Dr. Jana Fiserova-Dadik

"Jana Fiserova-Dadik was born in Prague in 1925. She was raised with her three siblings in the Smíchov district of the city, where her parents, Rudolph and Barbora, owned a restaurant. Jana speaks fondly of her childhood in and around the business; she remembers actors from the National Theatre coming to the restaurant following their performances. After the Communist coup in 1948, Jana’s family lost possession of the business. Jana enrolled in Charles University’s Medical Faculty in 1952. She says that she received a small scholarship throughout her time at university, but that she also had to work as an assistant to one of her pathology professors and teach Czech and Russian in the evenings to pay her way through college. Jana remembers her professors being strict, but says that she received an excellent education at university in Czechoslovakia.

Upon graduation in 1958, Jana’s first job was in a hospital in Kunčice pod Ondřejníkem, Silesia. She worked there for five years until she was became head of the pathology department at a hospital near Mělnik. Following the Communist coup, Jana’s older brother Karel had settled in the United States. In 1963, he came back to Czechoslovakia on his first visit. Jana says that she had repeatedly been denied a passport on account of her brother’s emigration. In 1968, however, she was granted permission to travel to Yugoslavia with her younger sister, Milada, and her sister’s two children.

Jana and Milada found themselves in Yugoslavia when the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia took place on August 21, 1968. They decided to travel to Austria and seek asylum. They came to Vienna, where they were helped by a Catholic priest who found the family accommodation and Jana work in a laboratory. Jana’s brother Karel then sent his sisters affidavits and paid for their tickets to the United States. Jana arrived in Vermilion, Ohio, in September 1968. On weekends, she helped her brother at his restaurant, Old Prague. Otherwise, she says she did not see him much, as she lived in Cleveland during the week, where she retrained as a doctor. After an internship at Mary Mount Hospital, Jana worked at St. Luke’s and then for the City of Cleveland. She became an American citizen in 1974. Today, Jana travels to the Czech Republic at least once a year, but says she enjoys the ‘freedom’ of living in America."

Creator: National Czech & Slovak Museum & Library

Source: NCSML Archive

https://ncsml.omeka.net/items/show/4078

A Funeral Mass for Jana will be held Tuesday, July 25, 2023 at 1:00 PM at Holy Spirit Parish, 410 Lear Road, Avon Lake, OH 44012.

Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.corrigancraciunfuneralhome.com for the Fiserova-Dadik family.