examples – 3 – Memories of Bohemia in North America

Memories of Bohemia in North America

This little teddy bear, holding a pile of objects in its arms, symbolizes the loss of the many countries where N. one once felt at home—the loss of families and landscapes that she misses and whose memory she cherishes. That can be a painful burden.

Prague

“Deep down in the Moldau the pebbles are shifting,
In Prague three dead emperors moulder away.
The top can’t stay top while the bottom is lifting.
The night has twelve hours and then comes the day.”

Berthold Brecht, 1944

In Zentraleurope, Nations and regions that lie between the great powers and are constantly in danger of being destroyed. The Czech writer Milan Kundera wrote in the year 1983: “What is Central Europe? The unstable zone of small nations between Russia and Germany. (..) But what is a small nation? I propose the following definition: A small nation is one whose existence can be called into question at any time, one that could disappear, and one that knows it. A Frenchman, a Russian, or an Englishman usually does not question the survival of his nation. Their national anthems sing only of grandeur and eternity. The Polish anthem, however, begins with the words: ‘Poland is not yet lost…’  Milan Kundera; The Stolen West: The Tragedy of Central Europe.