10.07.2026
There are events that no one could have imagined. And under no circumstances can they be influenced.
Yesterday’s massive fire razed to the ground an iconic and, at the same time, one of the most memorable buildings of the former Bata factory complex—Building No. 34, which housed a number of companies.
For many years, we—the Thomas Bata Foundation—also had offices in this building. We stored all of our published books on one of the floors.
Thanks to our regular and extensive publishing activities, we had gradually accumulated 48 pallets there, which held nearly 30,000 books on that fateful day yesterday. Dozens of titles that, thanks to readers’ interest, were regularly reprinted.
Within a few hours, we lost everything. A few copies remained in the gift shop at the Bata Villa, but the rest went up in flames. Inspired the Bata Way, Entrepreneur Extraordinary, Reflections and Speeches, 99 Sweet Dots, Baťa’s Ten Commandments, and the anniversary 149 Thoughts of Tomáš Baťa. Everything.
The irony is that just yesterday—perhaps at the very moment the fire broke out—we were finally getting ready to move the entire warehouse. We’d been planning it since spring—partly because the Baťa company, with whom we shared the floor, had also decided to take the same step, and mainly because we wanted to move to new, larger, and more accessible premises. But we didn’t make it in time.
Thank God, no one was hurt while fighting the flames, and the entire tragedy occurred without any loss of life.
You’re wondering what happens next?
We’re moving forward!
We believe we’ll manage this situation. That we’ll gradually reprint all the books. And that one day we’ll fill all 48 pallets again.
In response to the tremendous support you’ve shown us since yesterday, we’ve set up a transparent bank account with the number 50392014/2700. If you’d like, you can contribute any amount to help us gradually republish the individual titles from the Bata Edition.
Thank you for all your kind words, messages, and phone calls. We truly appreciate them immensely.
