Madeleine Albright is an American politician of Czech origin, born in the Smíchov district of Prague and a former United States Secretary of State.
Madeleine Albright is an American politician of Czech origin, born in the Smíchov district of Prague. She served as United States Secretary of State. [1][2][3]
Origins and family
Before the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia, she left for England with her parents. After a short democratic period following the war, the family left their homeland a second time, this time because the communist regime came to power. Most of her relatives died in Nazi extermination camps, and her parents concealed the family's Jewish origin from their children. Albright learned the truth only as an adult. Her effort to understand the reasons for that decision led her to write the book Prague Winter: A Personal Story of Remembrance and War, 1937–1948. [2]
Political career
Czech Television reported, in connection with Kosovo, that Albright and other American politicians who had been involved in the question of independence for the former Serbian province are taking part in the privatization of its telecommunications company and lignite mines. [3]
Naming in Smíchov City
The Smíchov City development project, which the company Sekyra Group has been carrying out since 2020 on former railway land in Smíchov, includes streets named after prominent women who contributed to the struggle against totalitarianism in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. When completed, the district is to offer almost 400,000 square metres of space for housing, offices, shops and public areas. [1]
The main pedestrian boulevard, a kilometre long, is to bear the name Madeleine Albright Avenue, and the local school is to be named after her as well. The proposal was submitted by the Sekyra Foundation and the Václav Havel Library with the support of other figures, and in August 2022 it was approved by the Místopisná komise Rady hlavního města Prahy, which recommended it to the Rada hlavního města Prahy. Luděk Sekyra, the founder of Sekyra Group, said the intention is to commemorate women associated with the effort for freedom and democracy and to point out that fewer than five percent of the streets in Prague are named after women. [1]