Under a Cruel Star: A Life in Prague 1941-1968 | Heda Margolius Kovaly

Under a Cruel Star: A Life in Prague 1941-1968 | Heda Margolius Kovaly | Its the story that plays in my head whenever tragedy befalls me & gives me the strength to get through it.

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Under a Cruel Star...

	Under a Cruel Star: A Life in Prague 1941-1968 Heda Margolius Kovaly Holmes & Meier Publishers, 1997 - 192 pages average customer review:based on 21 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

The story of a Czechoslovakian Jew, Heda Kovaly, who was sent to Auschwitz during World War II. She escaped the death camp and made her way back to Prague. But the horrors did not end with the war--her husband became a victim of the Stalinist purges.

Prague Farewell

Clive James, in "Cultural Amnsia' - his magesterial review of literature and totalitarianism - said: "Given thirty seconds to recommend a single book that might start a serious young student on the hard road to understanding of the political tragedies of the twentieth century, I would choose this one". It tells a remarkable personal tale of a Jewish girl in Prague caught up by the Nazis and going to Auschwitz, then her escape and return to her beloved Prague, and subsequent worse sufferings under the communist government in the 1950s and 1960s. Her husband was a high ranking government official but later was put on a show trial and killed.

"Under a Cruel Star" (also called "Prague Farewell" in some editions) is not as bleak as the story sounds. It is a slim volume of hope and understanding, written elegantly by a woman who later in life worked as a translator from English and finished her working life in the Harvard Law School library.

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Its the story that plays in my head whenever tragedy befalls me & gives me the strength to get through it.

I read this about 6 years ago when it was assigned in one of my undergrad classes. There are enough online reviews for you to read about the plot and like. Rather I want to tell you how her voice has stuck with me. I think of her ability to see the slivering when everything is just gray, and her amazing capacity to keep going. Whenever I think I can't go on, this death/or lost/ or series of unfortunate events as shattered the very last of my will I remember her words. I highly recommend it. I regally give this as a gift, I know I'm not just giving someone a powerful story, but really I'm giving someone a packet of extra strength for when they need it most in life.

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Good book

I would recommend this book to anyone. Even if you think you don't like reading about history, you'll like this book. In fact, it is books like these that are the reason I love history so much, and why I'm majoring in it. It isn't about the politics or the wars or whatever else (although those are certainly important), it is the story of a woman trying to survive through a hell most of us cannot even imagine has existed on this earth, especially not in the last 50 years. Peoples' lives are what connect us to the past, and what make it relevant to the future. It gives a little meaning and heart behind all the dates and events that you have to memorize in class...make them more personal. And furthermore, you will be inspired by this woman. Her strength and character is admirable, to say the very least. Actually, I don't think even a fictional writer could invent a heroine more honorable than this one.

So please, read it. stories like these deserve to be shared.

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A lifetime of suffering: Under a Cruel Star

This is a well-written, quick read. Heda's 27 years of suffering - first at the hands of the Nazis & then under the communist regime in Czechoslovakia - is heart rending. It's a book that should be part of high school curriculums to raise awareness of what too many people had to endure in the middle of the last century. It would be much more effective than relying on a history textbook that deals only with the 'facts.'

great

it is a great book use in my world civ class, and highly recommmand by my professor and TAs.

reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

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