Under a Cruel Star: A Life in Prague, 1941-1968

Kovaly writes with precision and a welcome lack of sentimentality about the attractions for East-Central Europeans to communism after the war, especially for Jews who had survived fascism. In the first half of this memoir, she avoids the overly and sadly familiar vignettes of camp inmates to instead explore in detail the unfamiliar story of what happens to an escapee from the death camp who wanders back to Prague, while the Nazis still rule the city.
Her scenes of homelessness and fear, as her former friends often become terrified at seeing her alive and sheltering her from the Germans, reveal a fresh persective on a refugee who ironically seems to be more endangered outside Auschwitz than if she had stayed within the lager. After the war, she shows how the Jews returning to their homes found their possessions and livelihoods stolen, and how many of their fellow Czechs had brazenly or surreptitiously commandeered the houses and the property for themselves, since the Jews could do little to regain these items.
Kovaly then explains how the appeal to a more just system, rather than the beleaguered democracy that tried to revive postwar Czechoslovakia, began to fool idealistic Czechs into supporting a communism based more on the lies of those who dared not tell the truth of Stalinism, as well as those who genuinely sought--as her first husband Rudolf Margolius--to bring about a better world through Marxism on more of a Titoist model.
Many pages that follow could serve as a primer for exposing how communist dreams began to replace harsh reality for many Czechs. In incisive prose, with well-chosen metaphors and vignettes, she excels in comparing her own search to that of her husband and his fellow believers. This gradual conversion, she finds, could not be based on the facts, since these were hidden from the "masses," but doomed the Czechs to repeat the failures of Soviets, who pretended that no prejudice or nationalism tarnished the record of their CCCP--an inspiration for Czechs weakened by the Nazis, the camps, and only two decades of fragile post-WWI uneasy peace under an attempt at humane democracy. Their self-confidence beaten down, they were ripe for the idealism and self-sacrifice that communism promised.
Also, she notes, the servile, the opportunists, and the conniving rose quickly in a system that rewarded the disciple, often an incompetent member of the "proletariat" over qualified managers and leaders. She shows in the next quarter of the book how her husband was forced to become a foreign minister, and how quickly the climate shifted and led to his show (Slansky) trial and execution. Then, the pace shifts for the last section into a quick leap forward to 1968, and evocative descriptions of the "Prague Spring" and her eventual flight to the West at last.
Readers who select Ivan Klima's novels of Czech life before and after communist dictatorship, Sandor Marai's "Memoir of Hungary, 1944-48," or Gyorgy Faludy's account of prison in Stalin-era Hungary "My Happy Days in Hell" will appreciate this memoir.
P.S. It appears in earlier translation as part of "The Victors and the Vanquished" or "I Do Not Want to Remember" in 1973 versions. I cannot determine if "Prague Farewell" is another title for this work, or another volume of Kovaly's recollections.

In UNDER A CRUEL STAR, Heda Margolius Kovaly tells of her experiences in Czechoslovakia from 1941 through 1968. To simplify somewhat, the phases of these experiences are: 1) Heda, the only survivor in her family of the Nazi concentration camps, establishes a normal postwar life; 2) Heda, a young illustrator, wife, and mother, provides emotional support for her husband Rudolf, who is a hardworking idealist committed to socialism; 3) the communist government of Czechoslovakia forces Heda and her wee son to live as impoverished pariahs after Rudolf, who was the deputy minister of foreign trade, is executed following a show trial; 4) more than a decade after Rudolf's death, the government recants all charges against him, vindicating the loyal Heda, who never doubted her husband's innocence; and 5) Heda experiences the spirit of humane socialism--the vision of her murdered husband--in the brief Prague Spring.

Since UaCS is a memoir, Heda's content is mostly the story of her personal and professional interactions. Much of this content is bleak, since only a few ordinary people--a nanny and a salt-of-the-earth neighbor--stand by Heda when times are bad. Instead, Heda's troubles seemed to bring out the worst in her friends and colleagues. After she escapes from Auschwitz, for example, most of her friends are cowardly and will not shield her from the Nazis. And after her husband is arrested, Heda copes with severe illness alone, her social network in collapse.

UaCS is a successful memoir because Kovaly connects her own experiences to larger themes. These are life under an oppressive and incompetent government and the treachery that emerges as people maneuver within this political system for personal safety and material gain. At its best, this memoir is a dark and bottom-up view of life behind the Iron Curtain.

At times, Kovaly writes with great insight, especially about the idealists who stayed with communism even as the system revealed itself to be ineffective, corrupt, and oppressive. I won't say this is the best memoir I've ever read. But it's good and tells the story of a woman who resisted totalitarianism with great courage, dignity, and decency.

I had to read 'Under a Cruel Star' for a history class I'm taking, and I wasn't pleased about it at all. However, once I read the first page of this narrative account of a Jewish Woman's experience in Prague during and after WWII I was mesmerized, I didn't put the book down until I finished 3 hours later.
This is a fantastic book both for people wanting to learn something about the surviving the Holocaust and re-building life afterwards, and for someone who wants to become emotionally invested in a strong, interesting character.
The story tells of Heda's experiences from the year 1941, when she was taken from her home and sent to the Litzmannstadt Ghetto and later to Auschwitz, to the year 1968 when Russia invades Czechoslovakia. In between Heda escapes from Nazi persecution, arrives back home to Prague to friends less than friendly, helps liberate Prague from Germany, marries, raises a child, experiences 1984-like governmental opression, is fired from job after job for having the name Margolius, and in the end survives to tell her tale.
The is a great novel that I would higly recomend to anyone interested in the Holocaust, Communism society, or just wants a good story of a woman faced with hardship who manages to survive.

....but Under a Cruel Star is an excellent book. As a history major, I have to slosh through a lot of stuff that's not necessarily interesting or engaging, so Kovaly's book was a breath of fresh air. It was eminently readable and fascinating -- I had two weeks to read it and finished it within the space of a few hours because I just couldn't bring myself to put it down. She does a good job in her memoir of showing us what life in Prague was like after the Germans came and were followed by the Stalinists (I cannot say Communists, because Communists they were not). Her tale is gripping, speaking of the dearest hope of a people with no hope left, only to be betrayed by those who offered them the very hope that sustained them. An excellent read.

When I finished reading Heda Margolius Kovaly's stunning chronicle of continuous struggle, concentration camp survival, and eventual triumph, I had to stare out my window onto the street below for a long while, watching the people.

There I was, working and residing in modern-day Prague, mingling amongst the tourists and locals, with my feet touching those very same cobblestones of a city which Ms. Margolius Kovaly horrifically describes in her heart-rending tale of human resilience, UNDER A CRUEL STAR.

The realization blew my mind. I had to catch my breath.

Not too long ago -- a mere drip in the historical bucket -- very bad people once populated this ancient city and land. They were entirely free to express their poisonous views, shouting vile epithets about so-called "pure race," the so-called "scourge" of Jews, and about the so-called "evils" its then-society faced from saboteurs, fifth-columnists unaligned with Czechoslovakia's Communist Party.

As I walk these streets, I interact and share the same space with these people, the descendants, heirs, and inheritors of a very rotten recent legacy. It's this legacy that Ms. Margolus Kovaly chillingly describes and in vivid, sordid detail in her poignant memoir, UNDER A CRUEL STAR.

Commend, I say, this mighty woman of valour for sharing with you how much pain she once had to endure. Applaud her for how much strife she had to overcome when she returned from the unspeakable indescribable conditions of the Nazi's killing factory at Auschwitz, of which much has been written in the canon. I needn't repeat it here.

Be shocked at the clarity and the precision of Heda's language, and -- trust me -- reel and wonder why it is that she even chose to return to this infernal place, this city of Prague, municipal architect of her early life's damnation. For that, Heda deserves the equivalent of a "purple heart" for her resilience and fortitude. But this is not nearly enough...

As I read Heda's story, those small insignificant stresses which descend on a given day PALE by comparison. No longer will I feel needless stress. No longer will I be affected by it.

I am describing to you the impact of this memoir. Heda's strength will permeate you.

I love this book because it pries open a vista on a period these present Czech authorities are anxious to enshroud in mystery. I hear very little discussion today of what is known as Czechoslovakia's "collaborationist past" in the modern-day "Czech Republic."

Not a single leader in this fledgling country is willing to boldly take responsibility for the actions of this successor nation's preceding governments, whose reins -- the ones they now grip tightly -- are the offshoot of very rotten roots. Today's government must own up to its legacy, one which is responsible -- among countless other atrocities and crimes -- for murdering eleven perfectly innocent men, like Rudolf Margolius, Heda's late husband and father to her author son, Ivan, in 1953's Slansky (show) Trial. I was angered when I'd read how the doctor's in Stalin's infamous "Doctor's Plot" were not hanged, while Mr. Margolius and his ten other co-accused were. It made me *very* angry, and anger I wish not to think too much about for fear of what it might result in.

Evaluating this all, you scratch your head wondering where Heda derives all her strength? From where comes her unassailable moral fortitude and her staunchness without fail?

Look, don't read this book because *I'm* telling you to. I know I review a lot of titles, and you'd normally trust me judgement because you trust me, but don't, okay?

Also don't read this book because it's stylistically-impeccable and superbly written. I'll have you know there isn't a shred of literary critique I've got for the brilliant lines filling Heda's pages.

Read this book to place your life into perspective, if it's a comfortable and cushy one. Read this book to either compare or contrast Heda's past with what you call *your* past, and finally understand how the might of the human spirit is unbreakable. Heda Margolius Kovaly is the living proof. She is the embodiment of intrepid courage. And it's high time you get to know what that is.

I wish there were more than five stars I could give.

-- ADM in Prague

(for the writings of Ivan Margolius, please see "REFLECTIONS OF PRAGUE," for more information)

Ms. Kovaly has written a very valuable autobiographical book. As a Jewish Czech coming of age in the 1940's she has had quite a life. She was Nazi concentration camp inmate, a refugee from the Nazis at the end of World War II, a resident of Prague, Czechoslovakia, and witness to the end of World War II and the rise of the Communist Party to power in that country. She was married to a Communist Party member who was also one of the top officials of the Czechoslovakian government and who was later purged and executed in the 1953 so called Slansky plot. And her autobiographical book is very well written with very intelligent and observant descriptions of both her thoughts and feelings and the milieu surrounding her. Ms. Kovaly describes the dependence and limited sense of the future of the Nazi concentration camp inmates, the struggles and the renewed sense of false hope of her friends and herself in postwar Prague, and the past catastrophes, false hopes, and ongoing pressures that led to the rise of communism in Czechoslovakia. Also written about is her life as an illustrator in the increasingly Stalinist country. She also describes the heart rendering problems she faced when her husband was executed.

The reader can only be very happy that Ms. Kovaly was able to survive and overcome her ordeals and be able to write about her life. It should also be mentioned that besides a wife and a mother Ms. Kovaly was an illustrator, translator, and librarian with a very intelligent interest in architecture and the fine arts.

This book is an excellent and invaluable historical description of post World War II and Stalinist Czechoslovakia. No student of European history student should miss this work. And for the general reader this book is a must read. The book is a very well written account of survival under very difficult circumstances.

I think anyone who is interested to learn more about Communism in general should read this book. I think the author did a good job in analyzing the situation and providing insightful information on life under the communists. She gave a vivid account on how her husband, who held one a high position in the government was convicted and executed. Her life was practically ruined when people learned or led to believe that her husband was a traitor. She was denied of proper medical care, was fired at every job, was relocated to a shack and how everyone who assosiated themselves with her would lose their job.
What I like about this book is that we get to know how it was like for civilians and for people who were related to government officials, live. It was fearful, dark, full of betrayal and worst of all, selfishness. Even though people who carried out orders knew that it was not justified, they did nothing about it. Her husband, under illegal interogations and was led to believe that if he agreed to confess to those charges, the author and her child would be safe. In fact, it was far from it.
This book is a combination of both history and personal account which I find very interesting. Mrs Heda Margolius Kovaly bringing her readers from the time she was held in concentration camp to period when she returned to Prague and how communism took over the country. Another book I would recommend is Nien Cheng's "Life and Death in Shanghai" which gave an account of life in prison, under constant interogation.

I rather stumbled across the memoir while shopping herein. Bought it because the view of both oppressive, twisted regimes (Hitler, then Stalin) was something I had not read in the context of Czechoslovakia. The volume itself is not a well produced paperback--very little in it other than Ms. Margolius Kovaly's words, i.e no introduction, forward--nothing. Starts off right out the starting gate, and ends the same way. It would have been appropriate to have the author's biography--in fact the cover photo is not credited as to photographer or the people pictured. You are left to assume it is the author and her son.but it might have been anyone. Her writing is highly lyrical, the thinking complicated and admirable considering what she lived through. And lived through them she did; Heda Margolius Kovaly had to have been one tough cookie to survive from 1940 through 1958 or so. It is an almost unrelenting narrative of misery and human stupidity in the political sphere. Without a carefully written credo such as the Bill of Rights, a government can turn into the embodiment of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson's notorious term, "A Generation of Swine".. tt certainly did in Czechoslovakia.

As good as this book is, it could have been much better. Kovaly has a fascinating story to tell but too much of her story tells how this happened and then that happened without enough analysis or explanation. Kovaly lived through Hitler and Stalin and she has an amazing story to tell.

The book starts with the deportation of the Jews from Prague, where Kovaly lived, to the ghetto of Lodz in Poland. She describes the horrors and the death she encountered there. She then skips ahead to the last concentration/slave labor camp she was in before the war ended. She describes how she tells the German man who runs the factory about the extermination camps, a topic with which he seems to be utterly unfamiliar. And although the part she tells us is fascinating, she leaves out much of the story that she tells him. Finally she tells us of her escape as she is being marched away from the advancing Russian armies, her return to Prague, and her rejection by all the friends she had left behind. By far this is the best part of the book.

But this part ends sixty pages into the book and she has much more to tell us. After the war, Kovaly marries the man she always loved and he becomes a member of the Czech communist party and eventually a minister in the government. With the failures of communism, a scapegoat is needed by the government and her husband is arrested and executed as a traitor as part of the Slansky trials. As the widow of a traitor, her life in Prague is hell but she spends her every effort to care for her child and to rehabilitate her husband. Finally, in the early 1960's, reforms in Czechoslovakia led to her husband and all the others having their convictions overturned. The reforms continue until the Prague Spring of 1968 leading to the Russian invasion and the crushing of the new freedoms. At this point Kovaly flees for the West to join her son who is living in London.

The book is short at less than 200 pages and many things happen so the story moves quickly. But too much of the story tells us what happened as a way for Kovaly to avoid talking about herself. For example, by starting with the deportations, we learn nothing about Kovaly's life before the Nazis. Kovaly doesn't even tell us how old she was or what she was doing when she was rounded up. With all Kovaly has been through she has had to have built a wall to protect herself and she only shows us glimpses through that wall. But the book still remains an amazing story of the holocaust and the early communist years in Czechoslovakia. Her glimpses into how communism must always fail by its very nature from someone who was on the inside are worth reading to help us understand the 20th century. Kovaly leaves out the happy ending she finally achieved. It is a happy ending she deserves.

UNDER A CRUEL STAR: A LIFE IN PRAGUE, 1941-1968 is a first-person account by a victim of the two most notorious totalitarian systems of the 20th-Century -- Nazi Germany and Stalinist Communism. Clive James, in his book "Cultural Amnesia" (whose principal preoccupation is 20th-Century totalitarianism), says of UNDER A CRUEL STAR: "Given thirty seconds to recommend a single book that might start a serious young student on the hard road to understanding the political tragedies of the twentieth century, I would choose this one."

Kovaly's maiden name was Bloch. She was transported from Prague to the Jewish ghetto in Lodz, Poland, in 1941. She spent most of the war in various concentration or work camps, including time in Auschwitz. In 1944, while part of a group of inmates being marched from Poland to Germany, she escaped and made her way back to Prague, where, aided by the Resistance, she hid in various spots until the Germans were ousted. She then learned that she was the only member of her family to survive the Holocaust. Against long odds, her fiancee, Rudolf Margolius, also survived, and shortly after the War, they married.

Rudolf succumbed to the siren song of communism/Marxism, and eventually he rose to high positions in the Czech Ministry of Foreign Trade. But he was arrested in 1952 and was one of 14 defendants in a show trial, the Slansky conspiracy trial. With ten others, he was executed (and his ashes were used for traction under the wheels of a police car on an icy road). His wife heard his confession, as delivered at the trial, broadcast over the radio while she herself was in critical condition in a hospital. In 1963, Rudolf Margolius was "rehabilitated" -- i.e., posthumously declared innocent. The end of Kovaly's memoir covers the Prague Spring of 1968 and the Soviet invasion of August 1968, ending the reform regime of Dubcek. At that time, Kovaly left Czechoslovakia for the West.

Her book is a wrenching account of her double whammy: incarceration by the Nazis and then persecution (and murder of her husband) by the Communists. More of the book is devoted to the second story, and, strange to say, it seems almost as horrific as the first. Indeed, the account of her life after her husband was arrested is Kafka-esque; as she goes around Prague trying to get some sort of sensible explanation for what is happening to her and to her husband, she is a female Joseph K., thirty years later and oh so distressingly real. In addition to the historical account of the two gruesome systems -- and the courage, endurance, and luck that saved Kovaly from their successive maws -- UNDER A CRUEL STAR is noteworthy for Kovaly's analysis of communism and its attractions for so many similarly situated eastern Europeans of the post-War years, including Nazi concentration camp survivors like her husband.

The negatives, which in the grand scheme of things are rather minor: At times, Kovaly's account is overly dramatic, or melodramatic (although given her experiences, that obviously is understandable); on a few occasions, her observations or speculations strike me as positively loopy, akin to resorting to astrology; and her frequent use of verbatim dialogue, most of which surely must have been imaginatively re-constructed, undermines slightly the overall credibility of her account, at least as reliable history. But these are cavils. UNDER A CRUEL STAR is one of the historical artifacts by which the 20th Century is likely to be known to the 22nd and 23rd Centuries, if civilization as we know it lasts that long.