Vytisknout
Kategorie: English articles

Cekota AntoninBy Anthony CekotaBata Jan Antonin

"On Mach 15, 1939, Hitler scrapped the piece of paper signed in Munich by the representatives of the French and British governments, and occupied the remaining Czech lands of Bohemia and Moravia.”

“As I watched the panzer columns of the Nazi army stream past the Bata factories into the city of Zlin.”

“Behind the army moved the Gestapo, tall men in high boots and black Mercedes with mounted megaphones, steel filing cabinets and sub-machine guns.”

... In my own cabinet there were a number of Jan A. Bata's drafts of various projects, manuscripts of articles and memoranda, most of which were of a nature that would have secured for him a place in one of the Gestapo’s jails or concentration camps. On the day of the occupation, he was out of the country. However, I remembered how, on one occasion after Munich, upon his return to Cheb, a city in north-western Bohemia, he was arrested by the Gestapo and put in jail; he was released only on orders from Berlin. At that time, the Nazi hierarchy did not want to alarm the Czech or European business and financial communities.

... I called the manager of the shipping department, a man I trusted, gave him the bulky file containing all Jan's writings, and told him to burn it in the coal-burning locomotive used for shunting railway cars in the yards inside the factory complex. Standing next to the fireman, he did a perfect job of it, burning the stuff as the engine moved around, with the invaders outside the factory fence.

... A few days after the occupation, two Gestapo agents called at the personnel office of the company asking to see me. I was arrested on the spot, taken to my house, which was searched from basement to roof, after which I was put in the city jail. From my interrogation, which was conducted by an Austrian (who behaved in a civilized way), I learned that my publishing activity was ‘inimical to the interests of the Third Reich.

... However, interpreting his questions, it became clear to me that the real reason for my arrest and interrogation was to find out whether the company and Jan A. Bata were financially supporting Dr. Eduard Benes, who was already outside of the country.

Note: The above was written by Antonin Cekota in a book called, “The Stormy Years of an Extraordinary Enterprise: Bata 1932 – 1945,” published in 1985.

* * *

ANTONÍN CEKOTA

Poet, newsman, translator, editor and publisher Antonin Cekota, was born January 13, 1899 in Napajedla, worked for the Bata company unselfishly all his life and especially this activity determined to a point also the image of the company from the point of view of the public. He was the head of eight Bata Magazines and also Bata's publishing house Tisk and it was no wonder that, after the arrival of the Germans to Zlin he was the first one whom the Gestapo came to arrest and who went to prison. When later he managed to escape, he became the representative of Tomas J.Bata during the establishment of the new company in Canada and after the second world war became also the head of the technical research and the industrial relations for Bata's enterprises in the world. His book " The brilliant entrepreneur Tomas Bata" which was first published in exile, by the publishing house Skvorecky, it became practically a bible for all who search for the roots of success of this enterprising genius, and it reflects also the recollection of many his other important colleagues who belonged to Cekot's friends. (His life story will be added later)

http://batastory.net/cs/milniky/antonin-cekota

* * *

Batanagar’s Support for the RAF Exceeds 1 Billion U.S. Dollars

Czech History: Lost and Found

THE CZECH CAUSE

* * *

J.Š. 26.4.2015

1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1