Audio-visual presentation by JULIE URBISOVA
Part of the special event commemorating 80 Years since the End of WWII series
Thursday, MAY 22, 2025, at 7.15 PM(!)
Bohemian National Hall in Manhattan
321 E73 St, 3rd floor
Julie Urbišová’s talk will feature remarkable personal stories about survival, hope, and new beginnings shared by Czech immigrants who lived through WWII. She collected these accounts as part of her work for Pam?? národa (Memory of Nations), one of Europe’s largest oral history projects. Since 2008, it has provided open access to firsthand testimonies from those who endured Nazism and Communism, ensuring that history’s darkest times are never forgotten.
Following the presentation, Julie will hold a live conversation with several Czech-Americans who lived during the war
Seating is limited.
Free to the public. Suggested donation $15.
Julie Urbišová is a Czech-born journalist who studied Journalism and Ethnology at Charles University in Prague. Growing up near Ostrava in the Hlu?ínsko region, which was part of Germany until 1920, Julie developed a deep interest in people’s stories. She was affected by war memories in her village, where all the men, including her grandfather, were forced to enlist in the German Wehrmacht armed forces during WWII. In 2007, Julie moved to New Orleans to continue her studies at the University of New Orleans and has since settled there with her Turkish husband and two daughters. She is the author of Doma v Nola (At Home in Nola), a book about New Orleans’ history and culture, based on her stories for Czech radio. She also hosts the podcast Doma ve Státech (At Home in the States). Since 2021, Julie has collaborated with Memory of Nations, traveling across the U.S. to interview Czechs and preserve their stories.
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PLEASE NOTE: At 6 PM, our program will be preceded by a talk, LIDICE LIVES! Global Responses to a Nazi Atrocity, by Professor CYTHIA PACES Paces from The College of New Jersey. In her unique talk, she will explore how Lidice captured the imaginations of many creative thinkers and artists in the 1940s and asks why Lidice still resonates today.
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This special two-part event is organized by the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences (SVU) in collaboration with the Czech Center New York with the support of the Bohemian Benevolent and Literary Association (BBLA).