After eight years of research and writing, my book “In Search of Silvestr” has been launched in Singapore this February, shortly before the 83th anniversary of its capture by the Japanese army in 1942.
It all started back in 2017, when my mother showed me a box with old documents related to our family. In it, there was a bundle of papers related to Silvestr Němec – my granduncle. What an unusual story that archive told! Coming from a small Czech village in central Europe, he was sent thousands of miles away to Singapore by his employer, the Bata Shoe Company. Three years later, he went missing during the Japanese invasion of Singapore in 1942, presumed dead at the age of only 22.
My family never learnt what happened to him, and I decided to find out more. Thus, my quest, driven by curiosity and the need to reach some closure of Silvestr’s fate, started.
Searching in archives in several countries, being helped by historians from across the world, and networking with descendants of Silvestr’s colleagues and friends, I managed to gather an incredible amount of insights and information – far beyond what I thought might be possible.
I discovered many resources online and personally visited archives in London, Prague, Znojmo, Zlín and also Singapore. Among the most amazing tools I used were the fully digitized archives of Singapore press, dating back to 1827, on the website of National Library Board. The Singapore library also holds some truly unique documents, not available anywhere else.
When I pieced the disparate information together, a fascinating, colourful and detailed picture emerged. Not only of Silvestr’s own life and horrible death, but of the whole community of over a hundred Czechoslovaks who lived and worked in Singapore during the 1930s, World War II and after.
Most of them – just like my granduncle Silvestr – went there at a very young age, with a mission to establish and develop the business of Bata Shoe Company in South East Asia. Few are aware that this famous brand, which sounds so local to people in that region today, has its origin in Czechoslovakia, where it was founded as a family business back in 1894.
Tomas Bata, its founder, visited Singapore on a business trip in January 1932. During his stay, he announced his vision “to serve Malaya’s five million pairs of feet”. In my book, I have documented the decade that followed: Bata Shoe Company was registered in Singapore in 1931 and opened its flagship store at Capitol building. In 1934, it purchased a rubber plantation in Bukit Tiga in Johore, in 1937 it launched a large factory in Klang, in 1939 it opened another factory in Singapore and in 1940 inaugurated its own modern building on North Bridge Road. By 1941, Bata was already running 150 stores, distribution centers and service points across British Malaya and Singapore. I knew Bata from my country, but had little idea that it was so successful also on other continents.
What interested me even more were the Czechoslovak people driving this expansion. As I found and described in the book, one of the reasons for the global success of the Bata Shoe Company was that it created unique and innovative ways of working, including a strong culture that each of its employees had to live and breathe at work as well as in their personal lives. This loyalty and adherence to company culture continued in Singapore.
However, one of my unexpected findings was that the Czechoslovak community in Singapore was painfully divided. Secret Czech government reports – declassified only recently – document how several factions were fighting each other, fueled by differences of backgrounds and loyalties. My granduncle Silvestr was involved in and impacted by this. I have no doubt that one of the contributing factors of this schism was the huge stress caused by the occupation of their home country by Hitler. While there was still peace in British Malaya, they regularly read in the local press about brutal repressions in Czechoslovakia.
And so, as the war spread through Europe, several of the young men – including Silvestr’s colleagues and friends from Bata – decided to return and fight for their country along with the French and British. Most stayed in Singapore.
Here, the Czechoslovaks joined the Allied war efforts in many different ways. How they organised charity events and contributed to war funds are richly documented in the contemporary press. Many articles mention Bata Shoe Company, but also name individuals – including Silvestr.
The majority of the Czechoslovak men joined the Singapore Volunteer Corps: either the Straits Settlements Volunteer Force or the Local Defence Corps. Silvestr had quite an unusual assignment as he served with the Armoured Cars Company. Curious about what that meant for him, I researched and was able to describe in rich detail the volunteers’ training, preparations and even some personal reflections captured in diaries and letters. One of the hot topics was the difference in pay that the British and European volunteers received compared to that given to Eurasians and Asian. Such racial discrimination, observed also during training, was an alien concept and puzzling to the Bata Czechoslovaks with their egalitarian ethos.
With the Japanese attack on British Malaya, the war eventually reached what was painted as “Impregnable Fortress Singapore”. In the book, I share previously unknown, first-hand witness accounts of several Czechoslovaks about the approaching invasion and the horrors of the bombardment of Singapore.
In February 1942, twelve Czechoslovak volunteers – Silvestr being one of them – participated in the historic battle on Pasir Panjang Ridge, side by side with 2nd Lieutenant Adnan Saidi and the Malay Regiment. This was where my granduncle was last seen, and where we lose his tracks. Most likely, he was wounded and transported to Alexandra Hospital. There, he might have become one of the victims of the infamous massacre committed by the Japanese troops on defenceless patients and medical staff. In absence of clear proof or direct evidence, there are several other possibilities of how he lost his life, and I have analysed and weighed these options.
After the surrender of Singapore, the Japanese were unsure how to exactly treat the Czechoslovaks. Were they allies because Nazi Germany had occupied their country? Or were they, being an active part of the British colony, Japanese enemies?
Eventually, those who did not manage to evacuate and evaded capture as prisoners of war, were rounded in December 1943 and locked up in Changi and Sime Road internment camps, until they were liberated a year and half later.
During the Japanese invasion and the years of Occupation, no less than ten Czechoslovaks in Singapore lost their lives.
What began as a personal quest for the fate of my granduncle, became a much larger and richer story of Bata Shoe Co, the Czechoslovak community and the volunteer forces in Singapore.
The story of my search started in the small market town of Vémyslice in the South Moravian Region of Czechoslovakia. It inevitably ended in modern Singapore where I travelled to to see for myself where Silvestr worked, lived and possibly died.
The book has been published by Landmark Books and is available for purchase on its website. I would like to express my gratitude to Eck Keng Goh for having trust in me and the story, and to Pam Ho for excellent editing work, into which she did not only put her great talent, but also a part of her heart.