Stretnutie (The Meeting) is a group formed in October 2004 by Jewish emigrants from Bratislava (the capital of Slovakia) who fled Czechoslovakia following the invasion of the Warsaw Pact armies in August 1968. The original intention behind its founding was to hold a reunion that would bring together people who, forty years after emigrating, lived in Israel, in different states across Europe and North America, and in Australia. The meeting took place in May 2005 in Bratislava, drawing over 200 participants. Encouraged by this initial success, the group and its website continued its activities, and it remains operational to this day. This paper examines the early years of The Meeting’s existence (2004–2009). Analyzing the correspondence on its website, it attempts to elucidate the rationale behind the group’s creation, as well as the reasons for its persisting appeal and the emigrants’ relationship to the country and milieu from which they fled
