metro >> on the cover
Madam Secretary
Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright reflects
on her family history and lessons for today's world.
CONTINUED FROM THE COVER
them as one of the "finest Jewish families in Prague"
She was stunned.
"As I was being vetted, I was asked if there was anything
else I wanted to disclose, and I said 'I don't know for sure,
but I may have Jewish heritage," Albright recalled. "Of
course, they told me that didn't matter."
Around the same time, in 1997, Washington Post
reporter Michael Dobbs published a profile of Albright that
revealed more than a dozen of her relatives, including her
three grandparents, were killed as Jewish victims of the
Holocaust.
Albright had been only 2 years old when her parents
escaped to London from Czechoslovakia in March 1939,
less than two weeks after the Nazi occupation. The fam-
ily returned to Czechoslovakia in 1945, after its liberation
from the Germans. Her parents were granted political asy-
lum in the United States in 1948, after a communist coup
in Czechoslovakia.
Albright, who was raised as a Roman Catholic, said her
parents told her only that her relatives died "during the
course of the war"
According to the Post profile, historical records based on
transportation lists captured from the Nazis at the end of
World War II show that some of Albright's relatives were
killed in the gas chambers at Auschwitz. Others died of
typhoid and malnutrition at a holding camp at Terezin,
where Czech Jews were kept before being sent to Auschwitz.
Better known by the German name Theresienstadt,
it was a ghetto where tens of thousands of Jews from
Czechoslovakia, Germany, Austria, the Netherlands and
Denmark died.
"It was tragic to find out how many relatives had died'
Albright said.1 was struck with feelings of great sadness,
curiosity, fascination and pride. My feeling was I needed to
learn more
Her brother and sister went to the Czech Republic,
including Terezin and Pinkas Synagogue in Prague, where
the names of more than 77,000 Czech Jews who died in the
Holocaust, including Albright's grandparents, are inscribed.
Albright then set out on a multi-year tracing of her
family's roots. She began the process with her memoir
Madam Secretary (2003). Three other books followed. "But
still I had a longing to dig deeper," Albright said.
She traveled to the Czech Republic and found her grand-
parents' names on the walls of the Pinkas Synagogue. The
more she learned and absorbed, "the more jumble of emo-
tions I felt:' she said, including "great tragedy and incred-
ible sadness for those who suffered as well as great admira-
tion for and inspiration from those who survived."
Prague Winter, A Personal Story of Remembrance and
War, 1937-1948 (Harper, 2012) is the culmination of
Albrighfs years of research. The personal memoir has
many layers, including a historical look at the years 1937-
1948 and the value of alliances, and the morality of deci-
sion-making and what happens when leaders are involved
in wishful thinking.
She cites an infamous quote from British Prime Minister
Neville Chamberlain, who, to appease Hitler, did nothing to
prevent the Nazi takeover of Czechoslovakia:
"How horrible, fantastic, incredible it is that we should be
digging trenches and trying on gasmasks here because of a
12
May 3 . 2012
quarrel in a faraway country between people of whom we
know nothing."
"We can't have that kind of thinking ever again:' she said.
Lessons From History
In Prague Winter, Albright writes, "lessons from World War
II have been learned at best imperfectly'
"It's essential to get the facts," she said. "International
policy has to be fact-based, and the long-term consequenc-
es of decisions need to be understood, especially by those
who make them from a distance'
She takes an example from history — the infamous
Terezin ghetto, that, according to Nazi propaganda, was a
"spa town" where German Jews could "retire" in safety
"Terezin was a peculiar place, not known as a death
camp," Albright said. "Jews were lured there. Some went
voluntarily, others were forced — but no one imagined the
horrors:'
In 1944, the Red Cross sent inspection teams to Terezin.
The Germans intensified deportations from the ghetto
shortly before the visit to make it appear less crowded,
and "beautified" the ghetto, planting gardens and painting
houses. The Nazis staged social and cultural events for the
visiting dignitaries.
"The visit persuaded the West that there were no hor-
rors," Albright said. Once the visit was over, the Germans
resumed the deportations to Auschwitz, which did not end
until October 1944.
"There's a lesson there for today' Albright said.
"Although no two situations are alike, as international
monitors go into Syria and Iran, they should not give cre-
dence to just what they see. They must dig deeper"
Albright said she agrees with the international com-
munity's attempts to isolate Syria's Bashar Al Assad but is
disappointed with the stance taken by Russia and China,
which still back his regime.
As for Iran, she says she agrees with President Obama
that it is unacceptable for Iran to have a nuclear bomb, and
hopes for a peaceful solution that includes valid interna-
tional inspections of all of Iran's nuclear facilities.
When asked about the state of the Middle East today,
Albright said that during her time as secretary of state, she
knew then that it could not remain a static region.
"I firmly believe that people are ready for democracy,
no matter where they are:' she said. "We are all the same.
People want to make decisions about their lives and that
escalates into wanting a say in their government.
"We knew as people became more educated and the
middle class grew, that something was bound to happen.
But no one could have predicted how or the role that social
media would play'
Albright added, "Like many Americans, I'm concerned
for Israel's security" and said she believes that Obama and
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have clarified
the depth and strength of the two countries' relationship.
"I believe what needs to happen is we must figure out
how to move into legitimate talks about a two-state solu-
tion for Israel and the Palestinians:' she said, "and I remain
convinced of America's unwavering, unassailable commit-
ment to the Jewish state, especially when we reflect on the
reason for Israel's existence in the first place." ❑
Memoir On a World Stage:
Aibright's Prague Winter
I
magine the discovery in the sixth decade of your life
that your parents were Jewish, that more than 20 of
your relatives died in the Holocaust, that the trajec-
tory of your life story, indeed your very survival, was the
result of your parents' complex moral choices.
In the hands of former Secretary of State Madeleine
Albright, a family history takes on the spectrum of world
history as events unfold in her memoir, Prague Winter: A
Personal Story of Remembrance and War, 1937-1948.
Drawing on her earliest memo-
ries, letters and written reflections
from her parents, and brilliant
research, she takes readers from
the Czechoslovakia of her child-
hood — "a land of magic, mari-
onettes, Franz Kafka and Good
R At;C: E
King Wenceslas"— through the
MADELEINE
tumultuous years of Nazi occupa-
ALBRIGHT
tion, the rise of fascism and the
onset of the Cold War.
Through Albrighfs lens, we
follow an intensely personal, yet global story. We see
intimate portraits of the war years in London where her
parents escaped after the Nazi invasion in 1939; we follow
refugees to the ghetto of Terezin where her grandparents
perished. Albright also sheds light on the story of mil-
lions of ordinary European citizens, driven from their
homes and forced by their decisions, large and small, into
new roles as leaders, freedom fighters, victims, killers.
Albright asks,"What separates us from the world
we have and the kind of ethical universe [we like to
envision]? What prompts one person to act boldly in
a moment of crisis and a second to seek shelter in the
crowd? Why do some people become stronger in the face
of adversity, while others quickly lose heart? What sepa-
rates the bully from the protector? Is it education, spiri-
tual belief, our parents, our friends, the circumstances of
our birth, traumatic events, or more likely some combi-
nation that spells the difference?" El
Reprinted from MyJewishDetroit, working to build a
stronger, healthier, greater Detroit. Follow the stories on
Twitter @myJDetroit.
Federation Presents Albright
Join Federation's Women's Department for a
conversation with former Secretary of State
Madeleine Albright at 1:30 p.m. Sunday, May
6, at Congregation Adat Shalom in Farmington
Hills. Her book, Prague Winter, will be available
for purchase and signing. Open to individual
donors of $18 or more to Federation's 2012
Annual Campaign. Visit jewishdetroit.org or
contact Marianne Bloomberg, bloomberg@jfmd.
org or (248) 642-4611 for details.