Awarded the Honorary Silver Medal of Jan Masaryk
The study of Czechoslovak women refugees in Britain is noticeably missing from current research and Anglo-Czechoslovak historiography. This book explores the diverse experiences, dilemmas and contributions to Britain of these women within a socio-political context, commencing with the 1938 Munich Agreement that precipitated exile.
An essential difference between this and many other studies of exile is the focus on nationality (Czechoslovak) and gender (women), rather than either element alone. Moreover, archival research is complemented by oral interviews with former refugees, presenting a more detailed and nuanced approach to their experiences, including wartime roles in the armed services, Czechoslovak Red Cross, women’s organizations and patriotic cultural societies.
Jana Barbora Buresova is a committee member of the Research Centre for German and Austrian Exile Studies, attached to the Institute of Modern Languages Research (IMLR) at the University of London, where she was awarded the Martin Miller and Hannah Norbert-Miller Bursary for Doctoral Study. She is also involved in the Association of Jewish Refugees’ audio-visual Holocaust Testimony Archive project.