Madeleine Albright

Madeleine Korbel Albright, née Marie Jana Korbel (born May 15, 1937 in Prague, Czechoslovakia, now in the Czech Republic) served as the 64th United States Secretary of State.

Personal information

Madeleine Albright was born Marie Jana Korbel on May 15, 1937, in Prague, and raised Roman Catholic by her parents, who had converted to Catholicism from Judaism in order to escape persecution. Madeleine was the French version of "Madlenka", a Czech nickname given by her grandmother. Albright adopted the new name when she attended a Swiss boarding school. She and her parents moved to the United States in 1948 having fled their homeland for a second time when the Communists assumed power. The Wellesley College student became a U.S. citizen in 1957. In May 1959 she married Chicago newspaper journalist Joseph Medill Patterson Albright, with whom she had three daughters. They divorced in 1982.

Related Topics:
May 15 - 1937 - Prague - Roman Catholic - Catholicism - Judaism - 1948 - 1957 - 1959 - Joseph Medill Patterson Albright - 1982

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Albright is multilingual, being fluent in English, French, and Czech, with good speaking and reading abilities in Russian, German and Polish.

Related Topics:
Multilingual - English - French - Czech - Russian - German - Polish

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Before and during World War II, her father Josef Korbel and her family sought refuge in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, where they had been on a diplomatic mission from Czechoslovakia. That may have saved her life, while many of her numerous Jewish relatives in Czechoslovakia were killed in the Holocaust. Albright has stated that she did not know she was Jewish until she was an adult.

Related Topics:
World War II - Josef Korbel - Belgrade, Yugoslavia - Czechoslovakia - Jew - Holocaust

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After her retirement, Albright published her memoir, Madam Secretary (2003) ISBN 0786868430.

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