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23
Mar

Obituary: Albright

Dr Madeleine Korbel Albright, 84, the first female US Secretary of State (1997-2001), died from cancer in Washington, DC. She was born on 15 May 1937 as Marie Jana Korbelova in Prague, Czechoslovakia. The German occupation of her native country by Adolf Hitler's troops forced the family of five, consisting of her parents and two younger siblings, Katherine and John, into exile. They moved to Britain in May 1939. In their London house, they used a large metal table to shelter themselves from the German air raids during the Blitz.

 

 Maria Jana Korbelova before Madeleine Albright, Young Madeleine. Credit to The Boston Globe
 Maria Jana Korbelova before Madeleine Albright; Young Madeleine. Credit: The Boston Globe

 

In 1941, Josef and Anna Korbel converted from Judaism to Catholicism and raised their three children in the Roman Catholic faith. Later in her life, in 1997, Madeleine Albright said her parents never told either of their three children about their Jewish ancestry and heritage.

 

President Bill Clinton and US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. Credit to CNN/ West Observer
President Bill Clinton and US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. Credit: CNN/ West Observer

 

After the defeat of the Nazis, the Korbel family returned to Prague but soon moved to Belgrade, then part of Yugoslavia, where the father of the family was appointed as press attaché at the Czechoslovakian Embassy. Mr Korbel was concerned his daughter would be exposed to Marxism in a Yugoslav school, so at first, she was taught privately by a governess and later sent to Switzerland to complete her education. While there, young Miss Korbel learned to speak French and decided on changing her first name to "Madeleine".

 

Albright meeting Putin in 2000. Credit to Zilobot
Albright meeting Putin in 2000. Credit: Zilobot

 

When in 1948, the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia took over the government, Mr Korbel was to resign from his position. The political situation forced the family into exile again. First, they moved to the United Kingdom, departing Southampton on 5 November 1948 and arriving in New York Harbour on 11 November 1948. Thus, at the age of eleven, Madeleine came to the United States as a refugee and rose to the heights of American policy-making, receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012 from Barack Obama, the nation’s highest civilian honour. Madeleine Albright spoke English, Czech, French, Russian, German, Polish and Serbo-Croatian, fairly understanding spoken Slovak.

 

Palestinian President Yasser Arafat greets US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on 29 Jan 2000. Credit to Joe Marquette/AP
Palestinian President Yasser Arafat greets US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on 29 Jan 2000. Credit: Joe Marquette/AP

 

US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright was the first high-level American official to meet the new Russian president, Vladimir Putin in early 2000, shortly after his inauguration. “I am an optimist who worries a lot,” Madeleine Albright said on 18 April 2018 when asked about the future of democracy. She passed away in times that seems to be the period of the greatest threat to the global possibility for democracy.

 

President Bill Clinton with Madeleine Albright before delivering the final statement at the Middle East Summit in the Egyptian resort town of Sharm el-Sheik, Egypt, on 17 October 2000. Credit to Jerome Delay/AP/CBSNews
President Bill Clinton with Madeleine Albright before delivering the final statement at the Middle East Summit in the Egyptian resort town of Sharm el-Sheik, Egypt, on 17 October 2000. Credit: Jerome Delay/AP/CBSNews

 

According to Bill Clinton, America's top diplomat of the 1990s spent most of her life thinking about the world, including her last days. "She spent the whole rest of the time talking about Ukraine. And it was like the replay of a bad movie for her, as well as a very modern tragedy", Clinton recalled. On the eve of Russia's invasion of Ukraine wrote her final op-ed for The New York Times headlined "Putin is making a historic mistake".

 

Madeleine Albright, Vladimir Putin. Credit to Yahoo News
Madeleine Albright, Vladimir Putin. Credit: Yahoo News

 

At the time of her death, Dr Albright was a professor of the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, chair of the Albright Stonebridge Group, part of Dentons Global Advisors, chair of Albright Capital Management, president of the Harry S. Truman Scholarship Foundation, chair of the National Democratic Institute, chair of the US Defense Policy Board and an author.

 

Madeleine Albright. Credit to Writers bloc presents
Madeleine Albright. Credit: Writers bloc presents

 

She is outlived by her three children: twin girls, Anne Korbel Albright and Alice Patterson Albright (born 1961), and youngest daughter Katherine 'Katie' Medill Albright, and her ex-husband, Joseph Medill Patterson Albright (born 1937).

 

Madeleine Albright, Time magazine cover 1999. Credit to Janette Beckman/Getty Images
Madeleine Albright, Time magazine cover 1999. Credit: Janette Beckman/Getty Images