Czech Senator recalls Czechoslovak state school in exile

Following the Munich Agreement of 1938, which allowed Hitler to occupy Czechoslovakia's border regions, the Czechoslovak government fled to London, where they were to remain until after the War. Many of Edvard Benes's cabinet-in-exile had children, and not wanting them to lose their Czech, his government set up a Czechoslovak state school in the UK. Few people know about the school today, but that's something which should change with a new exhibition of its archives. Senator Edvard Outrata was a student at the school:

"The point really was that there were a large number of children, who came over in 1939, who were of Jewish origin and were saved in this way from Hitler. I joined the school when I was six. My parents were there in exile - my father was a member of the government in exile in London, and at the time it was a state school of the Czechoslovak government in exile."

Do you still remember that time?

"Oh, yes, very much. Not necessarily when I went to school but I remember being in the school. I left when I was nine, when the war ended. It was very well organised. There were lots of excellent Czech teachers, teaching us at different levels. The mix of the pupils was slightly atypical of a normal Czech school. For example, you had a choice of religion - Catholic or Jewish, which would be a typical mix in Bohemia. But it gave us the basic Czech education, together with knowledge of English and everything. When I came back to the country, they not only recognised my reports but I more or less merged with the community without much of a problem."

How did the people here react when you told them that you went to a Czechoslovak school "in exile"?

"Everybody sort of knew. It was quite a shock coming to this country because in many little things, the rules were different. The British, particularly during the war, were very sure about how they kept to the rules, how they taught children to do so, and how they protected children, for that matter. So I was very independent and did everything on my own and when I came here and saw that it was a little bit different I had quite some problems [laughs]."

How did the archives get here?

"The archives were collected by one of the pupils. This older schoolmate of mine left for the United States, married there, and put a lot of energy into bringing together any information, anything that he could find about the school. He is now growing old, so everybody believes that this is the time to give them a permanent home. There are all sorts of documents, a school magazine, and also photographs and other papers. The State Archives of the Czech Republic are very much interested because it is also a time when these types of things are finally being properly studied by historians and other people. For anybody, who wants to know or write something about the school, this will be the fundamental archive, it will hold the core of information about it."