carolyn Coufal not only teach beginners, but also help experienced players increase their skill. For Museum information: tours, happenings, and activities, call: CHMGC 254-899-297735 (can leave a message); email czechheritagemuseum@gmail.com; find them on Facebook; or visit the Center’s website https://czechheritagemuseum.org

Monday through Saturday

Czech Center Museum Houston, 4920 San Jacinto Street in Houston, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Exhibits. Experience the culture, art, music, and stories of many Czechs, Slovaks, and people of all cultures who left their country to seek liberty and democracy in America. Beginner Czech Lessons: Monday evenings, 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. Conversational Czech hour - Saturdays, 1 to 2 p.m. Bring a friend or neighbor and come practice your Czech! Not a member? Join today for early access to concerts, movie nights, lectures, and events at CCMH as well as free Czech language lessons and monthly membership socials. Monthly Movie Night: CCMH has reinstated monthly movie nights. CCMH, 4920 San Jacinto Street in Houston. For information, call 713-528-2060; or visit czechcenter.org

April 11

Travis-Williamson Counties Czech Heritage Society (TWCCHS) Meeting—at Springhill Catfish Restaurant, 2505 West Pecan Street in Pflugerville, 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. Special guest Frances Barton will speak about her book Czech Songs in Texas and entertain us with accordion music. For information, contact TWCCHS President Dotty Davis at dottydavis9@gmail.com; or call 512-6636592. Submitted by Janie Zbranek, TWCCHS Reporter.

April 11

Czech That Film Texas: The Last Race (Posledni zavod)—at Violet Crown Cinemas, 434 West 2nd Street, Austin, Texas 78701 at 7 p.m. Directed by Tomas Hodan. Film honors include Czech Oscar and Best Cinematography. Film is in Czech with English subtitles. Tickets available at www.violetcrown.com. For information, visit www.czechthatfilmtexas.com.

April 13

TCGS Registration Deadline for April 29 Spring into Family Research event at Caldwell Civic Center, 103 Presidential Corridor, (Highway 21), Caldwell, Texas: Early Bird Registration postmarked on or before Thursday, April 13 - $45 for TCGS members; $50 for non-members. Early Registration postmarked on or before Thursday, April 20 - $50 for TCGS members; $55 for non-members. Registration at the door for members and non-members alike - $60. Registration form available on at txczgs.org. To register and pay by credit card, visit https://txczgs.square.site. To register by check, make check payable to TCGS, complete the registration form and mail to Susan Crutchfield, 507 West Street, Sealy, Texas 77474. Susan can be reached via email at scrutch3@att.net.

Submitted by Charlene Hurta, TCGS Vice President / SPJST Lodge 200, Bruceville-Eddy.

April 13

Night at the Museum—at Czech Heritage Museum, 19 West French Avenue, Tem- ple, 5 to 7:30 p.m.: Part of a spring / summer series to establish the museum as a community meeting / networkng place with regularly scheduled activities including performances, outdoor activities. Celebrating National Volunteer Month in April. Admission free. Public is invited. For information, contact organizer Brian Vanicek at vanicek@spjst.com.

April 25

Czech That Film Texas: Nightsiren (Svètlonoc)—at Violet Crown Cinemas, 434 West 2nd Street, Austin, Texas 78701 at 7 p.m. Directed by Tereza Nvotová. Film honors are Best Feature - Locarno IFF and 11 Czech Oscar Nominations. Film is in Czech with English subtitles. Tickets available at www.violetcrown.com.For information, visit www.czechthatfilmtexas.com.

May 3

Czech That Film Texas: Buko—at Violet Crown Cinemas, 434 West 2nd Street, Austin, Texas 78701 at 7 p.m. Directed by Alice Nellis. Film awards are Czech Oscar Best Supporting Role - Martha Issová. Film is in Czech with English subtitles. Tickets available at www.violetcrown.com. For information, visit www.czechthatfilmtexas.com.

May 11

Night at the Museum—at Czech Heritage Museum, 19 West French Avenue, Temple, 5 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.: Part of a spring / summer series to establish the museum as a community meeting / networkng place with regularly scheduled activities including performances, outdoor activities. Admission free. Public is invited. For information, contact organizer Brian Vanicek at vanicek@spjst.com.

June 8

Night at the Museum—at Czech Heritage Museum, 19 West French Avenue, Tem- ple, 5 to 7:30 p.m.: Part of a spring / summer series to establish the museum as a community meeting / networkng place with regularly scheduled activities including performances, outdoor activities. Admission free. Public is invited. For information, contact organizer Brian Vanicek at vanicek@spjst.com.

July 13

Night at the Museum—at Czech Heritage Museum, 19 West French Avenue, Temple, 5 to 7:30 p.m.: Part of a spring / summer series to establish the museum as a community meeting / networkng place with regularly scheduled activities including performances, outdoor activities. Admission free. Public is invited. For information, contact organizer Brian Vanicek at vanicek@spjst.com.

July 30

Save the Date! Vrazels’ Tribute Band—at SPJST Lodge 24, Cyclone - Flag Hall, 411 FM 964, Burlington, Texas 76519. Take a trip down memory lane. Doors / kitchen open at noon. Dance 2 to 6 p.m. For advance tickets and reservations, call 254985-2258 or 254-231-5348.

August 10

Night at the Museum—at Czech Heritage Museum, 19 West French Avenue, Temple, 5 to 7:30 p.m.: Part of a spring / summer series to establish the museum as a community meeting / networkng place with regularly scheduled activities including performances, outdoor activities. Admission free. Public is invited. For information, contact organizer Brian Vanicek at vanicek@spjst.com.

—SPJST—

Czech Center Museum Houston: Join our events

Join CCMH to Celebrate Upcoming Events

Thursday, April 20—Jazz Appreciation Month. Listen and dance to Sparky’s Jazz Express. Doors open at 6:30 p.m.; performance is 7 to 9 p.m. Capacity is limited so please RSVP and purchase your ticket in advance. We are charging a symbolic ticket price of $6. All proceeds will be used to benefit the activities of the CCHM. Complimentary valet parking is available onsite.

Saturday, April 29—Spring Festival, 12 noon to 5 p.m. Eat, learn, and play! Celebrate Czech culture with performances, arts and crafts, Czech cuisine, and so much more! Experience Czech food, beer, and live music featuring Czech folk singers. A special dance and music program for kids will be at 2:45 p.m. Take part in our competitive kolache eating contest at 3:30 p.m. The event also includes craft your own flower crown; meet the Texas

Czech/Slovak queens; feast on baked goods, Czech sausages, sauerkraut, and pivo; get creative with face painting and chalk art; try your hand at lawn games. Learn, dance, play, and explore with friends, family, and neighbors. Note: Registration is required.

Tuesday, May 23 Stribrnanka Brass Band, 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. Performance starts at 7 p.m. Founded in 1970, Stribrnanka is a professional band from Stribrnice, Czech Republic, in south Moravia. The band has a distinctive unmistakable sound, playing a wide repertoire of Czech and Moravian folk music, concert, solo, and dance songs. Stribrnanka has its repertoire based almost exclusively on its own compositions and compositions written directly for this band. We are charging a symbolic ticket price of $8. All the proceeds will be used to benefit the activities of the CCMH.

We hope you will join us! Czech Center Museum Houston is located at 4920 San Jacinto Street in Houston, Texas. For information, call 713-5282060. Visit www.czechcenter.org.

—SPJST—

Czech museum to return original Beethoven score to heirs

Karel Janicek, The Associated Press

Published Saturday, December 3, 2022 have almost 300 pages of the entire autograph in their possession.

PRAGUE — A musical manuscript handwritten by Ludwig van Beethoven is getting returned to the heirs of the richest family in pre-World War II Czechoslovakia, whose members had to flee the country to escape the Holocaust.

The Moravian Museum in the Czech city of Brno has had the original manuscript for the fourth movement of Beethoven’s String Quartet in B-flat Major, Op. 130 in its collection for more than 80 years. The museum put the score on display for the first time in December in anticipation of handing it over to its rightful owners.

“It’s one of the most precious items in our collections,” museum curator Simona Šindelářová said.

The museum said a restitution law on property stolen by German Nazis made the return possible. Details about how the family, whose wealth came mainly from mining industry and banking in Central Europe, after World War I acquired the piece from one of the German composer’s late quartets is unknown.

It’s known that Beethoven, who died in 1827, gave the fourth movement to his secretary, Karl Holz, and at least two other private owners in Vienna acquired it before the Petscheks.

The family tried but failed to send the manuscript abroad by mail in March 1939 during the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia, drawing the attention of the Gestapo.

According to Šindelářová, the Germans asked an expert from the Moravian Museum at the time to verify Beethoven had penned the document, and “he denied that in an effort to save it” from the occupiers.

The lie could have cost him dearly, but it worked; the museum was allowed to keep the piece. However, the Nazis seized most of the Petschek family’s assets and possessions, which Czechoslovakia’s Communist regime nationalized after the war.

From his new home in the United States, Franz Petschek, who had run the family’s mining businesses in Czechoslovakia, tried to get the piece back but was unsuccessful due to the post-war division in Europe and creation of the Iron Curtain.

The Czech Heritage Museum Advisory Committee hosted a workday at the Museum on Monday, March 27, 2023, to help prepare for the new “Night at the Museum” events, which begin on Thursday, April 13 and continue on the second Thursday of each month from 5 to 7:30 p.m. through August. LEFT PHOTO: SPJST President/CEO Brian Vanicek and District Seven Director Regina House look over Museum store items. BELOW LEFT PHOTO: District Two Director Jesse Pospisil arranges

“We’re sorry about losing it, but it rightly belongs to the Petschek family,” Šindelářová said.

Beethoven composed the six-movement String Quartet in B-flat Major in 1825 to 1826 as part of his work on a series of quartets commissioned by Russian Prince Nicholas Galitzin. It premiered in March 1826 at the Musikverein concert hall in Vienna, Austria.

Museums, archives, and libraries in the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Poland, and the United States currently

The Moravian Museum signed a deal on August 3 to transfer the ownership of the manuscript to his heirs. However, other families with claims to property and valuable items lost during World War II are still waiting for their cases to be resolved.

Anne Webber, co-chair of the London-based Commission for Looted Art in Europe, said that despite 47 countries agreeing in 2009 to try to resolve Holocaust-era injustices, “the restitution of artworks that were looted often seems to be as distant prospect as ever.” https://www.cp24.com/entertainment-news/czechmuseum-to-return-original-beethoven-score-toheirs-1.6179610 —SPJST—

“Some 90 percent of all artworks being sought today by families have been neither found nor returned,” Webber said at a conference held in Prague last month to review the progress made since the non-binding Terezín Declaration was adopted.

The declaration urged governments to make every effort to return former Jewish communal and religious property confiscated by the Nazis, fascists and their collaborators, and recommended that countries implement programs to address the issue of private buildings and land.

Emil Boceklast Czech RAF pilot during WWII - dies at 100

The last living Czech pilot who fought the Nazis while serving with Britain’s Royal Air Force during World War II died at age 100. A community center for war veterans in the Czech Republic city of Brno said General Emil Bocek died on Saturday, March 25, 2023. The Czech Defense Ministry confirmed his death.

Bocek fled Czechoslovakia in 1939 at age 16 following the country’s occupation by Germany. He fought the Nazis in France then moved to Britain, where he joined an RAF fighter squadron as a pilot in 1944.

After the war, he was persecuted by the communist regime and was only recognized for his services after the Velvet Revolution in 1989. He received many awards including the highest Czech state distinction, the Order of the White Lion.

In 2016, Bocek described Britain’s Spitfire combat aircraft as “a perfect plane.” https://www.cecildaily.com/obituaries/emil-bocek-lastczech-raf-pilot-during-wwii-dies-at-100/article_16a237bd45c8-53fd-a261-b38221eb3075.html

Funeral service for General Bocek was held at Brno’s Central Cemetery on Tuesday, April 4.

—SPJST—

TCHCC hosts Texas Czech Legacy Project illustrated talk by Professor Lida Cope on May 11 and 12

Texas Czech Heritage and Cultural Center (TCHCC) will host an illustrated talk - Preserving Czech Language around the World: Texas Legacy Project - by Professor Lida Cope on Thursday, May 11, 2023, at 6 p.m. and Friday, May 12, 2023, at 2 p.m. The sessions will be held in Hanslik Hall at the TCHCC facility, 250 West Fairgrounds