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Iska Lichter was born Jindriska Zofie Roudnicka in the town of Kolin, in 1930. The daughter of a Jewish father and a gentile mother, she lived a normal life until 1939 and the Nazi occupation. Her parents divorced - deliberately - to avoid the family being persecuted. Her father sent the family to the countryside, he himself went to his mother's town of Podebrady. He was deported to Terezin in 1942 and later sent to Auschwitz, from which he never returned. Iska, who now lives in Colorado, says hardly a day goes by when she does not think of her

Chip Erwin is an American man who runs a factory making light aircraft in Uherske Hradiste, south Moravia. He himself is a passionate pilot and not only does he take part in competitions, he also flies home to Prague every weekend. His father was a mechanical engineer who later helped build the atomic bomb. When he came into our offices, Chip Erwin told me how his father's work helped influence his own future career.

In this week's One on One, David Vaughan speaks to Martina Radova, a Czech woman who fled Communist Czechoslovakia in 1949 to start a new life abroad. After saying goodbye to her native Susice, she finally settled in the Australian city of Brisbane, where she's lived for the past 54 years. Now a housewife, Martina is actively involved in the local Czech community and even broadcasts - in Czech - on a local radio station.

For this week's One on One Jan Velinger talked to Giuseppe Maiello, a professor at Charles University's Department for Slavic and Eastern European studies. From Naples, Italy, Giuseppe Maiello took a curious step by moving to Czechoslovakia in 1985, four years before the fall of Communism. In the interview he discusses his impressions on that period, and his passion for Slavic studies. He also tells how he formed a small native faith group to try and re-forge a personal link with the forgotten Slavonic past.

Rob Cameron's guest on this week's One on One is Tomas Sedlacek, a former economic adviser to President Vaclav Havel. Tomas was heavily involved in the recent EU referendum campaign, and is a committed fan of European integration. He says it's high time Czechs started referring to Europeans as "us" rather than "them", and to stop being afraid of a closer, more united Europe.

David Cerny is an internationally known Czech visual artist, famous for provocative and highly original work including the giant space-age babies that crawl up the Zizkov TV tower a hundred metres or so above Prague. His latest installation newly opened at Prague's brand-new Futura gallery also promises to evoke a good deal of public reaction - and quite possibly even 'scandal'. One day after the opening I caught up with the artist to discuss politics, as well as his famous tower babies.

Vladimir Bejval is a man with an amazing CV. Child actor in Czechoslovakia, cowboy in the United States, tool maker, bodyguard and bounty hunter - Mr Bejval has been all of those things. As a teenager he appeared in the famous 1955 film Cesta do praveku, called in English Journey to Prehistory or Journey to the Beginning of Time. Almost half a century later, Vladimir Bejval is still proud of the film.

Janina Hrebickova is the Czech representative on the body which has been set up to oversee the reconstruction of Iraq. Ms Hrebickova, who is 42, is an award-winning journalist by profession but stints working for United Nations Television - in places such as the former Yugoslavia - led her into the field of consultancy and administration. Janina Hrebickova is just about to leave for Iraq, but she did find the time to come into our studio, where I asked her if she enjoyed doing her job in countries which have undergone great upheavals.

In this week's One on One, David Vaughan speaks to Murray Greenfield, a Jewish American who - like his four brothers - was drafted into the services at the outbreak of World War Two. After the war, Murray - who had served in the merchant marine - was asked to volunteer his services in the semi-legal operation to bring Jews out of Europe to Palestine. He later settled in Israel, where he met his future wife Hana - a Jewish Holocaust-survivor from the Czech town of Kolin. Both have written books about their experiences. The couple recently visited

In today's edition of One on One Jan Velinger talks to Professor Martin Hilsky, who teaches at the Department of English and American Studies at the Faculty of Philosophy in Prague. Mr Hilsky is among the most progressive translators of Shakespeare's works in the Czech Republic today - to date he has translated 23 of Shakespeare's plays into Czech, including a much acclaimed version of King Lear just last year. Martin Hilsky has been named an honorary holder of the Order of the British Empire, and just last week in Prague, was given the prestigious