Karel Hasler is alive again! / Karel Hasler je znovu nazivu!

“Ta nase pisnicka ceska, ta je tak hezka, tak hezka…” (“That Czech song of ours is so beautiful…”).These are the words of one of the most famous Czech songs of all times. In fact, the catchiness of the tune made it almost an unofficial hymn of the Czech people – the old sing it and the young ones do too. It was created by Karel Hasler, a talented Czech composer, singer and an actor  known from his early teens through the early 40’s. Hasler paid dearly for the words of this song but his spirit lives and will live forever. Not only through his countless songs and a famous Czech candy called “Haslerky” but also through his son whom he had never met – through Tom Hasler. Tom recently contacted me via Czechmate Diary and enlightened me on his amazing life story. He  was born to a German mother, Karel Hasler’s fiance, a month after Karel was brutally tortured/murdered in the concentration camp. When Tom was 7 years old, he and his mom emmigrated to Australia and from there to the United States where he lives up to this day. How is Tom, a man in his retirement years, spending his free time? Besides playing tennis and sucking on Haslerky, he also loves to do a research about his father to find out what was he like. In fact, his story is so interesting, that they made a documentary about him and the premiere will be performed on October 31st (Karel Hasler’s birthday) in Prague together with the unveiling of his statue on the Prague Castle steps…watch this video to find out further details….

CZ: “Ta naseee piiiisnicka ceskaaa,ta je tak hezkaa, tak hezkaaaaa…”….kdo by neznal tuto melodii? Stala se totiz takovou nepsanou hymnou ceskeho naroda – zpivaji ji jak mladi, tak stari. Napsal a zpival ji znamy zpevak, herec a skladatel Karel Hasler. Vetsina z nas se o nem ucila ve skole; ne ale vsichni vi, ze byl za sloky teto pisnicky brutalne zavrazden nacisty v jednom z koncentracnich taboru. Pan Hasler uz neni mezi nami, ale jeho duch zije nadale a to nejen ve znamych cucavych bonbonech Haslerkach. Hasler totiz par mesicu pred svou smrti splodil syna se svou nemeckou snoubenkou. Tom Hasler sveho otce sice nikdy nevidel, ale poslednich par let se v duchodu venuje patrani po jeho stopach a to aby zjistil, jaky jako osoba vubec byl. Tom me sam zkontaktoval, aby me blize predstavil svemu osudu, ktereho si vsiml dokonce i cesky “hollywood” (nebo spise Barrandov). Vytvorili z neho totiz velmi zajimavy dokument, jehoz premiear se bude konat 31. rijna (Haslerovy narozeniny) pravdepodobne v Narodnim Divadle. Ten samy den se bude take odhalovat jeho socha na Prazkem hrade…. vice podrobnosti najdete v tomto videu: