In Search of Sylvestr

 In 2017, I started my research on the fate of my granduncle Silvestr Nemec, 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.