ABSTRACT

Early Life Madeleine Korbel was born in Prague, Czechoslovakia, in 1937, shortly before Nazi Germany took control of the country. Her father, Josef Korbel, was an intellectual and a member of the Czech diplomatic corps. Her mother, Anna Speeglova Korbel, was the daughter of a prosperous family who gave birth to two other children, Katherine Korbel Silva and John Joseph Korbel. Madeleine's grandparents were Jewish, and three of them died in the Holocaust-a fact Albright revealed only after her appointment as secretary of state. Her parents converted to Catholicism, apparently to escape persecution, and Madeleine grew up celebrating Christian rituals such as Christmas and Easter.