15: From Israel to Venezuela to the United States

Oscar graduates from high school and builds a reputation as a popular singer-songwriter in Israel. In the mid-1950s, he completes his military service in the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), serving for three years as musical director and composer for the Northern Command Entertainment Corps. In that role, he composes “Shir Hatsanchanim,” the “Hymn of the Israeli Paratroopers.” During the Suez Crisis, the song would became an anthem for the paratroopers, and it is still used by the IDF today. This is just one of many songs he composed; today the National Library of Israel has more than two dozen of his compositions and recordings in their archives.

War breaks out in Israel with the 1956 Suez Crisis, and Oscar and his parents decide to move to Caracas, Venezuela: following his aunt, uncle, and cousins who had moved there in 1948. Oscar joins them in 1957, having completed his military service. In Caracas, he continues to pursue a musical career and enjoys one year of great success, but political instability precipitated by the collapse of the Venezuelan regime in 1958 forces him to move again, this time to Los Angeles, California. Once in L.A., Oscar enrolls in a radio and television academy and continues performing. He establishes himself as an accomplished singer-songwriter and performs in several of Hollywood's top folk clubs. Notably, he headlines at Theodor Bikel's legendary Cosmo Club in Hollywood, and at the Ash Grove, a famous folk music venue which has since become the Improv, now a contemporary comedy venue.

In 2026, Oscar appears at the Colorado State Capitol, alongside Governor Polis and fellow Holocaust survivor Barbara Steinmetz to commemorate International Holocaust Remembrance Day and to announce the endowment of a chair in Holocaust and Antisemitic Studies at the University of Denver. This is a momentous occasion for the Sladek family because arrangements of two of Oscar's father's original compositions are performed in public for the first time since the Sladek family were forced to leave Slovakia. A quintet of musicians from the Denver Young Artists Orchestra are joined by Tom Hagerman of DeVotchka, who plays the very same violin that Bedrich kept by his side throughout the war--even as the Sladeks fled into the Tatras mountains.

At the January 27, 2026 event, Oscar reiterates the message of both hope and action with which he closes his memoir, Escape to the Tatras. Oscar writes that in September 2021, 80 years after Slovakia’s enactment of the antisemitic “Jewish Codex,” the Slovakian government made a formal apology for their anti-Jewish laws and their participation in the murder of their Jewish citizens.

Excerpt from Escape to the Tatras

"I find it essential to mention that in September of 2021, the country of Slovakia made a formal apology about their WWII-era, anti-Jewish laws that stripped Jews of their rights 80 years ago, and for their role in the destruction of its Jewish population. As you now know, Slovakia became a Nazi puppet state and deported its Jews to Nazi death camps, resulting in some 68,000–71,000 Slovak Jews murdered in the Holocaust. Their regret today comes too late for all of those who are gone. But at least, their declaration is an important step toward making amends for its wartime crimes and begins to honor the memory of those who suffered so greatly. For today’s new Slovak generation, it might help create a better path into the future.

All I can hope for now is that such a lack of respect for humanity never be seen again, not in your lifetime, or ever. Toward that goal, I ask you to please share my story with your friends and family so we can all create a better world."