2008 Press releases

Exhibition of August 21, 1968 Pictures at American Center

Prague, August 15, 2008

The American Center of the U.S. Embassy in Prague will host an exhibition of black-and-white photographs taken in Prague by Czech-American journalist Dušan Neumann during the Soviet invasion of then Czechoslovakia on August 21, 1968.

Dusan Neumann is a journalist, TV/radio correspondent and photographer, currently living in Pennsylvania.  He started his career in Czech TV in early 1968 at the foreign news desk, but had to leave the position shortly after the Soviet invasion.  He held various jobs before immigrating to the USA in 1980, where he returned to journalism.  After 1989, he was a correspondent of Lidové noviny daily and other Czech media.  In recent years, he cooperated with the BBC Czech service and Czech Radio.  He is currently the U.S. correspondent of the new Z1 news television.

Dusan Neumann recalls: “A telephone call at one o'clock in the morning… voice on the end of the line was trembling.  ‘Turn on the radio and open the window, do you hear it?’ said our neighbor, ‘The Russians are invading.’  At first we could not believe it, but the swarm of cargo planes overhead and the radio’s hum on Prague’s broadcast frequency confirmed the ominous news.  Instinctively, we called all our friends and relatives.  Then I packed my Soviet-made 35mm camera Zenit 3M, stuffed my pockets with film, and took off to the streets.  I was heading toward the airport.  It was about four o'clock in the morning when I saw the first Soviet tank on Leninova Avenue [now Evropska].  The belligerent mass of steel, marked with a white stripe over the turret, rolled slowly through early morning Prague.”

The exhibition will be open to the public every working day 1:00 - 4:00 pm until September 30, 2008, or by appointment (13 Tržiště Street, Prague 1 – Mala Strana) tel.: 257-022-336, email: acprague@state.gov).