By Janet Jefferies
In September 2025, 28 travelers toured the Czech Republic on a Nebraska-based Czech Heritage Tour, based in Nebraska. While there, they made a few special stops. The visits included the impressive memorial to Dorchester. Nebraska native, PFC Charles Havlat, in the Sumava Mountains of Southwest Bohemia; Telc, Wilber, Nebraska\u2019s sister city, and Vy\u0161ehrad Hill in Prague where the legendary princess and founder of Prague, Libu\u0161e, is said to have lived in the 8th Century.
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The group went to the Havlat Memorial, near Volary, to pay respects to the late PFC Charles Havlat. PFC Havlat (1910-1945) was from Dorchester, Nebraska, and was the last American soldier killed in WWII. They were met by Franti\u0161ek Hodina, a resident from nearby Prachatice, who has long had a great interest in the Havlat story and is an avid promoter of the area\u2019s history. A local news reporter interviewed members of the group and wrote a story for the area newspaper. A few travelers were from Saline County, and two men, Michael Neruda and John Palky, are Dorchester High School alums. The impressive monument, with a signboard in both Czech and English, was erected in 2022 by community members and the military group, Military Car Club of Plzen. The Havlat Memorial is situated on a rural road south of Volary in a remote, wooded area close to where Charlie died. The location is landscaped with a parking area and flag poles and is used regularly for certain military ceremonial occasions. The Czech Heritage group left flowers and enjoyed homemade rum cake made by Hodina\u2019s sister. The Czech Heritage Tour itinerary first included the memorial soon after its completion and it is now an annual stop. The Saline County Historical Society in Dorchester, Nebraska also features a display and historical marker honoring Havlat on their museum grounds.
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The travelers also went to Tel\u010d, Wilber\u2019s sister city, to see the picturesque town, the castle, and visit with Mayor Vladimir Brtnik at the town hall. Tel\u010d is in Moravia in the Czech-Moravian Highlands. At the town hall meeting, the group shared general information about Wilber, news of the recently completed 2025 August Czech Festival, and brought gifts from the Wilber Craft Shop. Mayor Brtnik told the visitors interesting information about Tel\u010d, a town of just over 5,000 people. He also showed the group his copies of the Czech Slavnosti newspaper that celebrates American\u2019s Czech heritage and originates in Wilber. Brtnik, a former schoolteacher, has been mayor of Tel\u010d since 2021. He told the visitors that he enjoys keeping up with Czech-American activities via the Slavnosti, and that he is also a member of the Nebraska Bohemians Facebook page. Travelers at the meeting included Wilber natives, Doris Smi\u0161ek Jiskra, Dennis Beck, Ron and Sharon Halada Beck, and Marlene Beck Guroff. Several additional Nebraska residents, who also have ties to Wilber, were in attendance. The Wilber-Tel\u010d sister city relationship was established in 1991.
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While in Prague, mother and daughter, Janet Jeffries, and Elizabeth Spencer, both recipients of Wilber\u2019s Lady of Libu\u0161e Award for community service, made a trip to Vy\u0161ehrad Hill with their friend Sharon Curtis of Florida, to see the site where Libu\u0161e supposedly lived. The ladies wore their award sashes and posed for a photo by the statue of Libu\u0161e and her husband, P\u0159emy\u0161l the Ploughman.
The annual 18-day Czech Heritage Tour, has been operating since 1992 and includes major sites, stops off the beaten path, and visits to family villages in Bohemia and Moravia. Upcoming tours are scheduled for June 2026 and September 2027.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
From left: Ron Beck, Lincoln, Dennis Beck, Lincoln, Marlene Beck Guroff, McClean, VA, Michael Neruda, Bethesda, MD, Sharon Halada Beck, Lincoln, Karen Jiskra Nissen, Denton, NE, Doris \u0160mi\u0161ek Jiskra, Wilber, Doug Nissen, Denton, Janet Jeffries, Crete, NE, Mayor Brtnik, Don Niemann, Raymond, NE, Eunice McArdle, Crete, Nancy Machacek Niemann, Raymond, NE, Elizabeth Spencer, Lincoln, and John Palky, Crete<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Janet JefferiesIn September 2025, 28 travelers toured the Czech Republic on a Nebraska-based Czech Heritage Tour, based in Nebraska. While there, they made a few special stops. The visits included the impressive memorial to Dorchester. Nebraska native, PFC Charles Havlat, in the Sumava Mountains of Southwest Bohemia; Telc, Wilber, Nebraska\u2019s sister city, and Vy\u0161ehrad …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":164,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-163","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel","pmpro-has-access"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/czechslavnosti.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/czechslavnosti.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/czechslavnosti.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/czechslavnosti.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/czechslavnosti.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=163"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/czechslavnosti.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":165,"href":"https:\/\/czechslavnosti.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163\/revisions\/165"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/czechslavnosti.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/czechslavnosti.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/czechslavnosti.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/czechslavnosti.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}