The Disappearance of Joseph Mengele is coming out in Czech in autumn 2018 on the Garamond imprint. During the evening the audience will hear a number of excerpts from the novel, which is currently being translated.

Oliver Guez is not just a novelist but also a well-known journalist and reporter. He came to broader attention in France thanks to his book The Impossible Return, focused on the post-war return of Jewish inhabitants to Germany. He is also known for The Fall of the Wall, in which he and Jean-Marc Gonin, the current editor-in-chief of the daily Le Figaro, recorded the testimonies of actors in the events that led to the collapse of the Berlin Wall.

The meeting will take place in French with simultaneous translation.

Organised by the Václav Havel Library in cooperation with Prague’s Institut francais.

Via eight interviews with people living permanently outside civilisation, novelist Aleš Palán provides insights into a world of whose existence we know nothing. We encounter wild animals, cruel winters and even apparitions. The book, complemented by the photography of Jan Šibík (Czech Press Photo, Golden Prisma Award), is an exploration of secret corners of both the landscape and the human soul. Of long-term solitude and isolation. Of a parallel world that asks very unsettling questions of ours.

Jiří Křižan (1941–2010) was one of the most distinctive Czech screenwriters of the second half of the 20th century (e.g., Shadows of a Hot Summer, 1977, dir. František Vláčil; Signum laudis 1980, dir. Martin Hollý; Sekal Has to Die, 1998, dir. Vladimír Michálek) and a leading representative of the pre-Velvet Revolution opposition (initiator of a January 1989 campaign to have Václav Havel released from jail, founding member of Civic Forum).

The author and his colourful life will be discussed by Karel Schwarzenberg and his daughters Rebeka Bartůňková and Barbora Křižanová.

The book’s editor Pavel Hájek will host the evening. 

INFORMATION ON SPEAKERS:

György Csepeli is a Hungarian social scientist. Born in 1946, graduated from ELTE, Budapest in 1970. Professor of Social Psychology at ELTE, Chair of the Interdisciplinary Social Science Research Doctoral Program. He has been teaching at various Universities including UCLA, University of Michigan, New School in New York and Montclair State University. His research interests cover areas of social psychology of intergroup relations such as national identity, anti-Semitism, anti-Gypsy sentiments and conflict resolution.

Adéla Gjuričová is a senior researcher at the Institute of Contemporary History at the Academy of Science in Prague. She focuses on politics and society during the late socialist era, the 1989 revolutions and post-communist transformations. She is co-author of Divided by the Past: Political Identities in the Czech Republic after 1989 (Václav Havel Library 2011).

Jan Biggles Hanzlík was born in Prague, he studied history at the Philosophical Faculty of the Charles University. He had various occupations: journalist, photographer, translator, screenwriter, and writer. For almost ten years he was the chief editor of historical revue Memory and History published by the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes. At this moment he is a freelance screenwriter.

Łukasz Jasina has a Ph.D in Film Studies (Polish Academy of Sciences). He graduated from Law Studies, History and Journalist Studies at John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin. He spent two Fellowships in Harvard Ukrainian Institute and Toronto University. He was Head of the Eastern branch and publicist in internet weekly "Kultura Liberalna“ and assistant professor at John Paul Ii Catholic University of Lublin and Head of International Department in Polish History Museum. Łukasz Jasina is an author of few hundred publications. He is currently employed at the Polish Institute of International Affairs.

Kalle Kallio is an expert on labour history and difficult heritage, including remembering Finnish Civil War 1918. Since 2005, he has worked as a museum director in The Finnish Labour Museum, which is a national museum of working life and social history. Museum has two branches: Museum of the Deaf and Lenin Museum, renewed in summer 2016. He also acts as a chairman of Worklab (International Association of Labour Museums).

Pavlína Kvapilová is Czech presenter, independent producer, consultant and social media strategist. Later she headed special coverage at CT24, all news channel of Czech TV. Pavlína and her team introduced social media to news, created and shaped interactive formats like Hyde Park CT24. Pavlína then became Director of Czech TV New Media Division.  Her heart project is called Elegantní Česko – Elegant Czechs. It explores the heritage of so called First Republic (Czechoslovakia 1918-38) and inspires wide public to create and adopt modern forms of good old know-how - in fashion, manners, business habits, lifestyle as the whole.

Václav Kuneš teaches Czech language and literature and History at the Grammar school of J. V. Jirsík in České Budějovice. He specializes in methods of modern history teaching. He worked with his students on historical projects about the Holocaust in Slovakia and Poland. He also participated in international projects within Comenius and Erasmus Plus programmes. He organizes historical excursions for his students both in the Czech Republic and abroad as well as discussions with witnesses of historical events.

Miroslav Michela, PhD. is working as historian at the Institute of Czech History, Faculty of Arts at the Charles University and Institute of History, Slovak Academy of Sciences. Miroslav is a co-founder and former editor-in-chief of journal www.forumhistoriae.sk (2007-2013). His main fields of academic interest include 20th-century history, popular culture and nationalism studies, and politics of memory, with a focus on Czechoslovakia and East-Central Europe.

Christoph Prantner is a Senior Editor for the Austrian daily Der Standard in Vienna. He holds a master's degree in Philosophy, Political Science and History (University of Vienna and University of California Los Angeles/UCLA). Mr. Prantner writes since 1997 for Der Standard. In 2001 he worked as a Reporter for Die Welt in Berlin, in 2007 he was the first U.S.-Austrian Journalism Exchange Fellow at USA Today in Washington D.C. From 2007 until 2013 he was Head of the Foreign Desk at Der Standard. Since July 2013 he runs the opinion pages at the paper and writes political commentaries, essays and a well-read blog. He has been a contributor for the BBC, Al-Jazeera, Europäische Rundschau, Internazionale, EAST Magazine and Reczpospolita.

Machteld Venken, PhD is a Belgian Historian and Slavist. She received her PhD from the Catholic University in Leuven (KU Leuven), Belgium. After running a research project at Warsaw University in Poland, she joined the University of Vienna. Most recently, she edited the volume Borderland Studies Meets Child Studies. A European Encounter (2017).

You can find other information at the FB event.

We will discuss his fresh findings about the history of Divadlo Na zábradlí with theatre historian Martin J. Švejda, as well as presenting lesser-known documents from that era from the archive of the Václav Havel Library. And there will be theatre.

In the second half of the evening Academy of Performing Arts acting students will perform, overseen by teacher Jaroslava Šiktancová, excerpts from The Increased Difficulty of Concentration, a comedy about a man incapable of choosing between his wife and a lover and whose mind becomes incapable of working toward anything conceptually or even orienting itself in time.

16. 4. / PO / 19.00 / OSTROVNÍ 13
Czech-American Relations after 1918
Czech-American relations and geopolitics in important years ending in eight (1918, 1938, 1948 and 1968). Might anything have been different? And what can the Czech Republic expect from the turbulent presidency of Donald Trump? A talk featuring Czech historians and diplomats. Chaired by Daniel Anýž.

17. 4. / ÚT / 19.00 / OSTROVNÍ 13
Czech-American Relations after 1989
A century ago the US was involved in the foundation of Czechoslovakia. Does this place any obligations on us regarding the future? And is it possibly to live off the post-1989 tradition of strong alliance alone? Contemporary Czech-American relations will be discussed by figures who have been inspired by the US in their professional lives. Chaired by Daniel Anýž.

18. 4. / ST / 19.00 / OSTROVNÍ 13
An Evening for H. G. Skilling
Friends and colleagues will come together to remember the still relevant legacy of H.G. Skilling, an expert on Czech and Slovak history, supporter of Charter 77 and recipient of Czechoslovakia’s Order of the White Lion.
Guests will include Jiřina Šiklová, Miroslav Kusý and Vilém Prečan.
Chaired by David Vaughan.

19. 4. / ČT / 19.00 / OSTROVNÍ 13
Dear Mother / Dear Alice
Staged reading of letters by exceptional women close to TGM – Charlotte and Alice Masaryk.
Actors: Daniela Kolářová, Marie Málková, dramaturgy: Lucie Němečková, director: Zuzana Burianová. The reading will be followed by a debate with Czech historian Marie Neudorflová, who has been focused on Masaryk-related subjects for some years.

The presentation of the magazine will be accompanied by a discussion of these unstable territories featuring Petra Procházková, who has long been focused on the region as a journalist and eye witness, providing reports on the conflicts in Donbas, Ossetia, Abkhazia, Georgia, Nagorno-Karabakh and Afghanistan.

Chaired by Radko Mokryk from the Institute of East European Studies at Charles University’s Faculty of Arts and editor of the magazine NaVýchod.

“I brought a recording to Magor (Jirous) in Prostřední Vydří, but he wasn’t home so I placed it on the window ledge. About two years later I met Magor at Roxy and he spoke enthusiastically about how I had put it to music. I was euphoric about it.” After several more meetings Jirous gave Šenkýřík permission to put any of his poems to music. The album I vši, which came out on the Indies label in August 2014, contains 14 pieces produced by Tomáš Vtípil.

Performing:
Tomáš Šenkyřík – guitar, vocals (Cymbelín)
Tomáš Vtípil – violin, samples, vocals (DG 307, Načeva, Urband...)
Marie Puttnerová – vocals (Jablkoň, Půljablkoň, Alotrio, Kein art Ensemble...)
Tomáš Hradil – electric guitar, vocals (Los Perdidos, Heda Pěňová chanson, Chorchestr...)

The discussion will be chaired by Maciej Ruczaj, director of the Polish Institute in Prague.

A unique international opposition group emerged in 1981 when representatives of Poland’s Workers’ Defence Committee (KOR) and Charter 77 signed a secret agreement on cooperation.

It is symbolic that Polish and Czech historians – Łukasz Kamiński, Petr Blažek and Grzegorz Majewski – were involved in a publication devoted to Polish-Czech Solidarity, an initiative based on mutual sympathy and bringing together figures whose outlooks were frequently at odds. The book opens up the broad question of the potential for cooperation and strength concealed in help and solidarity “despite the border”. The proof of its staying power is that Polish-Czechoslovak solidarity is still alive and active. Come with us on a “journey into Czech-Polish friendship.”

The evening will take place in Czech and Polish with simultaneous interpretation provided.

The reason for the establishment of the Committee for the Defence of the Unjustly Prosecuted (VONS in Czech) in April 1978 was the necessity of drawing attention at home and especially abroad to those opponents of totalitarianism who were not publicly known, meaning there were no campaigns in their support.

In discussion panels we will explore the creation of the committee, how it operated and how its information was distributed abroad. We will also reflect on the dramatic events of 1979, when the state decided to destroy the committee; in May 16 members were arrested, of which six (including Václav Havel) received jail terms of several years.

17.00 – 18.30 Panel I
The Creation of VONS
The motive for the establishment of the Committee for the Defence of the Unjustly Prosecuted was in part positive experience with the work of the “Committee for Three”, an effort to draw attention to the cases of people who weren’t widely known either in the West or in Czechoslovakia, meaning the state was able to persecute them without risk of public campaigns in their support.
Guests: Kamila Bendová, Anna Šabatová and Zofia Romaszewská (Poland)
Moderator: Petruška Šustrová.

19.00 – 20.30 Panel II
Efforts to Destroy VONS and its Survival
In May 1979 the state decided to destroy the Committee for the Defence of the Unjustly Prosecuted. Sixteen members were arrested, of which the 10 most active were remanded in custody and six were convicted in winter 1979. However, 12 new members joined and the committee’s work continued.
Guests: Dana Němcová, Ján Čarnogurský (Slovakia), Jiří Gruntorád, Václav Malý and Jan Ruml
Moderator: Petruška Šustrová.

L’année 1968 fut à plus d’un titre une année révolutionnaire, de contestations, et de remises en causes. Les gens dans toute l’Europe se révoltaient contre le statu quo et réfléchissaient sur leurs valeurs. Aujourd’hui, dans la description du sentiment généralisé des Européens, revient souvent la peur.

Dans les tentatives d’explication de la montée du populisme, on entend souvent que ce sont  les choix  « des gens déçus par l’establishement », tandis que les mouvements anti-establishement appellent à la défense des valeurs.

De nos jours, peut-être plus que jamais, il existe un sentiment répandu  parmi beaucoup d’Européens d’un devoir de  protection des valeurs judéo-chrétiennes menacées par l’islamisme radical, la montée de la Chine ou par quelque chose de moins tangible comme la crise d’identité.

Tandis qu’en France  l’année 1968 a mené à la transformation profonde de la société, de l’autre côté du Rideau de fer, le Printemps de Prague a été écrasé par des chars d’assaut du Pacte de Varsovie qui ont conduit à la normalisation des années 70. Dans quelle mesure, l’histoire se répétera en 2018 ? L’Europe d’aujourd’hui, est-elle vraiment une Europe des peurs ? Quelle leçon faut-il tirer  de  1968 pour affronter mieux les défis de 2018 ?

La conférence de Daniel Cohn-Bendit se déroulera dans le cadre du cycle « Europe des contestations » organisé en collaboration entre l’Institut français de Prague, le think tank Europeum et le Goethe institut.