Alexandra Hospital massacre
Bata
Bata Shoe Company
Batamen
Bukit Chandu
Category=DNB
Category=NHWR7
eq_bestseller
eq_biography-true-stories
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
Fall of Singapore
Singapore
Product details
- ISBN 9789819419197
- Dimensions: 134 x 215mm
- Publication Date: 02 Oct 2025
- Publisher: Landmark Books Pte.Ltd ,Singapore
- Publication City/Country: SG
- Product Form: Paperback
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In 2017, I started my research on the fate of my granduncle Silvestr Němec,
a young Czech employed by the Bata Shoe Company in Singapore, who
volunteered to fight the Japanese when they invaded Singapore during World
War II. He went missing in 1942 and was involved in two historic events of
the Fall of Singapore: the battle of Bukit Chandu and the Alexandra Hospital
massacre.
Over time, the quest produced a whole collection of stories that spanned a
century and across continents, covering not just Silvestr’s life but also the Bata
company in the Far East, other Czechoslovaks who lived in Singapore before
and during World War II, as well as my own journey of discovery.
I must say that not even in my wildest dreams did I expect that my research
would take me so far. On many occasions – such as when I was studying how
Bata organised his business, or what other Batamen captured in their diaries,
letters and articles about their work and life in Singapore in 1930s – I was
vividly picturing Silvestr in those contexts and situations.
My book about my granduncle Silvestr was first published in Czech in
October 2020, and now it is avaialble in English.
Jan Beránek is a director and
organizational strategist at
Greenpeace International.
A Czech ecological activist
and energy expert, he was a
former member and chairman
of Czech Green Party.
He is a keen
astrophotographer.
T
he Czech edition of In
Search of Sivestr (Pátrání po
Silvestrovi) was published in 2020
