Heda Margolius Kov谩ly was a Czech writer and translator. She survived the 艁贸d藕 ghetto and Auschwitz where her parents died. She later escaped whilst being marched to Bergen-Belsen to find that no one would take her in. Her husband was made a deputy minister in Czechoslovakia and he was then hanged as a traitor. As the wife of disgraced man she married again and she and her husband were treated badly. They left for the US in 1968 when the country was invaded by the Warsaw Pact countries. She published her biography in 1973. She and her husband did not return to her homeland until 1996.
'It seems beyond belief that in Czechoslovakia after the Communist coup in 1948, people were once again beaten and tortured by the police, that prison camps existed and we did not know. It took the full impact of the Stalinist terror of the 1950s to open our eyes.'
This poignant and somewhat chilling memoir does a really good, in under 200 pages, of detailing life in Prague, from the mass deportation of Jews in the winter of 1941 through to the early decades of Czechoslovakia being a communist satellite state of the Soviet Union: from the dread and horror of Nazi occupation to the paranoia and fear of totalitarian rule. Basically, even when the sun is shining it really isn't. Dark days all round.
WW2 covers around the first 50 pages, starting with the round-up of the Czech Jews and their move to the Ghetto camp on the outskirts of Lodz; and just when you think things couldn't get any worse, just when living in such unimaginable conditions, along comes Auschwitz. Heda Kov谩ly lost both parents there, but she herself was moved on again to another camp, and it was this time, whilst marching for a few weeks after the SS evacuated the site due to the Eastern Front getting too close for comfort, that she made her escape: destination Prague. Taken in by the Resistance she would see the war out hiding in various locations across the city, reminding me of W艂adys艂aw Szpilman's experience (The Pianist): the best chance to evade the claws of the SS was to not remain in the same place for too long. Even whist fleeing the city knowing it's the last days of the Reich, the SS still ruthlessly and stubbornly found the time to stop off in the suburbs and shoot families hiding in their basements.
After a period of uncertainty, where the black market was strife, there was an air of optimism, as Kov谩ly, her husband Rudolf, and many others like them were told wonderful stories of non-oppressive life in a post-war Soviet Union: basically a pack of lies, and how Stalinist modelled Communism was going to enter Czechoslovakia into a bright new age. Even before the formation of the GDR in 1949, things were eerily taking shape in the form of party membership and where a communist was duty-bound to be aware of everything happening around them, which brought about eavesdropping and betrayal. This would eventually lead on to anti-state conspiracies and the death penalty; including the hanging of Kov谩ly's husband.
Prague is such a beautiful city, but from here on out it made for some pretty depressing reading; fascinating though but grim, where State Security seemed to have half the city under surveillance, and where people were in despair over their finances and the confiscation of property. Kov谩ly writes up to 1968 when the Soviet Union led Warsaw Pact troops in an invasion of Czechoslovakia to crack down on reformist trends in Prague. There was just so much negatively in the city, I could truly feel the unpleasant atmosphere in Kov谩ly's writing. So when I picture Prague and the rest of the Soviet Bloc all I see is grey: Grey skies, grey faces, grey buildings, grey raincoats, grey everything. Still, it beats having the SS and the Butcher of Prague Reinhard Heydrich stomping around your hometown.
A very interesting read, but obviously not a pleasant one.
Under a Cruel Star: Life in Prague 1941-1968 by Heda Margolius Kovaly.
This is one Woman's compelling account of strength and courage from the end of World War II and through the communist era in Czechoslovakia.
I have read many many accounts of life during the War and in the Concentration Camps but this particular Memoir picqued my interest when I learned that Heda was born in Prague of Jewish ancestry, survived the concentration camps and the death march to make her wasy back to Prague to learn that she was the only member of her family to survive the war.
The book concentrates mostly on the details of growing communism among many Czechoslovaks after the war and what they had hoped for in a better life turned out to be a nightmare. I loved this no nonsense story and the author's direct approach. The hardships and trials these people endured after the Nazi's were defeated are just remarkable and how life under communism became a nightmare for so many people.
I have had this book on my shelf for a number of years I remember purchasing it after visiting Prague and only came accorss it when clearing out books. A remarkable and educational read for anyone interested in this time in history.
Porque cuando Kov谩ly se escapa de Auschwitz piensas que nada peor le puede ocurrir, que ya ha agotado todo el dolor que le pod铆a tocar en vida.
Y no es as铆, porque primero se encuentra con una Praga que ya no es su hogar, donde sus amigos temen ayudarla por si regresan los nazis. Y cuando termina la guerra, el Partido se dedica a dinamitar todos los visos de hogar que pudieran quedar: el vac铆o, la c谩rcel de su marido, la incertidumbre, la rabia y la pobreza.
驴Y todo para qu茅? 驴Para qu茅 ha servido tanto dolor, tristeza y rabia? Para nada.
During the last few days I have been reading Under A Cruel Star. Tom, one of my GR friends, brought to my attention that the author, in her nineties, had recently died. I had the book sitting there on my shelf and memoirs always attract me. I needed a good book after having been so disappointed by the last book I had read, Buddha's Orphans. Opening it I wondered, what would this book give me? You never really know by simply reading the blurb describing the book, as Buddha's Orphans made so very clear!
This is a memoir about the Czech author's experiences through the WW2 and the political turmoil in Czechoslovakia following the war, before the Russian occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1968. The subtitle is "A Life in Prague 1941 鈥� 1968." It gives an accurate description os the book's content. The emphasis is on the author's life after the war, although the horrendous experiences throughout the war, that would forever change her way of viewing life, are depicted.. Her war experiences are extremely moving, although straightforward and presented without pity. You immediately perceive that pushed to a certain point she rebels, she does not harshly judge others and has an ability to recognize how no two individuals have the same priorities. In a labor camp, her father chose to work in the fields, very strenuous and life threatening. Why would one make such a choice? She was able to visit her father:
"I saw for the first time how terribly he had aged, how pale he was, and how withered by hunger and humiliation. We stood together for a moment in the sunshine, and then my father took off his cap and said, shyly, 'Now in spring my heart feels so heavy鈥︹€�' It was only many years later that I understood why he had chosen to do this work which was far more strenuous than what he was doing before. Each day he had to walk a long distance before reaching the fields. Then, from dawn to dusk, he had to drag himself behind the plow, the heavy clogs on his feet sticking in the clay. But here he was alone with what he loved most, the freshly turned earth, the open sky, the clean breeze. On the eve of his death, he had returned to those things from which he had come." (page 76)
Over and over, you see the author's ability to find happiness in small, little things. She believes that without this ability she would have never survived. You see her ability to understand others' personalities. However, any attempt to read the book following the time line of her war experiences is hopeless. In fact, I went back and reread the first 40 pages to try and understand which events followed which, and was no wiser on the second reading! Sometimes I was a bit confused. For example, how she met her husband was confusing鈥�.. (This isn't a problem; the reader is told later in the book!)
The author states very clearly that, "I was more interested in what was happening around me in the present, among the people I loved, than in the foggy spheres of ideology."(page 65). Nevertheless, there are many pages focused on ideology and politics. I found it very interesting to understand how the surge in communism after the war was coupled to war experiences and perhaps even survivors' guilt. Her husband worked in the government; they knew the leaders and the party officials. Thus, the book offers a blend of both political and philosophical thoughts.
"I know there was nothing anyone could do. But they were taking away an 86-year-old grandmother to a horrible death, and the village where she had lived all her life, where everybody loved her, had just looked on. The only thing that anyone had had to say was, 'Mrs. Bloch, don't be afraid鈥︹€�'" (page 66)
So many friends promised so much help鈥︹€�. and yet so few could or did actually help. These friends are not judged harshly. Why they made the choices they made are clearly shown. This philosophical analysis is very interesting to me. Who wouldn't be changed by such experiences?! What was fascinating was to see her behaviour.
And I must include a few lines about Prague itself:
"Springtimes in Prague 鈥� who could forget them? Forsythias on the Letina Plain. The flowering hills of Strahov. 鈥�. But what is unique about Prague is the relation between the city and its people. Prague is not an uncaring backdrop which stands impassive, ignoring happiness and suffering alike. Prague lives in the lives of her people and they repay her with the love we usually reserve for other human beings. Prague is not an aggregate of buildings where born, work, and die. She is alive, sad, and brave, and when she smiles with spring, her smile glistens like a tear." (page 76)
I am enjoying myself. The content is interesting and moving.
Through page 120: By the early 1950s the Communist government in Czechoslovakia was corrupt. All lived with fear. You could trust no one. Life was FEAR. After the Communist coup in 1948 all were filled with hope for the future. Communism would bring peace and justice and fairness. Peculiar occurrences were laughed at鈥︹€�. But by 1950, 1951 or 1952 the climate had changed. So when some one did help 鈥� wow, you, the reader, jump with joy! But the author reasons:
"If everyone were a hero, what would courage be worth?" (page 117)
And this makes me laugh:
"I have an innate incompetence for anything mechanical. It has always seemed to me that a machine can tell from far away that I am afraid of it and that I don't understand anything about it, and breaks down on the spot out of sheer self-reservation." (page 120)
The author and I are soul-mates!
So who should read this book? You should be interested in learning about the Czech history from 1941 -1968, i.e. life during the War and the period following the War up to the Soviet invasion in 1968. You will learn much about the Slansky Trial and its aftermath. This trial is important. There were other similar trials. In them you visualize the corruption and anti-Semitism prevalent in Czechoslovakia, other Eastern European nations and in the Soviet Union at the end of Stalin's reign. You will learn through one woman's real experiences of these times. You will learn much, much more than any history book filled with dry facts and names. In this book you get all the facts, but you will also come to truly understand how it would feel to have been there yourself. This is NOT a book predominantly about war experiences. It is about the growth of Communism, the hope it began with and the disillusion that followed. You learn what it was like to be living then and there. This book is a winner. I give it 5 stars.
this is the short version...you can find the longer one .
Kov谩ly's memoir covers a span of time from 1941 to 1968, from when the Nazis began to deport Jews from Prague (and the author found herself first in the Lodz ghetto and then Auschwitz) until just prior to arrival of Soviet troops in Czechoslovakia, after a very brief Prague Spring. She was lucky -- when the Nazis evacuated the camp she was in and made all of the remaining prisoners walk from Poland to Germany under heavy guard, she and a few other women managed to escape and make it back to Czechoslovakia.
The author goes on to describe how, when the war was over and Jews, partisans and returning political prisoners came home, they were greeted less than enthusiastically; she also (something very important to understand) reveals how people came to choose Communism over democracy after the war. Very briefly, several factors came into play -- including the failure of prewar democratic ideals, the forsaking of the country by Western Allies, the liberation of Prague by the USSR, and false glorification of Communism by people who'd spent the war in Russia. But the major belief was that building socialism in Czechoslovakia would result in "peace, in an industrially-advanced country, with an intelligent, well-educated population." But, as she goes on to explain, by the early 1950s these ideals had been largely forgotten and things had decidely turned for the worse.
The bulk of this book is in how Heda survived after her husband's arrest, his official ouster from the Party, and his death. She describes an all-encompassing life under the Communists -- the regime reached down into every aspect of life, controlling seemingly ordinary people through brutality and fear.Her account ends with a brief Prague Spring under 1968 before the Soviets invaded Czechoslovakia; she herself left the country shortly afterwards.
I started reading this because of my interest in the author after having read her ; before that, I'd never heard of her. While Under a Cruel Star is a very personal story, it can also be read as an exploration of human nature under the most arduous and extreme conditions. You can read it as an understanding of how the best of idealistic intentions can often result in a nightmare, and it is also reveals how totalitarianism affected everyday, average people who, because of the need to survive in an atmosphere of complete fear, often felt compelled to choose self-interest over the welfare of fellow human beings. I don't often read memoirs but as difficult as this one was to get through at times, I'm very happy I did. Recommended.
2/17/16: Removing a reference to an author/adding one that's more relevant + cleaning up this garbage. It's unfair to take an accusatory tone with someone who can't defend herself because she's too busy being dead. It's especially unfair when you've read her book 4+ times. Updating now. (Excuse all the mixing of tenses that follow--reworking this review for 4th time since 2007).
**
This memoir provides a glimpse into of the life of a woman who survived two of the greatest tragedies of the 20th century: the Holocaust and Communism.
The first time I read this book, I loved it beyond words. Yet something always tugged at me a little, something I couldn't articulate until I read it a few more times.
Revised 2/17/16 For me, the memoir would have worked better if Kovaly had given a fuller picture of her life during the early days of Communist Czechoslovakia. If she'd described any of the positive aspects of living under Communism, the 20-something reader/critic/cynic in me would have been silenced.
My takeaway eventually became this: nothing could ever justify what happened to Kovaly at the hands of the Nazis and the Communists. But in a book by someone who consistently applauds truth, Kovaly is silent about one very important truth: not everyone in postwar Czechoslovakia joined the Communist party, and many of them paid dearly for it.
But Kovaly did join the party. She was part of and benefited from an undemocratic system of government until it turned against her. Kovaly focuses more on the turning-against-her aspect, and the younger me wasn't having it. At the time, I wanted a fuller explanation from the author, perhaps an admission of the level of comfort in which she lived as the wife of a prominent party member.
Seems almost rational when I pull the anger out of it, doesn't it?
However.
Reading my review in 2016 was shocking, because I saw what I was really doing. The events that took place in the memoir are historical fact--they were never up for debate in my mind. But instead of accepting Kovaly's retelling of those events, I fixated on missing details that I felt could have strengthened her story. I took the absence of such details to be an indication of something more sinister.
All these years later, those suspicions seem a lot like faulting the author for not being perfect enough. Why would she need to further explain herself to anyone? The woman wasn't a war criminal (she and her family were the victims of war criminals), and I question the value of scrutinizing her memoir as if it were written by one.
So, read this memoir. It's touching. It's frighteningly detached, but at times will surprise you with flashes of emotion. Enjoy Kovaly's lovely metaphors and creative language. Learn something about the history of Europe while you're at it.
And if you need more truth than what Kovaly has to offer, as I once did, you've got some things to work with.
There's an excellent paper that addresses some of the aspects I also struggled with when I read the memoir -- it's written by a professor in New Mexico, and if I remember correctly, you have to email her to get a copy of it.
Or, you can read . He's Heda Kovlay's son, and he provides his own account of what he and his family endured.
I would only caution more curious readers not to lose sight of the bigger picture. Researching the details doesn't change the core facts of Kovaly's story. Nor does it change the fundamental reality of her memoir: Kovaly suffered, yet she went on to create something of beauty.
I wish we all could do that. It would be a different world if we did.
Un testimonio conmovedor y a la vez escalofriante, que emociona y enfada al mismo tiempo en menos de 200 p谩g al detallar la vida en Praga desde la deportaci贸n de jud铆os en 1941 hasta los horrores del Fascismo y comunismo que sufri贸 Checoslovaquia. . En realidad la Segunda Guerra Mundial son las primeras 50 p谩ginas de este libro con la deportaci贸n a los guetos y a Auschwitz, nuestra protagonista, mientras la trasladan logra escapar hacia Praga. . Y ah铆 empieza tambi茅n el horror de vivir escondida, y como cuando llega a Praga el estado lo controla todo 鈥� . No quiero contar mucho m谩s pero es un libro muy completo y muy duro, donde he aprendido otra parte de la historia, donde la autora deja claro que los totalitarismos destruyen鈥� . Libro recomendado para los amantes de la novela hist贸rica, y que me ha sorprendido mucho.