58. A reference to the story “Footprints” by Czech author Karel Čapek (1890–1938), from his Tales from Two Pockets (1929).
64. Terezín: Concentration camp in northern Bohemia set up by Nazis to fool outsiders into believing that conditions in the camps were basically good. Prisoners were transported on to other camps.
Batas: Named for Tomáš Bat’a, who founded the company in the Moravian town of Zlin in 1894.
65. toyfil: From the German Teufel, “devil.”
toluene: a liquid solvent sniffed like airplane glue.
67. Ribanna was an Apache heroine from the writings of Karl May (1842–1912), a German author best known for his series of popular novels set in the American West, although he also wrote about Arabia and Turkey. Though his works have sold nearly 100 million copies in Europe, he remains virtually unknown in the U.S.
76. Warriors of the Southern Cheyennes. Also the name of a popular band led by the author’s younger brother, Filip Topol. In the group’s early days, the author wrote their lyrics.
78. Lady Midday, the Midday Witch. Seen at the hottest time of a summer day. Also the personification of sunstroke.
82. Maryša: the title of a play by Alois (1861–1925) and Vilém (1863–1912) Mrštík about a village girl who is forced to wed a rich man she despises. She murders him by pouring poison in his coffee.
Josef Lada, illustrator of The Good Soldier Švejk (see note for p. 35), also known for his folksy calendar illustrations.
93. According to folk custom, lit during storms or at the bedside of a dying person.
97. Characters from Hunters of the Woolly Mammoth, a children’s book by Czech writer Eduard Štorch.
101. Josef Novák Czech equivalent of John Doe.
Žižkov: A working-class neighborhood in Prague.
102. The Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, an occupation government established by the Nazis on March 15, 1939.
Adinka: Adina Mandlová, Czech film actress, possibly a lover of Goebbels’. Her memoir was called / Laugh About It Now (Dnes uz se tomu směju).
103. German for “Heil Hitler, my officers and doctors and scholars. I’m a little Czech swine, born from Žižkov.” Note: this is not proper German.
105. Karel Poláček: popular Czech Jewish novelist, journalist, humorist (1892–1944).
109. A phrase coined between the two world wars to boost the morale of craftspeople and designers at a time of increasingly machine-driven production.
111. Czech for “Falcon,” the name of a Czech patriotic and gymnastic society founded in 1862.
120. Emil Hácha was the Czech president under the Protectorate (see note for p. 101).
122. Andrei Chikatilo, a.k.a. the Soviet Hannibal Lecter. Estimated to have killed 52 people, mostly young boys, between 1980 and 1992.
124. We Were Five (1946, posthumous) is the title of a popular novel by Czech writer Karel Poláček (see note for p. 104) about a group of five boys growing up in a small town.
130. gotwaalds: A play on Klement Gottwald (1896–1953), the first Communist president of Czechoslovakia.
Jaroslav Foglar (1907–1999), author of a popular illustrated adventure series called Speedy Arrows. His advocacy of the scouting movement led the Communists to prevent him from publishing for many years.
Kcharal ben May: A play on Karl May (see note for p. 66).
132. Myslivec: “Huntsman,” a cheap Czech brandy.
In Czech Potok means “ brook.”
Notes to Sister
141. Towns in northern Bohemia.
142. At the end of World War II, Czechoslovakia’s three million Germans, most of whom lived along its northern and western borders (known as the Sudetenland), were forcibly expelled. This process was preapproved by the Allied powers at the Potsdam Conference and officially referred to as a “transfer.” The Czechoslovak government, in a move supported by every political party and the overwhelming majority of the population, seized the Germans’ property and redistributed large portions of it to Czechs and Slovaks. To this day the expulsion remains a highly charged and emotional issue in Czech-German relations.
143. In Czech Černá is the feminine form of the adjective “black.” It is also the female form of the common surname Černý.
144. Semion Budenny (1883–1973), a Soviet field marshal.
145. Normally dylina, a Romany word meaning “idiot,” “jerk,” “asshole.”
149. Moravian: Reference to Sigmund Freud, who was born in the north Moravian town of Příbor, known as Freiberg to German speakers.
Romul: A play on Jan Ruml, minister of the interior for Czechoslovakia and then the Czech Republic, 1992–1997.
161. A play on Topol’s first collection of poems, I Love You Madly (1991). The original samizdat edition of 1988 won the Tom Stoppard Prize for Unofficial Literature.
164. Battle of Britain: in which Czech pilots flew with the Royal Air Force against the Luftwaffe (1940).
Milan, King Vladislav: In 1158 Vladislav II, of the Přemyslid dynasty, was granted royal title as King of Bohemia by the Holy Roman Empire.
Reinhard Heydrich was the SS officer in charge of the Protectorate (see note for p. 101). In June 1942 he was assassinated by a Czech and a Slovak who were parachuted in from England. This led to the Heydrichiad, a wave of recriminations against the Czech population, including deportations to camps and the razing of two Czech villages. The assassins themselves were hunted down and killed by the Nazis after taking refuge in a church in Prague.
170. Gingerbread: Perník, a homemade amphetamine named for its color, popular in the Czech Republic.
Brno: A city two hours’ drive southeast of Prague, the capital of Moravia and the Czech Republic’s second-largest city. Reference to a well-known literary talk show that was taped there.
172. Rafal Wojaczek (1945–1971), poet described by some as Poland’s postwar Baudelaire.
177. Di do prdele: “Shove it, “up yours,” in Czech.
Chlop zasrany: “Shithead,” “piece of shit peasant,” in Polish.
178. “Give the knife, get the knife.” A Romany saying.
179. The Stag Moat is located at Prague Castle.
small works: a philosophy advocated by Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, cofounder and first president of Czechoslovakia, in which large-scale change is brought about through the accumulation of small, individual efforts.
201. An untranslatable pun: samo means “by itself,” i.e., the boy is answering that it happened “by itself,” but his questioners believe that he is telling them his name. Sámo, however, was a Frankish merchant who united and ruled the western Slavs in the seventh century. According to German sources, he was actually a Jew by the name of Samuel, but as far as the Slavs were concerned, he was a Frank who betrayed the Franks. Samo was also responsible for teaching the Slavs modern warfare.