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SUMMARY OF THE SUMMER ISSUE

Volume 14, No. 2, Summer 2006

Slovak Heritage Live

A quarterly newsletter published by Vladimir Linder

Summer issue was published in May 2006 and it was mailed to 1200 recipients world wide. 

FROM THE EDITOR
This issue is continuation of the Spring 2006 issue, published at the same time. You see I started to use new program and I am working out the bugs. Not all stories that I had anticipated in the spring issue fit in, therefore they are in this issue. Enjoy it.
Vladimir

You can find information about my services on my web pages:

http://www.slovakheritage.org/Shopping/Genrsrch/genealogical_research.htm
http://www.slovakheritage.org/Shopping/Videos/ancestral_videos.htm
http://www.slovakheritage.org/Shopping/Videos/ancestral_photography.htm

COMENIUS UNIVERSITY IN BRATISLAVA
CENTRE FOR CONTINUING EDUCATION
INSTITUTE FOR LANGUAGE AND ACADEMIC PREPARATION (UJOP)
In winter 2005 issue of my newsletter, I mentioned to you that our daughter would start studying at UJOP in September.
UJOP is integral part of Comenius University-the oldest and largest university in Slovakia and it has become an integral part of Centre for Continuing Education of Comenius University in Bratislava on November 26, 2004 according to UK rector decision.
It specializes in preparing international students for their study at all universities in Slovakia. It is the only school offering full-time study of the Slovak language as a foreign language. It is the only school awarded the European Label for the project of assessing Slovak language proficiency.
The main UJOP goals at present are:
Complete preparation of international students for all levels of university studies in Slovakia-both in language and professional aspects teaching of Slovak as a foreign language in courses of various duration and extent (in full-time as well as part-time programs), testing and assessing of Slovak language proficiency as a foreign language, study stays of students studying the Slovak language at universities in abroad, publishing of own textbooks and study materials, marketing, promotion and recruitment of international students for university studies in Slovakia.
Our daughter Julia is enrolled in one year preparatory Slovak language course after which she will continue her studies at one of the universities. I paid US$ 4152.00 in tuition fees for the year and she departed Vancouver on Labor Day weekend, flew through London to Vienna where she was greeted by my friends the Dula Family. She was to have accommodation, as promised and agreed in written contract by the director of the school Dr. Libor Lubelec, in a dorm in Bratislava. This to my surprise didn�t happen and she had to go to Harm�nia near the city of Modra some 20 kilometers from Bratislava. I was promised verbally and then in the contract that the accommodation has been arranged in student dorm DRU�BA, walking distance to the study classrooms. Immediately after her arrival, the school broke the contract and they held us in believing for some time prior to her arrival, while they knew they would be unable to get her a dorm in Bratislava as they did for the scholarship students. Very strange, as to me, the money is the same and it should not make any difference who is paying, if it is the government or the student. You see the school has several types of students. There are students that study there on Slovak Government scholarship program for under developed countries that will continue their studies at one of the Slovak universities, after completing the mandatory yearlong Slovak Language course...

JOZEF LENHART
The Stories of Masters is the jubilee exhibition presenting works of Jozef Lenhart and Juraj Leporis, long‑term producers for the Centre for Folk Art Production.
A significant figure in woodcarving, leather and metal processing, Jozef Lenhart is a key represen�tative of folk art creation. Lenhart was raised in a small mountain village of Jalovec located within the upper Nitra River region between Prievidza and Handlov�. Way of life, traditions and folk culture are deeply rooted in his heart. Being a long‑term museum worker, collector and restorer has affected Lenhart�s sympathy for traditions and assessing own work. Jozef Lenhart divided his work into two lines. He produced copies of traditional folk art objects that had changed function from daily use to interior decora�tion or historical exhibits in the course of time such as utensils for shepherds, particularly woo�den mugs from upper Nitra region, wide leather belts with massively decorated brass buckles, horn items, etc. Jozef Lenhart also used traditional techniques and patterns for production of daily use articles of our contemporaries such as traditionally decorated handbags and jewellery. Many years ago, I visited Ujčok Lenhart at his workshop in Bojnice. I was happy to be able to se so much more of his work on display at the exhibit.

JURAJ LEPORIS
The Stories of Masters is the jubilee exhibition presenting works of Jozef Lenhart and Juraj Leporis, long‑term producers for the Centre for Folk Art Production.
nheritor of the craft from his father (a notable wood turning craftsman from the upper Nitra region), Juraj Leporis is a creative artist. An orphan from early childhood, Leporis was apprenticed in carpentry and has devoted all his efforts to woodturning. He achieved excellence in the craft working as a furniture maker in a Bata factory. Leporis gained deeper understanding of wood pro�cessing through long cooperation with the Centre for Folk Art Production, and Professor V�clav Kautman in particular. Craft production is closely linked to sufficient materials and technical equ�ipment, the elements Leporis had lost in 1950 and found in 1960�s. Juraj Leporis produces daily use articles with sense for natural beauty of material. The artisan processes domestic woods taking into account their natural character, density, smell, structure and colors. Leporis makes smooth wooden pieces with limited surface finishing, stains poplar wood, produces maple utensils with no surface finishing, plays with natural colors of various fruitwoods, structure of ash and loftiness of walnut wood. Among his top works are large wooden sculptures intended for daily use.

MAUTHAUSEN CONCENTRATION CAMP IN AUSTRIA
On August 8, 1938, just a few weeks after the Nazi occupation of Austria, prisoners from the Dachau, concentration camp near Munich, were transferred to the Austrian town of Mauthausen, near Linz.
They were brought to the rock quarry there, known as the �Wiener Graben,� where they began to build the granite fortress-prison of the main camp, mostly with their blood, bodies, bare hands and backs. It was known as the �mother camp� for all of Austria, comprising some 49 sub-camps. Between Aug. 8, 1938 and May 5, 1945, about 195, 000 persons, men and women, were forced into these camps. Most of the people were imprisoned under the Nazi �protective custody� laws, that is, they were considered dangerous to the Third Reich of Germany and Austria, and therefore, these two nations, now joined, had to be �protected� from these people because of their racial origin, nationality, political affiliation or religious belief. It should be noted that Austria contributed more volunteers for the SS, per capita, than did Germany.
The Mauthausen camp was one of the most infamous in the entire Nazi alternate universe of human destruction. Many people, most of whom were innocent of any crimes, were tortured to death in its rock quarry, and in the tunnels of Mauthausen-Gusen, the most infamous of the sub-camps. The policy of death through work was instituted by Chief of SS, Reichsfuhrer Heinrich Himmler. Prisoners were to be given only the most primitive tools, and also, whenever possible, they were to work with their bare hands. This policy was known as �Primitivbauweise.� In Mauthausen it resulted in a harsh, stone world, deprived of any human kindness and compassion. It is there today still... sitting on a small mountaintop in the astonishingly beautiful and bucolic Austrian countryside, maintained by the Austrian government.
Prisoners were forced to climb the 186 steps of the Wiener Graben with large blocks of granite on their backs. Often the blocks would fall, crushing limbs and bodies of those following, sometimes killing. The SS guards invented competitions betting on which prisoner would make it to the top first. Those surviving the ordeal would then be forced to jump from the edge of the quarry to their death below. This particular spot at the edge of the quarry was known �The Parachute Jump.�
�...in 1944 ...The SS led forty-seven Dutch, American, and English officers and flyers, barefooted, to the bottom. On their first journey up the 186 steps, they forced the men to carry twenty-five kilogram stones on their backs. On each successive journey, they increased the weight of the load. If a prisoner fell, he was beaten. All forty-seven died of the treatment.�...

THE DOB�INSK� ICE CAVE NATIONAL NATURE MONUMENT
Cadastral area: Dob�in�
District: Ro�ňava
Region: Ko�ice

THE DOB�INSK� ICE CAVE,
Is situated in the Slovak Paradise in the Spi�-Gemer Karst in the National Nature Reserve Straten� within the territory of the Slovak Paradise National Park. Entrance to the cave is on the northern slope of Duča hill, 971 meters above the sea level.
The cave was formed in the Middle Triassic Steinalm and Wetter� stein limestones of the Silick� nappe along the tectonic faults and interbed surfaces, by the former underground stream of Hnilec river at three developmental levels. It belongs to the genetic system of the Stratensk� Cave. The cave length is 1232 meters and vertical range is 112 meter
Ice filling occurs in the form of ground ice, ice �waterfalls,� ice stalagmites and columns. The ice-covered area is 9772 square meters, and the total volume of ice is 110132 cubic meters. The maximum thickness of ice is in the Great Hall 26.5 meters. It ranks among the most important ice caves in the world thanks to its character of glaciations. The cave is one of the most important winter refuges of bats-Myotis mystacinus and Myotis brandti in Slovakia.
The cave was discovered in 1870 by E. Ruffmi assisted by G. Lang, A. Mega, and F. Feh�r. It was open to the public as early as in 1871. Since 1887 it has been the first cave with electric illumination in that-time Hungary. Along with Postojna Cave it ranks among the first electrically illuminated caves in Europe. Currently, 475 meters of the cave are open to the public. I have visited the cave in 1994 and 1996.

STATE MUSEUM IN OŚWIECIM-AUSCHWITZ BIRKENAU
All over the world, Auschwitz has become a symbol of terror, genocide, and the Holocaust. It was established by the Nazis in 1940, in the suburbs of Oswiecim, a Polish city that was annexed to the Third Reich by the Nazis. Its name was changed to Auschwitz, which also became the name of Konzentrationslager Auschwitz. The camp was established in mid-1940, more than a year before the Germans embarked upon the �Endl�sung der Judenfrage� (Final Solution of the Jewish Question)-the plan, systematically carried out, to murder all the Jews living in the countries occupied by the Third Reich. The direct reason for the establishment of the camp was the fact that mass arrests of Poles were increasing beyond the capacity of existing �local� prisons. Initially, Auschwitz was to be one more concentration camp of the type that the Nazis had been setting up since the early 1930s. It functioned in this role throughout its existence, even when at beginning in 1942, it also became the largest of the death camps.
The location of the camp, practically in the center of German-occupied Europe, and its convenient transportation connections, led the Nazis to expand Auschwitz on an enormous scale and deport people here from almost all of Europe. At its peak, the camp was composed of three parts:
The first and oldest was the so-called �main camp,� later also known as �Auschwitz I� (the number of prisoners fluctuated around 15,000, sometimes rising above 20,000), which was established on the grounds and in the buildings of prewar Polish army barracks;
The second part was the Birkenau camp (which held over 90,000 prisoners in 1944) also known as �Auschwitz II.� This was the largest part of the Auschwitz complex. The Nazis began building it in 1941 on the site of the village of Brzezinka, three kilometers from Oswiecim. The Polish civilian population was evicted and their houses confiscated and demolished. The greater part of the apparatus of mass extermination was built in Birkenau and the majority of the victims were murdered here.
More than 40 sub-camps, exploiting the prisoners as slave laborers, established mainly at various sorts of German industrial plants and farms, between 1942 and 1944. The largest of them was called Buna (Monowitz, with ten thousand prisoners) and was opened by the camp administration in 1942 on the grounds of the Buna-Werke synthetic rubber and fuel plant six kilometers from the Auschwitz camp. The factory was built during the war by the German IG Farbenindustrie cartel, and the SS supplied prisoner labor.
On November 1943, the Buna sub-camp became the seat of the commandant of the third part of the camp, �Auschwitz III,� to which some other Auschwitz sub-camps were subordinated...

SLOVAKIA'S SUMMER  FOLKLORE FESTIVALS 2006

22. TURČIANSKE SL�VNOSTI FOLKL�RU
22. TURIEC FOLKLORE FESTIVAL
June 16-18  
This will be the 22nd year of Turiec celebration of folklore. Turiec is a county in north central part of Slovakia that covers large territory around the town of Martin. Information: 011-421-43-413-2394, e-mail: [email protected]

30. ZAMAGURSK� FOLKL�RNE SL�V�NOSTI
30. ZAMAGURIE FOLKLORE FESTIVAL
June 9-11
Folk festival of under Tatras region in Čer�ven� Kl�tor with international participants. 
Information: 011-421-52-772-2466, e-mail: [email protected] 

 47. FOLKL�RNE SL�VNOSTI MYJAVA 2004
47. FOLK FESTIVAL MYJAVA 2005
June 16-18
47th year of international folklore festival-member CIOFF. Presentation of folk art from western Slovakia region with participation of folklore groups from whole Slovakia and abroad. Myjava is in Western Slovakia on the South side of White Carpathian Mountains and about 4 miles from Moravian border. Information: Dom kult�ry s.r.o., Partiz�nska 290/17,  907 01 Myjava, Information: 011-421-34-621 2588, email: [email protected] 

37. �ARI��K� FOLKL�RNE SL�VNOSTI IN RASLAVICE
37. �ARI� FOLKLORE CELEBRATIONS IN RASLAVICE
June 16-18
There is a folk group Raslavičan here, just great and this festival is great as well.

52. SL�VNOSTI KULT�RY RUS�NOV-UKRAJINCOV SLOVENSKA-SVIDN�K
52.FFOLKLORE FESTIVAL OF RUTHENIANS AND UKRAINIANS-SVIDN�K
June 16-18

CASSOVIA FOLK FEST 2006
June 22- 25
International Folklore Festival included in the Traditional Days of Slovak Culture. There are many programs on different stages throughout Ko�ice amphitheatre, Jumbo center, Main Street, historic City Hall. There is also children music folklore competition.
Informtion: Kultobin s.r.o. (Dom ľudov�ho tanca), Starozagorsk� 10, 040 23 Ko�ice. Tel.: 011-421-55-789 4717, 15, 
011-421-905-241-030, e-mail: [email protected], [email protected],  www.zeleziar.sk/ke.html, www.folkfest.sk

EUROFOLKL�R A HOREHRONSK� DNI SPEVU A TANCA
EUROFOLKLOR AND UPPER HRON FESTIVAL OF SONGS AND DANCES
June 23-25
41st Folk festival of Upper Hron days of songs and dances in Heľpa central Slovakia. Information: 011-421-48-412-5206, e-mail: [email protected]  

MEDZIN�RODN� FOLKL�RNY FES�TIVAL STR��NICE
INTERNATIONAL FOLK FESTIVAL STR��NICE
June 23-25
60th year of the Str�nice international festival. This also will be the eight year of the central European folk festival CIOFF.

KLENTOVSK� RONTOVKA GEMER-LITTLE HONT FOLKLORE FESTIVAL
June 23-25
27th year. Traditional courtyards, market of traditional crafts, specialties of Slovak folk cuisine. Folklore groups, soloists, bag pipe players. Location is KLENOVEC, in District of Rimavsk� Sobota. Information: 011-421-563-1095 email: [email protected]

O, OUR JOHN, OUR JOHN
JUNE 25
J�n�s folk customs coupled with magical rituals original to traditional, simple folk environment. Performances of different folk groups. Museum of Liptov village, Pribylina. Information 011-421-44-522-2485, e-mail: [email protected] www.liptovskemuzeum.sk

FOLKL�RNY FESTIVAL V�CHODN�   C A N C E L L E D
FOLK FESTIVAL V�CHODN�
June 30- July 2
This will be its 51st year of the festival. Only the best folk dance and folk singing groups of Slovakia perform at this festi�val. The festival has also international participa�tion of non-Slovak folk dance groups.
Information: 011-421-2-529-14115, email: [email protected]

ST. CYRIL AND METHODIUS DAY
Dev�n�s Castle, July 3

FOLKL�RNE SL�VNOSTI POD POĽANOU, DETVA
FOLK FESTIVAL UNDER POĽANA, DETVA
July 7-9
This will be the 41st year of the festival. Main emphasis of the festival is to show the folklore and folk traditions of this central Slova�kia region, with guest per�formances of groups from around Slovakia. On Sunday morning traditionally, there is a program called �Sunday with our countrymen.� and Slovak groups from around the world perform alongside with Slovak groups. 
Information: 011-421-45-545-5581, email: [email protected]

HOR�CKE SL�VNOSTI
HORNACK�S CELEBRATIONS
VELK� NAD VELIČKOU-MORAVIA
July 14-16

Velk� nad Veličkou is about 8 miles North of Myjava in Moravia in the Czech republic. This is a festival of festivals and musicians play here almost nonstop for three days.

SPOMIENKY STAR�CH N�T FUJ�R
REMEMBERING THE OLD NOTES OF FUJARAS
July 22
All Slovakia performance of fujara players in honor of the dean of Detva�s fujara players Jo�ka Ryb�ra. Koryt�rky, house of culture and Roman Catholic Church
Information: Spolok slovensk�ch fujar�ov, Roman Malatinec, Koryt�rky 313, 962 04 Koryt�rky,
phone:  011-45-546-62 44,   cell 011-421-905-869-576 email: [email protected]

44. ROČN�K MEDZIN�RODN�HO FOLKL�RNEHO FESTIVALU J�NO��KOVE DNI 2005
44. YEAR OF INTERNATIONAL FOLKLORE FESTIVAL JANO��K DAYS 2005
TERCHOV�
 August 3-6
I was there four summers ago and it was great. Many groups from the region are performing at this festival.
Information: 011-421-41-569-5129, email: [email protected] 

XI. FOLKL�RNY FESTIVAL POD KR�ĽOVOU HOĽOU
XI. FOLKLORE FESTIVAL UNDER KR�ĽOV� HOĽA
LIPTOVSK� TEPLIČKA 2005
August 5-6
This is the 11th  year of a truly fantastic festival with everyone in the village joining in. Groups from both sides of Kr�ľov� Hoľa, Liptov, Spi� and Upper Hron and different regions of Slovakia and always at least one group from abroad participate. Information: Miestne kult�rne stredisko, 059 40 Liptovsk� Teplička, phone: 011-421-52-779-8110, email: [email protected]

31. PODROH�ČSKE FOLKL�RNE SL�VNOSTI ZUBEREC-BRESTOV�
31. PDROH�ČSKE FOLKLORE CELEBRATIONS
August 4-6
Orava�s folklore is the theme here. Location is close to the open-air museum in Zuberec-Berestov�. This is a small but very nice festival with international participation. 
Information: 011-421-43-586-4928, e-mail: [email protected] 

KOLIESKO
KOKAVA NAD RIMAVICOU
August 11-13
This is the 15th year of festival of young folklorists with many innovative ideas. Small, but great. The villagers open their house courtyards and people sing and dance in them all night long after the official festival programs. This is a great festival. 
Information: 011-421-47-429-3104, e-mail: [email protected]

ECHOES OF OLD SLAVIC LANGUAGE UNDER KRAĽOVA HOĽA
OZVENY STAROSLOVIENČINY POD KR�ĽOVOU HOĽOU V TELG�RTE
August 12-13
12th Ecumenical festival of folk and sacral songs. Place: Telg�rt, Greek-catholic church, Kr�ľova Hoľa, house of culture; Dob�in�, Ro�ňava, Poprad, Brezno, Gemersk� Poloma, �umiac. Information: M�ria Kni�kov�, Z�kladn� �kola, 976 73 Telg�rt, 011-421-48-619-4394, email: [email protected]

XI. HONTIANSKA PAR�DA
XI. HONT�S PARADE HRU�OV 2002
August 18-19
This is a regional festival of the Hont region. Meeting with the traditional culture in the frame of agro tourism. Folklore programs are a part of sampling or the traditional ways activities such as bread baking, wood working, sampling of pear brandy, working with hay, traditional cooking, open folk scene, horseback riding and many more. Place: Hru�ov, amphitheater, house of culture, and the whole village.
Information 011-421- 47-488 �0122, e-mail: [email protected]

GEMERS�S FOLKLORE FESTIVAL REJDOV� 2004
August 26
33rd year of presentation of folklore, folk customs, traditions and folk crafts from Gemer and other regions of Slovakia and from abroad.
Rejdov�, Information: 011-421-58-732-4258, e-mail: [email protected] 

Our information about the festivals is deemed correct, but is not guaranteed. Please phone ahead before making your final arrangements to participate

MILAN RASTISLAV �TEF�NIK
July 21, 1880-May 4, 1919
Milan Rastislav �tef�nik was born into the family of a Protestant priest in Ko�arisk� on July 21, 1880. After his schooling in Szarvas he studied astronomy at Charles University in Prague where he received a doctorate of philosophy. In 1904, he moved to Paris to begin his scientific career.
France became his second homeland. His efforts brought him success in the famous Meudon Observatory, led by Jules Janssen. So, he began his tours of the world. Six times, he climbed Mont Blanc, where Meudon Observatory had established its astronomical observatory. To observe the eclipse of the sun he traveled to Spain and Turkistan. After the death of Jules Janssen in 1907, however, his scientific career at Meudon ended. �tef�nik sought to apply his talents elsewhere and dreamed of his own observatory. The search for a suitable location for the observatory brought him first to North Africa (1909); in Tahiti, he observed the passage of Halley�s comet (1910). He saw the total eclipse of the sun at Vavau Island in the Pacific and observed the eclipse of the sun in Brazil (1912). His last pre‑war journey was, however, more of a diplomatic than scientific character. As a French citizen, he traveled to Ecuador to persuade the relevant circles to order the construction of telegraphic network in Ecuador and the Galapagos in France. The mission was successfully accomplished and �tef�nik was awarded the cross of the knight of the Legion of Honor, and won recognition in the highest French political and cultural circles. Shortly before the outbreak of the World War I, he traveled again to North Africa. He documented these travels over all continents in photographs.
�tef�nik experienced the most important part of his life during World War I. As a French citizen, he joined the French Army and found his place in the Air Force. His military accomplishments were impressive. During the first three years of the war, he was promoted from corporal to General of the French Army. Besides his successes as a pilot, his career also included diplomatic achievements, and �tef�nik became one of the main organizers of the Czechoslovak Army‑the legions fighting alongside the Entente to establish an independent Czechoslovak state. �tef�nik became Vice‑Chairman of the Czechoslovak National Council in Paris, led by Tom� Garique Masaryk. After the end of the First World War, this goal became reality. However, as �tef�nik was flying from Italy back to his liberated homeland on May 4, 1919, his plane crashed in Ivanka near Bratislava... 

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