:12:03
You had to collect all these things together
so that they would be ready.
:12:08
And it usually didn´t happen.
:12:11
The hardest thing
was to find a country to go to.
:12:14
The countries under discussion were:
:12:16
Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Venezuela...
:12:19
...Shanghai, Cuba, the Dominican Republic.
:12:23
l remember going with my father
to the American consulate.
:12:27
There was a queue around the block...
:12:30
...up the stairs...
:12:32
...and around the room.
:12:36
We are now in the late summer of 1938.
:12:40
I got to the United States on May 1, 1951 .
:12:47
It was a 13-year...
:12:50
...quota for us.
:12:54
German troops
had barely entered Austria...
:12:57
...when Hitler demanded the annexation
of Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia.
:13:01
He insisted that the province...
:13:03
...which was home
to over three million ethnic Germans ...
:13:06
...be allowed to secede and join the Reich.
:13:10
On October 1,
with international agreement...
:13:14
...German troops
marched into Sudetenland...
:13:17
...adding one-fifth of Czechoslovakia
to the Reich...
:13:19
...and opening the way
for further dismemberment of the country.
:13:24
From then on, people were wondering...
:13:27
...what would happen next.
:13:31
Father was an optimist because...
:13:33
...he did business with people in France
who wrote and said:
:13:37
´´lt´s going to be bad, get out. ´´
:13:39
But for Father, no,
things Iike that wouIdn´t happen.
:13:43
He had a greater faith in mankind.
:13:46
He used to say that he wouId rather
trust peopIe and be disappointed...
:13:50
...than go through Iife
not trusting anybody.
:13:56
Less than half a year later...
:13:58
...Hitler would destroy the Czech state.