Abstract
The original paper analyses the transcriptions of semi-structured interviews and testimonies of several Czech refugees who migrated to Chicago after the communist coup in 1948, and Soviet occupation following the famous Prague Spring in 1968. The paper also examines primary sources and literature connected with this topic.
Many decades after their emigration, respondents born in Bohemia and Moravia reflect upon escaping, often dramatically and illegally, spending months or years in refugee camps (in Germany or Austria) or living in European countries before getting overseas. By crossing the strictly guarded borders of a totalitarian state they lost their citizenship, home, everything familiar and stable, such as knowledge of language and culture, contact with relatives (who themselves were persecuted in many ways).
The paper researches the difficulties in building new homes, and, possibly, identities. It studies the culture and language shifts of refugee families, their involvement in new local communities, the support from already existing Czech diasporas, and ways in which they supported their former home country from a distance.