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A friend's garden in Nové Město, Czech Republic Photo: Anne Newman

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JOURNAL

2013-2014 Travel Journal - edited 2022

TIMELINE FOR KŘENOVÁ 14

1884 Grandfather Alfred Neumann is born in Kralupy nad Vltavou near Prague.

1888 Grandmother Rosa Grunberger is born in Třešť near Jihlava.

1909 Alfred and Rosa get married in Prague.

1913 Alfred and Rosa move to Brno from Prague with Olga, age 2. They buy Křenová 16 where they live above their general store.

1914-18 World War I; Alfred serves in Austro-Hungarian army while Rosa runs their store and household.

1920 My father, Arnošt Jiří, is born at Křenová 16 in Brno.

1922 Ditta, Alfred and Rosa’s youngest child, is born at Křenová 16.

1923 Alfred and Rosa acquire a failing family factory in Třešť, Rosa’s hometown, and convert it into a food machinery factory. They continue to live and work in Brno where they have a shop for butchers on the ground floor of Křenová 16. They buy Křenová 7 across the street and move their living quarters into the second floor; on the ground floor is a shop for bakers run by Rosa’s sister.

1924 My mother, Rose Marie Sternlicht, is born in Vienna.

1930s Alfred and Rosa acquire the building at Křenová 14 next door to Křenová 16.

1937 August Alfred signs off on plans for a new apartment building in place of the old building at Křenová 14. The other signatory is Artur Eisler, head of the Eisler construction company.

1937 Dec City of Brno approves plans for Křenová 14.

1938 Feb Construction of Křenová 14 begins.

1938 March 12 Anschluss: Nazi Germany annexes Austria, Czechoslovakia’s southern neighbor.

1938 July Dad graduates from high school in Brno and is sent to London to continue his studies.

1938 Aug Mom flees Vienna with her parents, brother, and paternal grandmother. They live at 4 rue Mallet Stevens, the house in the 16th arrondissement in Paris which her maternal grandmother, Hélène Reifenberg, had commissioned from Robert Mallet-Stevens in 1928.

1938 Sept 30 France, Britain, and Italy agree to allow Nazi Germany to annex Czechoslovakia’s northern border known as the Sudetenland in exchange for “peace.” Czech government is not invited to participate at this conference in Munich.

1938 Oct 1 Nazi Germany annexes the Sudetenland.

1938 Nov 9 Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass): Nazi paramilitary and civilians go on a rampage, destroying Jewish property and murdering Jews in Germany, Austria, and Czechoslovakia.

1938 June Křenová 14 is completed and includes eleven apartments and four retail spaces. Alfred and Rosa move their shop for butchers in Křenová 16 into one of the four retail spaces in Křenová 14.

1939 March 15 Nazis occupy the rest of Czechoslovakia (Bohemia and Moravia).

1939 April Alfred, Rosa, and daughter Ditta arrive in England on April 17 after fleeing Brno; Nazis confiscate Křenová 14 and their other properties.

1939 Dec Mom and her family leave Paris for Vichy, France

1940 June 14 Nazis invade Paris

1940 June 22 France signs armistice with the Germans and Vichy becomes the capitol of the puppet French state

1940 end of June Mom and her family leave Vichy for Nice

1941 Nov Mom and her family leave Nice for Lisbon

1941 Dec 1 Mom and her family sail from Lisbon to the New World

1941 Dec 7 Pearl Harbor; U.S. declares war on Japan

1941 Dec 8 Mom and her family arrive in New York

1939-45 World War II; Alfred and Rosa live in exile in Bideford, a small town in Devon, England with their older daughter Olga and her family. Ditta finishes high school in England and joins the WAAF (Women’s Auxiliary Air Force) as a translator. Dad immigrates to New York.

1946-48 Alfred and Rosa return to Brno to learn what happened to their relatives, recover their properties, and try to start over.

1948 Feb 25 A Communist coup in Czechoslovakia results in the nationalization of properties. Alfred and Rosa lose everything again, leave Brno for the last time, and return to England.

1952 Dec 22 Rosa dies in London.

1962 March 23 Alfred dies in London.

1989 Nov Velvet Revolution restores democracy to Czechoslovakia.

1991 Feb New York Times publishes a story about Czechoslovakia’s new laws recognizing the rights of heirs to family properties confiscated by the Communists.

1991 May Lawyer in Brno writes Dad’s sister Olga in London saying she has discovered multiple properties formerly belonging to Alfred and Rosa, including Křenová 14. Olga asks Dad to take over and he and the lawyer initiate legal challenges to reclaim the properties.

1992 The lawyer informs Dad that the laws of reclamation require not only a Czech passport but residence in Czechoslovakia. He tells the lawyer to stop legal proceedings as he has no intention of residing there.

1993 Jan Czechoslovakia splits into the Czech Republic and Slovakia during a ceremony at Villa Tugendhat in Brno.

1994 Lawyer informs Dad that the laws have changed in the new Czech Republic and residence there is no longer required. Dad gives her the green light to restart legal proceedings.

1996 Dad becomes the legal owner of Křenová 14 and other properties once belonging to his parents.

1996 Oct Dad returns to Brno for the first time since 1938 to inspect the properties; my mother, husband Don, and I accompany him.

1996 Dad decides to sell everything but Křenová 14.

1997 Czech engineers perform an assessment of the building and draw up a list of recommended renovations.

1999 July Dad returns to Brno for the second and last time since 1938 to inspect Křenová 14; my mother, Don and I and my sister Elizabeth and her husband Eric and their two children accompany him.

1997-2003 Dad and Don, both engineers, supervise the renovations to the building with the help of the building manager on site.

2003 Dad dies in San Francisco.

2003-2010 Mom inherits Křenová 14; Don and I handle the responsibilities of ownership.

2010 Mom dies in Santa Barbara.

2011 My sister Elizabeth and I inherit Křenová 14.

2013 Don and I arrange to buy out Elizabeth’s half of the property over a period of several years.

2013 August Křenová 14 is designated a cultural monument by the Ministry of Culture in Prague.

2013 Nov I take my first research trip to the Czech Republic accompanied by Joan Zegree. We interview tenants of Křenová 14 as well as making other contacts and following up leads.

2014 June Joan and I undertake a second research trip to the Czech Republic. We tour Křenová 14 with Petr Pelčák, architect and co-author of books on interwar architecture in Brno.

2015-19 Annual visits to the building.

2020-21 Pandemic – no travel

2021 July Launch of website: www.mybuildinginbrno.com

2023 June First trip back to Brno since the pandemic

NEWS

Oct. 22, 2023 - One of five writers invited to read from their work at a private event in Silver Spring, Maryland. Read from "The House on Křenová Street."

Interview by Helena Štumarová and her students in Třešť; translated from English by Helena Slavíková, "Červnový obřad byl pro mne krásným zážitkem" Naše Město - Září 2018, 14-15

"The June ceremony was a beautiful experience for me," Naše Město, Sept. 2018, 14-15, English Translation

Kameny zmizelých připomínají osudy židovských obyvatel" Naše Město Červenec-Srpen 2018,1,13

"The 'Stones of the Disappeared' recall the fate of the Jewish population," Naše Město, July-Aug. 2018, 1,13, English Translation

"Židovské kameny zmizelých položí na náměstí Svobody" Jihlavské listy

"Jewish stones of the missing to be placed in Freedom Square," Jihlavské listy, June 4, 2018, English Translation

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