A BELGRADEAN NAMED MADLENKA
Born as Marie Jana Korbelova, daughter of a Czechoslovakian diplomat who served twice in Belgrade, just before and immediately after WWII, nicknamed Madlenka by her grandmother, lived an adventurous childhood spent in Prague, Belgrade, London and New Delhi. After less than two years in Belgrade as a toddler, she had to go away because the Nazis had invaded Czechoslovakia. The WWII time the Korbel family spent in London, while upon the Allied victory, in 1945 Joszef Korbel was appointed Ambassador to Belgrade. A coupe in Prague in early 1948 sent Mr. Korbel to India, where the family joined him few months later.
They all left their now communist motherland and settled down in the United States as refugees. A decade later Madeleine (she had changed her name upon achieving adulthood) became a U.S. citizen and eventually married a certain Joseph Albright. For the sake of this sad tale, it must be revealed that Madame Albright excelled in Serbian language since childhood, as well as that her next apparition in Belgrade had become a historical one – she arrived in late 1998 as the U.S. Secretary of State to impose on Serbia the American stand on Kosovo, or else…
Despite the seriousness of the visit, the U.S. diplomats who preceded her arrival, were instructed to find for her some former kids she played with as a child. It so happened that her adult childhood „friends“ were actually found, but they vehemently denied any contact with her, on the grounds that she had become an enemy to the Serbs. Many Serbs still believe that the U.S.-inspired NATO intervention the next year, an unlawful and immoral bombing campaign against Serbia, that lasted 78 days and caused great sufferings, the loss of thousands of human lives, as well as a 100 million U.S. dollars of damages, was in great part a personal Vendetta of the once sweet girl Madlenka!