Prague Winter

“A riveting tale of her family’s experience in Europe during World War II [and] a well-wrought political history of the region, told with great authority. . . . More than a memoir, this is a book of facts and action, a chronicle of a war in progress from a partisan faithful to the idea of Czechoslovakian democracy.” -- Los Angeles Times

Drawn from her own memory, her parents’ written reflections, and interviews with contemporaries, the former US Secretary of State and New York Times bestselling author Madeleine Albrights tale that is by turns harrowing and inspiring

Before she turned twelve, Madeleine Albright’s life was shaken by some of the most cataclysmic events of the 20th century: the Nazi invasion of her native Prague, the Battle of Britain, the attempted genocide of European Jewry, the allied victory in World War II, the rise of communism, and the onset of the Cold War.

In Prague Winter, Albright reflects on her discovery of her family’s Jewish heritage many decades after the war, on her Czech homeland’s tangled history, and on the stark moral choices faced by her parents and their generation. Often relying on eyewitness descriptions, she tells the story of how millions of ordinary citizens were ripped from familiar surroundings and forced into new roles as exile leaders and freedom fighters, resistance organizers and collaborators, victims and killers. These events of enormous complexity are shaped by concepts familiar to any growing child: fear, trust, adaptation, the search for identity, the pressure to conform, the quest for independence, and the difference between right and wrong.

Prague Winter is an exploration of the past with timeless dilemmas in mind, a journey with universal lessons that is simultaneously a deeply personal memoir and an incisive work of history. It serves as a guide to the future through the lessons of the past, as seen through the eyes of one of the international community’s most respected and fascinating figures in history. Albright and her family’s experiences provide an intensely human lens through which to view the most political and tumultuous years in modern history.

In this unforgettable story of a family and a country, Albright asks the defining questions of the twentieth century: How did ordinary people navigate the moral maze of collaboration, resistance, and survival?

A Long-Held Family Secret: A stunning, personal account of Albright’s late-in-life discovery of her family’s Jewish heritage and the relatives lost in the Holocaust. Prague Under Occupation: Eyewitness accounts of life in Prague during the Nazi invasion, the terror of the occupation, and the stark moral choices faced by Albright’s parents and their generation. The Betrayal of a Nation: An authoritative look at the political history behind the Munich Agreement and the fall of Czechoslovakia, a beacon of democracy in a continent descending into darkness. Resistance and Government in Exile: The gripping inside story of the Czechoslovak government-in-exile in London and the brave resistance organizers fighting for freedom back home.