March is WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH when tribute is paid to the generations of women and their contributions to history, culture and society. One such woman is Charles’s sister Vlasta Jakubová (my sister-in-law). Vlasta was born in Ozdany, Slovakia in 1925 and died in Brno, Czech Republic in 2017. Like her brother, in her youth she …
I keep thinking about Charles‘ sister Vlasta Marie Nováčková Jakubová (1925-2017). Sadly, she died this year at the age of ninety-two. Vlasta was three years older than Charles and started her work in the Czech anti-Nazi resistance at age fourteen during World War II. She worked for her uncle Josef Robotka’s Rada Tri (R-3) guerilla organization. She …
Today I honor my late husband Charles Novacek’s uncle Josef Robotka and am posting an unedited paper Charles wrote about him. The paper was eventually incorporated in Charles’ memoir, Border Crossings: Coming of Age in the Czech Resistance, Ten21 Press, 2012. Sixty-four years ago on November 12, 1952, at 5:40 a.m., Josef Robotká was executed …
Sixty years ago today at 5:40 a.m. on November 12, 1952, Josef Robotká was executed at Pankrac Prison in Prague, Czecho-Slovakia. He was 46 years old. Josef was a leader in the Czech Resistance. He had been arrested in 1949, stripped of his civil rights, made to forfeit all of his property and imprisoned for …
