ANOTHER PHOTO OF UNCLE JÁN

Here is a photo of Štefan’s Uncle Ján, who raised him after his mother had died. When I was about 4 or 5 years old I saw this photo in the top dresser drawer that contained unsorted family photos. I thought that the man looked stern and scary. I asked about the picture and one of my older sister’s replied that he was dad’s uncle, who lived behind the “Iron Curtain”. I did not know what the Iron Curtain meant but I understood that it was bad. I looked closely at the photo and noticed the cloth that hangs behind the man (it must have been hung by the photographer as backdrop), I assumed that it was the Iron Curtain. Here is a link to a more accurate definition:http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/294419/Iron-Curtain

The Iron Curtain did not enclose Czechoslovakia until 1948 when the Communist took control of the government. During Štefan’s time there the country was a progressive democracy with the leadership of President Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, who believed in equality (he took his wife's name, Garrigue, when they were married in1878). Masaryk was also know for belief in the value of education.