Border Crossings: Coming of Age in the Czech Resistance
Charles Novacek, 2012
1021 Press
272 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780985415105 (hardcover)
9780985415112 (paperback)
Summary
This absorbing memoir, chronicles the remarkable life of Charles Novacek―one that took him from his youth spent in the Czech resistance against the Nazis and the Communists to the displaced persons camps of Germany, to the military dictatorship of Venezuela before granting him access to the American Dream.
Charles Novacek was born in Czechoslovakia in 1928 to a Hungarian homemaker mother and Moravian policeman father. In 1938, his idyllic childhood was shattered with the Munich Agreement, displacement of the Novacek family to Moravia and the ensuing Nazi occupation of Bohemia and Moravia. The family became actively involved in the Czech resistance. At the age of eleven Charles and his sister Vlasta were trained for wartime resistance by their father Antonin and Uncle Josef Robotká: how to resist pain, hunger and fear―and to trust no one.
Novacek continued his work in the resistance after World War II ended as the Soviets occupied his homeland. He endured arrest, capture, and torture ultimately escaping across the German border. Novacek’s memoir brings the experiences and thoughts of the young resistance fighter sharply to life while also bearing the sage perspective of a man in his eighth decade of life. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—May 11, 1928
• Where—Ozd'any, Czechoslovakia
• Death—2007
• Where—Detroit, Michigan, USA
• Education—Industrial College of Engineering, Brno,
Czechoslovaki; attended Maasaryk University School
of Law, Brno; B.G.S., M.A., Liberal Studies, University
of Michigan, Dearborn; M.A., Painting, Eastern Michigan
University
To those he met in his adopted hometown of Detroit, Michigan, Charles Novacek was a fascinating Renaissance man. He spoke seven languages, traveled the globe and constantly pursued knowledge. After retiring from a successful career as a civil engineer, Charles returned to school, following his lifelong dream of becoming an artist. He earned a master’s degree in painting from Eastern Michigan University and a Bachelor of General Studies and Master of Arts in Liberal Arts Studies from the University of Michigan-Dearborn, eventually showing his paintings and sculpture in Detroit area galleries.
What most people never discovered, however, was that the charming, erudite artist spent his boyhood in the Czech Resistance, defending his homeland from the Nazis and the Communists. Charles’ father, Antonin, had been a prisoner of war in World War I and ensured his son developed wilderness survival skills at an early age. Charles’ childhood was spent exploring the wilds of Slovakia and the Tatra Mountains. He learned how to find food and water, how to fire a rifle and shoot an arrow, and how to create shelter. He learned the details of the landscape around his home, including the location of its many caves.
This free-roaming childhood came to an end in 1939, as war raged across the continent and the Nazis occupied Czechoslovakia. Charles and his sister were inducted into the Czech Resistance. At an age most children were learning how to diagram sentences, they were learning how to resist torture, handle phobias, and to control pain, hunger and thirst. Reflecting the desperation of the times, they were warned to trust no one.
Under cover of night Charles met Czech and British RAF soldiers parachuting behind enemy lines and showed them caves he had equipped for their shelter. In an incredible act of bravery, he once snuck into a Nazi truck and stole a rifle and ammunition in order to shoot a Nazi who was about to blow up a railroad bridge. The Nazis destroyed the town’s clothing warehouse, food supply and granary that day, but the vital railroad bridge remained.
He continued to fight the Communists, enduring imprisonment and a daring escape. After realizing his homeland had become too dangerous for him to stay, Charles escaped to a displaced person’s camp in Germany. There he met Valentina, a young Latvian doctor who would become his first wife. They emigrated to Venezuela and then, in 1956, to America, where they raised four children before Valentina’s death in 1994. In 1996, he met and married Sandra, with whom he shared world travels. Charles began work on his memoir and Sandra was there to help and encourage him. In 2007, the man who had faced a firing squad as a teenager died at the age of 79. (From the author's website.)
Book Reviews
Border Crossings is the well-told and dramatic story of a young man whose comfortable life is abruptly transformed by the savagery of World War II. Forced to rely on primal instincts and his familiarity with the rugged highlands of Moravia, Charles Novacek casts his lot first with the anti-Hitler Underground and then with the resistance to the Nazis’ Communist successors. “My recollections pain me,” he writes, “still, they have made me who I am.” Novacek’s experience as a Hungarian-speaking Czecho-Slovak patriot demonstrates the folly of petty nationalism and the resilience of human decency and love.
Madeleine Albright - former U.S. Secretary of State
I have been transformed by this honest, extraordinary telling. In Border Crossings Charles Novacek shows us, through his personal story (told as if we are right there in the room with him) the true face of totalitarianism; he reminds us of the preciousness, the miracle, of freedom. What a gift he has given us--and what a gift his wife, Sandra, has offered us, as well, in making sure that his brave story is here for the world to read. This is a powerful memoir that crosses all borders and speaks directly to the human heart.
Joseph Hurka - author (Fields of Light: A Son Remembers His Heroic Father)
Here is a story that is meant to survive, just as its teller was. I got to know Charles in his later years but only had hints of what is contained in these pages. They are riveting. I was drawn into the best and worst of humanity and, not incidentally, into the history of the West in the mid-twentieth century. Courage, love, despair, a fierce will are all preserved with the help of one who was "not the love of Charles’ life . . . but his last love."
John Kotre, Ph.D. - author (White Gloves: How We Create Ourselves Through Memory)
Border Crossings helps fill the lack of personal accounts of resistance movements amidst a voluminous array of World War II literature. This compelling memoir, written through the eyes of young Charles, shows how circumstances required him to become a shrewd hero. In his opposition first toward Nazism and then Communism, Charles Novacek’s personal story illustrates why people sacrifice themselves and their families for an ideal. Intimate, intense, fascinating!
Christina Vella - coauthor (The Hitler Kiss)
Discussion Questions
1. For the person who chose this book: What made you want to read it? What made you suggest it to the group for discussion? Did it live up to your expectations? Why or why not?
2. What do you think motivated Charles to share his life story? How did you respond to his voice?
3. Discuss the book's structure and the author's use of language and writing style. How does he draw the reader in and keep the reader engaged? Does the author convey this with comedy, self-pity, or something else?
4. Discuss the title Border Crossings and what it signifies to Charles. How does it keep recurring throughout the course of the book? What does the title mean to you?
5. Describe Charles’ relationships with his family members and how they compare with relationships of today’s families.
6. What is the author's most admirable quality? Is he like someone you would want to know or have known? Why or why not?
7. Think back to your childhood. What were the major world events that influenced your own world view? Did you have an adult in your life who shaped your opinion of the people of another country, ethnicity or racial group? How were you influenced?
8. Contrast your childhood to Charles’ childhood. What was different and what was similar?
9. Compare this book to other memoirs you have read. Is it similar to any of them? Did you like it more or less than other books you've read? What do you think will be your lasting impression of the book? Do you want to read more books on this topic?
10. Which scenes in Border Crossings were most memorable for you? Which were the most inspiring? Which were the funniest?
11. What did you find surprising about the facts introduced in this book?
12. How has reading this memoir changed your opinion of a certain topic?
13. Do you think Border Crossings changed your views on the primary subject of the story? If so, explain why.
14. How has Border Crossings increased your interest in the subject matter?
15. What did you like or dislike about the book that hasn't been discussed already? Were you glad you read this book? Would you recommend it to a friend?
16. What role did women play in Charles’ survival?
17. What do you think Charles meant when he said “I think something went wrong along the way; somehow we misgauged freedom, and the nation abuses it.” What are your thoughts on this?
18. Do you think persons involved in World War II and Cold War resistance suffered from undiagnosed post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)? You may have experienced it or know someone who has. How do you think Charles was affected by PTSD and how do you think he tried to live with it?
19. Have you ever experienced living in a divided community, like the towns Charles lived in as a child and an adult? Reflect on the ethnic, religious, class, or racial separations you have encountered both outwardly and self-imposed.
20. Charles Novacek completed three college degrees after retirement and finished writing his memoir at the age of seventy-nine; what are your dreams for the future and how does Charles inspire you to reach for them?
21. Who do you most admire in Border Crossings? Why? Is there someone you know who is like this person?
22. Many are people are shocked that Charles’ parents would allow their son to be involved in the resistance movement at such a young age. Why do you think they did this and what are your thoughts on their decision?
23. Discuss whether you feel that ordinary Czecho-Slovak citizens during World War II and the Cold War could have a part of the political decisions and events of which they could have become either beneficiaries or victims. How much influence do you think your own personal politics has on the public and foreign policy decisions of your own local and national government?
24. The most important message of Border Crossings is. . .
25. Border Crossings made me realize. . .
26. If you could talk to Charles Novacek what would you ask or tell him? Why?
(Questions, courtesy of Sandra A. Novacek.)