Supporters and Contributors

We would like to thank our many supporters and contributors for their support, including:


  • The Svoboda family, who have allowed us to share their family story and for their cooperation at every stage of our work. We owe special thanks to Carole Boucherot Düster, Veronique Svoboda, Evelyne Boukoff, and Louis Svoboda.
  • Ali Wahab, who has generously shared his Iraq and Svoboda memorabilia including postcards produced by Alexander Svoboda during his adult life.
  • John McKeown who allowed us to use images of a painting by Alexander Sandor Svoboda, our Alexander’s uncle.
  • Kanan Makiya and his mother, the late Margaret Makiya, for sharing Mrs. Makiya’s transcriptions of the Joseph Mathia Svoboda Diaries and allowing us to digitize sixteen J. M. Svoboda diaries which they rescued from Iraq.

Institutional support has included:

NELC Digital: Research Projects

Funding support has included:


There are many more people who deserve mention. Among them are our colleagues at the University of Washington and throughout the world who have offered advice and assistance when asked. We are especially grateful to Prof. Jane Hathaway, an expert on the Ottoman Empire in Arab lands, who was willing to offer her support whenever asked.


In a project that depends on so many people for its success, we are certain that some people who richly deserve our heart-felt thanks will go unmentioned. We hope that they will accept that thanks and forgive us for unwillingly and unwittingly omitting the recognition they merit.


Lastly we would like to dedicate our work to the memory of Prof. Henry Alexander Svoboda who is, in most ways, the father of this project.