How the Press Dealt with the Topic of Emigration (Portal of Prague)

The press, in post-August era, paid quite a lot of attention to the topic of emigration. No wonder. Especially in the first days of the occupation nobody knew what would come next. Many people had their relatives on holiday abroad; they were deciding whether to come back or not. It is rather interesting that, as time went by, this news was presented to the public in different light. It became obvious that the “normalisation” press were trying to play down the topic.

September 1968:

* Up to 9^th September 1968, 956 people applied for diplomatic asylum in Russia.

* There were even rumours about that Karel Gott and Jarmila Gerlova emigrated while they were both giving a guest performance in night club Moulin Rouge. Similar rumours existed about director Jiří Menzel.

* Czechs who were abroad met with considerable scaremongering about people being imprisoned in the Czech Republic.

* A long queue of Czechoslovaks waited every day in front of Nuremberg social welfare office to receive 2 marks of daily pocket money. Hundreds of families in Yugoslavia, Austria and Switzerland made use of allowances and other benefits of these countries shortly after the invasion.

* Ninety-five percent of citizens staying in Switzerland were biding their time. They preferred to be considered as tourists for the time being.

* Most especially it was artists and scientists who were considering emigration.

Note: Post-1968 emigration meant a significant reduction of intellectual talent. According to the Archives of the Academy of Science, the institution lost eleven percent of its employees. Emigration meant a major brain drain, Rudolf Zahradník commented in Lidové noviny paper. He is a Professor, a former Czech chemist and post-September chairman of the Academy. The majority of scientists left in 1968, as much as 154 academicians moved abroad. In 1969 it was 158 people, and in 1970, an additional 105 people

Press 19^th November 1968:

* According to official statistics, 30,000 Czech citizens stayed abroad. Not many of them applied for asylum in Austria and Switzerland. Seven-hundred students stayed in England. Originally they went there for a holiday; later on they lived on allowances and money collected by aid organisations. These, however, lasted only until February 1969. Most of them earned a little extra by doing unqualified jobs (girls did e.g. baby sitting). Most of those young people wanted to study at universities.

December news

About 150 Prague’s doctors emigrated

17^th December:

* 8, 000 Czech citizens stayed in Switzerland, half of them applied for asylum

* In August, 4,600 Czechoslovaks left for Canada

* 2,862 Czechoslovaks applied for asylum in Germany.

* 188 Czechoslovaks left a refugee camp in Austria for USA, 186 went to Australia.

* 700 Czechoslovaks stayed in refugee camp in TraisKirchen.

* Estimation – there were 40 to 50,000 Czechoslovaks living in Western Europe

* On 13^th December, the validity of residence permit ran out for emigrants, and they had to decide if to apply for asylum or to return home. In Switzerland this deadline was set to March 1969.

Berta Štenclová