including later that year in what was then called czechoslovakia.or more than 40 years the czech and slovakian people had lived under a pro-soviet regime that viewed religion as a subversive force. and the authorities went to extreme lengths to undermine the christian church in particular -- including deporting roman catholic nuns to one of the most isolated parts of the country -- to what cynically became known as a "concentration cloister." >> the authorities thought they could break their faith here. bila voda is a place few czechs know about. the communist regime deported nuns from convents all over the country to this village, with the aim of grinding their faith into oblivion. >> many were already very old when they came. they rounded them up here in bila voda from all corners. it looked like a detention camp. they had to do heavy work in their nun's habits. they mixed mortar, put up buildings, everything. it was horrible. what can i say? >> sister jirina is one of the last nuns who can still remember bila voda. as a young woman, she was one o

the following month the new president was sworn in in czechoslovakia, splitting the czechoslovakia --he republic. today both countries are members of the european union. unthinkable just 25 years ago. >> we are going to a short break. stay with us. >> you would like to study in germany and you still have lots of questions? you will find everything you want to know right here. information on nurses, qualifications, cost, and much more. the first port of call for anyone interested in studying in germany. >> welcome back. nigeria has once again been hit i a terrorist attack. >> sunday evening a female suicide bomber blew herself up in a market, killing eight people. most of the boko haram attacks have taken place in the northeast, where the militants are trying to establish an islamic state. the nigerian government and army have proved powerless to halt their widening reign of terror. >> for a closer look at the situation we have our reporters there, they traveled to the city where members of the muslim and christian communities are turning to each other for protection against the threat

united states army to receive thousands of refugees fleeing ,ommunism in east germany poland, and czechoslovakia. during my time there, that's number reached over 3000 persons per week. those brave east germans, cze poles, all were demonstrating that the appeal of democracy was and is universal. in response to that human time, withast german government, the help of the soviet allies, built the infamous wall. i believe then -- believed then is believe now that the wall the most tangible symbol of the failure of communism that exists. for a devon -- for it demonstrated for the world to see, in the most stark and even barbaric way, that the only way the east german government could keep their people within their country was to prevent them from leaving their country. years, the berlin wall has stood as a symbol of the failure of communism. that failure occurring over time, and now it is evident that the communists, themselves, came to the east german leaders. today'sus decision -- decision, not an active democracy, not an act to placate the west, but a desperate act of survival by the east german g

the velvet revolution, czechoslovakia, romania, of course poland that led it all off. it mattered here most. this was the focal point, and this brandenburg gate behind me is the mystic center of the german people. this is the epicenter of the east/west divide. when that wall came down it told all of us communism is collapsing. let's reflect on what that meant. hammers in hand, germans battered down the wall that had divided this country for some 28 years. what everyone witnessed seemed unthinkable. for most, if not all their lives, east germans knew even approaching the wall could have resulted in their deaths from armed border guards, and suddenly they were on top. those were heady times. of course, everyone knew they were witnessing history, but that didn't stop us from turning to one another and asking, can we really be seeing this happening? even diplomats were jarred. i remember talking to them, u.s. ambassador as events unfolded. there were fears that moscow or the east germans themselves might try to roll it all back as some kind of mistake, but as the situation

the shock waves were felt even behind the iron curtain in the prague spring in czechoslovakia.eren new york at columbia university, the storming of the gates during a violent demonstration against the vietnam war became a symbol of a generation's protest in a year fraught with assassination and rioting. and in france, the government all but fell to an alliance of students and workers. the year ended with the establishment back in power, but this dissident youth culture had become international and politicized. one result was the rejection of all forms of establishment art, and the effects of that are still with us. ♪ o beautiful ♪ for spacious skies ♪ for amber waves... the heroic symbols of world war ii are ironically recycled by edward kienholz in the portable war memorial. images of glory from the last just war reverberate bitterly at the end of the sixties. ♪ america! america! ♪ god shed his grace on thee ♪ ♪ and crown thy good with brotherhood... ♪ this is maya yin-ling's vietnam veterans memorial in washington, d.c., where the names of all the americans who died in that w

. >> reporter: when the nazis occupied czechoslovakia in 1939, tens of thousands of jews applied for visas to anywhere, and among them paul strnad and his wife hedwig, nicknamed hedy. their best hope to save their lives was help from their cousin alvin, thousands of miles away in milwaukee, wisconsin. so, on december 11, 1939, paul wrote him this letter. >> you may imagine that we have a great interest of leaving europe as soon as possible. >> reporter: and paul hoped he had an ace up his sleeve-- these drawings, eight beautiful dresses and all accessories, down to hat pins and shoes, purses and gloves. modern. elegant. his wife hedy was a seamstress, a dress designer. could alvin find a firm in milwaukee who'd hire hedy and sign an affidavit to grant the couple visas to the u.s.? in his letter, paul wrote: >> i hope the dress manufacturers you mentioned in your letter will like them. >> reporter: karen strnad is alvin's granddaughter. >> it was a letter that was pleading for, you know, a savior, for, you know, survival, and using the dresses as a tool to be able to get out of there.

having said that the vizigrad states, hungary, czechoslovakia, our economy is on the back foot, we need the gas, we need the trade, you've got the t to stop. nato is not becoming stronger as a consequence of this fight, it's becoming more salient but the consequences are being put very clearly on display. >> i was in portland, i'll have this story at the end of the week where they get this particularly type of apple, 60% of that gets sold to russia, these folks can't find a new market. so you've got these russian enclaves in estonia, in latvia in poland, they seem to like this whole mother russia extending its arm of protection around them. >> it's unclear how much they're going to like it in the long run. but they outlast the ukrainians. it was about the same level of support as you see for putin itself in the mid '80s. food inflation is hitting right now, that's supporting russian industry but hitting russians in the pocketbook. that's the same russians who benefited oil price going from 14 to 20 before they sank back in the high 70s. these russians overwhelmingly feel they have done

. >> there is honorarium, there is bust being dedicated to celebrate the great works of the czechoslovakiasident, a great poet. gerri: havel. >> is being honored and from there, zz top starts at first of the year. so it will be fast and furious from here on out. gerri: i would not have put those two things together but i get it. anything else you want to tell us about that you're up to? >> well, still loud and fast. that's what we do. gerri: you will be doing this again next year? already onboard, is that right. >> i think so. >> i think he just said that. gerri: anything else you can add about tonight's program? pause i think is really important. great fun to have you here. i know you will be packed to the gills. >> great fun. it will be packed. been sold out every year since 2011 and it is one of those fun raisers that is different. it is becoming sort of a network event that everyone looks forward to because it is very different. it is not typical black tie affair where people are making speeches and all that good stuff. gerri: much more fun. >> much more fun. it is honoring the same ca

czechoslovakia. >> czechoslovakia is correct. 300-point tossup.gnorance on this one. the national highway traffic safety administration. that brings us to the end of the game. victoria, you got closer but susan was 1,600 points. you held on in the ph.d. round. you've won the game and because of that bill wolf will tell you what you've won. >> congratulations, susan. >> your name will be engraved using the finest sharpie ink on the stain resistant up against the clock gold cup. you'll receive a dvd copy of the classic 1988 film "cocoon 2 the return"" personally autographed and you'll get to play in our jackpot round for today's grand prize, a $50 gift certificate to kwik food meal cart operated by a former chef of the russian tea am room. tid for lunch today. dlib. enjoy the meal and congratulations. back to you, steve. >> all right, susan. congratulations. here is your cup. i warn you, don't drink from it. the chemicals in the paint are highly toxic but display it with pride. for that $50 gift certificate to that delicious street vendor food, susa

i don't expect to be you know, hasled unless i'm going to hungary or something, czechoslovakia, then would expect it. >> that's john lennon in 1975 outside the courthouse in new york city where he was fighting deportation. i learned something about john lennon on this program last night. >> the supreme court has recognized the action many times. it has recently -- the authority of the government to exercise discretion cently as 2012. and regulations have recognized this since 1978 when for the first time the first known beneficiary of deferred action was john lennon. >> john lennon. people say i'm a dreamer, but i'm not the only one. the dreamer who wrote those lyrics was, of course, john lennon who actually was america's first immigration dreamer. because the legal precedent established in john lennon's immigration case 42 years ago is the first legal building block that gave president obama the authority through executive action to in effect grant new status to the dreamers in june of 2012. >> effective immediately, the department of homeland security is taking steps to lift the sh

. >>> it is 25 years since the revolution in former czechoslovakia.ss seemed so smooth that it was nicknamed the velvet revolution. but now it seems that disillusionment has set in. rob cameron reports from prague. >> reporter: incredible scenes, a quarter of a century ago now, as hundreds of thousands of people demonstrate against a morally bankrupt regime. within days, a student demonstration had become a full-scale revolution. within weeks, a dissident playwright had become president, a triumph of what he once called the power of the powerless. an awful lot's happened in the last 25 years as the czech republic is now a member of nato and the european union, and prague has changed enormously. that's the same balcony from 1989. today's occupants a very much a symbol of consumer society. these days, czechs drive the same flashy cars and use the same smart phones as everyone else, if they can afford them. however, few are politically active. today you'd struggle to fill this square for any cause. >> people like big moments of history. euphoria, demonst

we can talk about all of the other places where communism was crumbling, in poland, in czechoslovakiao many other places. but this behind me, this is the center of that east-west divide. and when we saw the change in berlin, we knew that was key, the collapse of communism was already taking place in front of our eyes. it was the most exhilarating day of my life. it captured everything. it was unbelievable. many of us did not think that the east germans would ever open up that wall. at least not of their own volition. they were forced into it economically and politically. christie, incredible day here. thousands of people on hand. the orchestra just practicing a little bit. they'll be back on in about five hours time. back to you. >> you have such a personal perspective. we thank you so much for sharing that with us this morning. >> someone else who has an interesting perspective joining me now is john emerson. he is the american ambassador to germany who is live in berlin. john, you have a deep german heritage beginning with your grandparen grandparents. what was it luke whike when yo

at the time of my departure in 1967, lsd was manufactured in czechoslovakia in the official pharmacopeia as a therapeutic agent with such reputable drugs as penicillin, antibiotics, insulin. lsd was available to qualified professionals into the general public knew very little about psychedelic drugs and the reports concerning research with such substances were published almost exclusively in the scientific journals. there was no black-market traffic and no medical use of them. anybody interested could have an lsd session provided that it was conducted by an approved professional and a medical facility. the situation i found when i arrived in the united states contrasted sharply black market lsd seemed readily available in all parts of the country and for all age groups from the self experimentation with spores on university campuses and many large cities had their hippie districts with the distinct ultras and they seem to be making the new headline. almost every day they could read sensationalistic reports and psychotic breakdowns and suicide and burgers. this was -- this kind of atmosph

but we thought there is a lot in czechoslovakia. at this point in 1945, growes a lot in the -- let's make a deal that makes a lot of money and buy it all up. it is everywhere, but we do not have to understand it very something a little bit controversial. this was named after a princeton physicist. he wanted to write about it. we read about the science of the atomic bomb, published it, and that would provide parameters. at first, i was like, why would you tell anybody? he sat down with scientists. what can i first year student figure out from the atomic bomb in the next year or so? put it out there so everyone knows what they can and cannot say. basically said, this is as much as you can talk about. stars afterw rock the war was over. they knew they could only talk about what was already released in the smyth report. for growes, this is a way to kind of contain the information. to say anything outside of this, you are instantly breaking the law. then finally the mcmahon act. this is heavy-handed. june of 1946. after nunn may was oute

oftorian, the empires, and maybe more portly, the creation of new states, the baltic states, poland, czechoslovakia, yugoslavia, and of course, turkey in the states of the middle east to name just a few. leading to colonial unrest, independencee movement in india, which became very important to the british empire, and of course, the second world war. i am a cultural historian in many ways. in the artsted during the war and right after the war. we all know the war poets. owen, sassoon, and the prose literature is equally as rich. rob graves, in england, eric partridge. they are britain's testament of youth. a very important legacy of the war. music in the 1960's, when the , works ofs of music art, was britain's war requiem set to the poems of wilford 01. piece called a "morning heroes" back commemorates the dead of the war, and especially his brother. the visual arts. roberts,, william stanley spencer, henry tom was a very interesting artist who is also a surgeon. images ofy stark wounded soldiers, particularly soldiers who had severe disfigurement. there is an exhibit in london at the kent terrien

all over europe, belgium, the czechoslovakia, denmark and norway, in germany itself, political and armednd france, those who prefer death to submission have joined. ♪ (music) >> everywhere, allied armies on the offensive. on the eastern fronts after the have capitulated in arm'sry 1943, the red advance is unstoppable. wins the tankit bats. most of the german divisions are front inon the russian the pacific american soldiers backed by australians and new zealanders are fighting the japanese from island to island atrocious war. after midway in june, 1942 and guadal canal, in 1944 thed allied forces liberate the philippines. after north africa in 1943 the sicily and begin .he liberation of italy in tehran, november 1943, roosevelt, churchill and stall lynn decide to open a second it's to become, operation overlord over the northwest coast of france, this will be completed by operation anvil on the shores of the me trainian. stalin agrees to launch a huge offensive. to bel eisenhower is named commander in chief. it's a crucial gambit. hitler is convinced that the confrontation will be to the