Heda Margolius Kovaly (1919–2010)
Author of Under a Cruel Star: A Life in Prague 1941-1968
About the Author
Heda Margolius Kovály was a Czech memoirist and translator. She was born Heda Bloch in Prague Czechoslovakia in 1919, where she lived with her family until 1941, when they were rounded up with the city's Jewish population and taken to the Lodz Ghetto in central Poland. She was separated from her show more parents when they were taken out of the ghetto and transported to the Auschwitz concentration camp in 1944. She was chosen to survive and sent to work in the Christianstadt labor camp, but her parents were immediately gassed. When Soviet troops approached the camp, prisoners were evacuated and she managed to escape back to Prague. Between 1958 and 1989, she translated German, British and American fiction into Czech and would eventually become recognized as one of Czechoslovakia's leading literary translators, known for her interpretations of novels by Arnold Zweig, Heinrich Böll, William Golding, Muriel Spark, Saul Bellow, Philip Roth, H. G. Wells and John Steinbeck. Her translations of Raymond Chandler inspired her to write a detective novel in Czech, "Nevina" ("Innocence"). When Soviet troops once again invaded Prague, Margolius Kovály fled to the United States, and she would eventually work as a reference librarian in the Harvard Law School Library at Harvard University, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. An English translation of her memoir appeared as part of the book, The Victors and the Vanquished, and separately under the title I Do Not Want to Remember, in 1973. She re-published her memoir entitled Under a Cruel Star - A life in Prague 1941-1968. In 1985 she published her novel, Nevina (Innocence). The English translation was published by Soho Press in 2015. Margolius Kovály died in Prague, at the age of 91, after a long illness. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Works by Heda Margolius Kovaly
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Associated Works
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Legal name
- Kovaly, Heda Bloch Margolius
- Other names
- Bloch, Heda (birth name)
- Birthdate
- 1919-09-15
- Date of death
- 2010-12-05
- Gender
- female
- Occupations
- writer
translator
librarian
memoirist
novelist
Holocaust survivor - Relationships
- Margolius, Ivan (son)
- Short biography
- Heda Margolius Kovály was born Heda Bloch in Prague, Czechoslovakia. She married her childhood sweetheart, Rudolf Margolius. In 1941, after Nazi Germany invaded her homeland in World War II, she and her family were sent to the Łódź Ghetto in Poland. From the ghetto, they were deported to the death camp at Auschwitz. There her parents were murdered, and she was selected to work in the forced labor camp at Christianstadt. As the Red Army approached from the East in 1945, the prisoners were forced on a death march to Bergen-Belsen. Heda escaped and returned to Prague, where she was eventually reunited with her husband. In 1952, he was unjustly convicted of conspiracy during the notorious Slánský trial and executed. As the wife of an "enemy of the people," Heda lost her job and her apartment, and was then shunned for being unemployed and homeless. For as long as the Communist Party remained in power, she did not dare tell her son Ivan Margolius the truth about what had happened to his father. In 1955, she remarried to Pavel Kovály, a lecturer in philosophy. Under his surname, she became a well-known translator of works in German and English into the Czech language, including works by Arnold Zweig, Heinrich Böll, Raymond Chandler, Philip Roth, Saul Bellow, Muriel Spark, William Golding, John Steinbeck, and H.G. Wells. When the Soviet Union invaded Czechoslovakia after the "Prague Spring" of 1968, the couple fled to the USA. She worked for years as a reference librarian at the Harvard University Law School. Her own memoir, Na vlastní kůži (English translation, Under A Cruel Star: A Life in Prague 1941–1968; originally known as The Victors and the Vanquished; in the UK first as I Do Not Want to Remember and in 1988 as Prague Farewell) was originally published in 1973. It has been republished several times and translated into many languages, including Chinese, Danish, Romanian, German, Dutch, Norwegian, and Japanese. She also wrote a detective novel called Nevina (Innocence, 1985). She and her second husband returned to Prague in 1996 to retire. She participated in the making of the documentary film A Trial in Prague, directed by Zuzana Justman.
- Nationality
- Czech Republic
- Birthplace
- Prague, Czechoslovakia
- Places of residence
- USA
- Place of death
- Prague, Czech Republic
- Burial location
- New Jewish Cemetery, Prague, Czech Republic
- Associated Place (for map)
- Prague, Czech Republic
Members
Reviews
This is a very well-written memoir beginning in 1941 when, under Nazi occupation, Jews in Prague were ordered to Lodtz and eventually to Auschwitz. After the war Stalin took over where Hitler left off. In principle communism sounded good, and both Kovaly and her husband Rudolph Margolius applied for party membership. Life again turned tragic with the arrest of her husband under the Stalinist terror of the 1950s. Margolius was executed; Kovaly survived the long ordeal. In 1968 after Russia show more invaded Czechoslovakia she was able to leave.
Kovaly tells the story of this harrowing life in clear, intelligent writing that shows her strength of character.
Kovaly tells the story of this harrowing life in clear, intelligent writing that shows her strength of character.
"Springtimes in Prague - who could forget them? Forsythias on the Letna Plain. The flowering hills of Strahov. The chestnuts of Zofin. The gulls on Jirasek Bridge. There is no other city like Prague. It is not only the beauty of the buildings, of the tower and bridges, though it is that too. They rise up from the slopes and riverbanks in such harmony that it seems nature created them alongside its trees and flowers. 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."show less
When you begin reading Innocence-- and I hope all of you will-- please do not skip the introduction written by Heda Margolius Kovály's son. These pages will show you that Kovály's own life was every bit as interesting as her book, and as each character's secrets are revealed, there is such an incredible ring of truth that it cannot be denied. Kovály was influenced by Raymond Chandler, but this little jewel of a mystery is far from being some slavish copy.
The theme of innocence runs show more throughout the book, and what Kovály's own experiences taught her was that, in a regime like that, no one is really innocent. It's a horrifying thing to contemplate, but by book's end, readers will come to realize that it's true.
"Vendyš wiped away the rain sliding down his nose. Steep Street was like an empty auditorium after a performance, with Vendyš the late-coming spectator who could only guess at what had taken place."
Kovály has a talent for writing one- to two-line descriptions of her characters that are tiny slices of perfection. So many of today's writers would take paragraphs or even pages to define each one of theirs. There are other passages in Innocence that are beautifully descriptive and psychologically insightful. By the time the mystery is solved and Kovály's story has come to an end, I felt emotionally brutalized-- and in awe. She distilled years of fear and horror and rage into this book, and as a result Innocence is haunting... and extraordinary. show less
The theme of innocence runs show more throughout the book, and what Kovály's own experiences taught her was that, in a regime like that, no one is really innocent. It's a horrifying thing to contemplate, but by book's end, readers will come to realize that it's true.
"Vendyš wiped away the rain sliding down his nose. Steep Street was like an empty auditorium after a performance, with Vendyš the late-coming spectator who could only guess at what had taken place."
Kovály has a talent for writing one- to two-line descriptions of her characters that are tiny slices of perfection. So many of today's writers would take paragraphs or even pages to define each one of theirs. There are other passages in Innocence that are beautifully descriptive and psychologically insightful. By the time the mystery is solved and Kovály's story has come to an end, I felt emotionally brutalized-- and in awe. She distilled years of fear and horror and rage into this book, and as a result Innocence is haunting... and extraordinary. show less
While reading this book, it didn't take too long to realize that the author had much more on her mind than writing an ordinary crime novel. There's way too much going on around the plot and the action that would lead anyone to believe this is just another mystery story. If you read the introduction to this book written by her son Ivan, he notes that
"Several personalities in the book see acts like lying, misrepresenting, informing, and betraying confidences as inconsequential, trivial show more matters, thus diluting the difference between guilt and innocence. Even murder is perceived as an accident for which no one is to blame."
He also calls the story an "intensely complex psychological drama," and this is much more the reality of this book than the "Chandleresque mystery" it's advertised as. It's true that the author loved Chandler, and as the intro goes on to say, like Marlowe, the main character of this novel "struggles" ... "to make her existence worthwhile in an environment devoid of respect for human life." What the author has given us here, I think, is a crime novel that serves as a vehicle for looking at a fictionalized picture of an historical reality in a totalitarian society -- where people live knowing they are under surveillance, where informing is sometimes a way just to stay ahead of the knock on the door in the middle of the night, and where the fact of who you are can often determine your fate. All of what I'm saying here is important because if you pick up this novel expecting a standard crime-novel plot trajectory, you're reading the wrong book. As I said, it didn't take me long to figure out that Kovály was writing a somewhat-disguised version of her own story, and I absolutely had to know more about this woman so I read her memoir, which underscores the idea that Kovaly wrote about human nature and the moral choices people make under some horrific and appalling circumstances in this "fractured incarcerated society."
This novel is bleak, one that really gets across the sense of the existing fear and paranoia of the time and one that reflects what ordinary people had to endure under this regime. But the bottom line is, it is also one woman's very personal (albeit disguised) story, and Heda Margolius Kovaly is a woman whose true story is worth knowing. A beautiful book -- maybe not so much a great mystery novel, but once you're into it you start to realize that the crime component truly is not the important story here. Even if it turned out to be something I wasn't really expecting, I loved this book. It won't be everyone's cuppa, but it most certainly was mine. show less
"Several personalities in the book see acts like lying, misrepresenting, informing, and betraying confidences as inconsequential, trivial show more matters, thus diluting the difference between guilt and innocence. Even murder is perceived as an accident for which no one is to blame."
He also calls the story an "intensely complex psychological drama," and this is much more the reality of this book than the "Chandleresque mystery" it's advertised as. It's true that the author loved Chandler, and as the intro goes on to say, like Marlowe, the main character of this novel "struggles" ... "to make her existence worthwhile in an environment devoid of respect for human life." What the author has given us here, I think, is a crime novel that serves as a vehicle for looking at a fictionalized picture of an historical reality in a totalitarian society -- where people live knowing they are under surveillance, where informing is sometimes a way just to stay ahead of the knock on the door in the middle of the night, and where the fact of who you are can often determine your fate. All of what I'm saying here is important because if you pick up this novel expecting a standard crime-novel plot trajectory, you're reading the wrong book. As I said, it didn't take me long to figure out that Kovály was writing a somewhat-disguised version of her own story, and I absolutely had to know more about this woman so I read her memoir, which underscores the idea that Kovaly wrote about human nature and the moral choices people make under some horrific and appalling circumstances in this "fractured incarcerated society."
This novel is bleak, one that really gets across the sense of the existing fear and paranoia of the time and one that reflects what ordinary people had to endure under this regime. But the bottom line is, it is also one woman's very personal (albeit disguised) story, and Heda Margolius Kovaly is a woman whose true story is worth knowing. A beautiful book -- maybe not so much a great mystery novel, but once you're into it you start to realize that the crime component truly is not the important story here. Even if it turned out to be something I wasn't really expecting, I loved this book. It won't be everyone's cuppa, but it most certainly was mine. show less
Heda Margolius Kovály (1919–2010) was a renowned Czech writer and translator born to Jewish parents. Her best-selling memoir, Under a Cruel Star: A Life in Prague, 1941–1968 has been translated into more than a dozen languages. Her crime novel Innocence; or, Murder on Steep Street—based on her own experiences living under Stalinist oppression—was named an NPR Best Book in 2015.
In the tradition of Studs Terkel, Hitler, Stalin and I is an oral history of a renowned Czech author, show more whose optimism and faith in people survived grueling experiences under authoritarian regimes. Based on interviews with award-winning filmmaker Helena Třeštíková, Kovály recounts her family history in Czechoslovakia, the deprivations of Łódź Ghetto, how she miraculously left Auschwitz, fled from a death march, failed to find sanctuary amongst former friends in Prague as a concentration camp escapee, and participated in the liberation of Prague. Later under Communist rule, she suffered extreme social isolation as a pariah after her first husband Rudolf Margolius was unjustly accused in the infamous Slánský Trial and executed for treason. Remarkably, Kovály, exiled in the United States after the Warsaw Pact invasion in 1968, only had love for her country and continued to believe in its people. She returned to Prague in 1996.
PRESS AND PRAISE
"Heda Margolius Kovály was a well-known writer and translator who survived the Auschwitz extermination camp and whose first husband, Rudolf Margolius, a deputy minister of foreign trade, was found guilty in the notorious Slánský show trials in what is one of the darkest chapters in Czechoslovak history. Kovály’s oral history should be required reading for anyone learning about the Holocaust and crimes committed by Czechoslovakia’s communist regime. It also offers a glimpse into Czechoslovakia’s First Republic. […] Her descriptions are unforgettable."
– Jan Velinger, Radio Prague
"Třeštíková’s interview and chilling newsreel footage of atrocities bring Margolius-Kovály’s story to life. Her combination of determination and luck renders her almost matter-of-factly told tale extraordinary. […] In Margolius-Kovály (who penned the 1997 memoir Under a Cruel Star: Life in Prague 1941–1968), she’s found a composed, eloquent yet spunky subject whose quietly upbeat nature is inspirational and infectious."
– Eddie Cockrell, Variety
https://doppelhouse.com/hitler-stalin-and-i/
MY BOOK REVIEW:
I recently received this eBook for review from DoppelHouse Press in exchange for an honest review.
This type of a historical book is probably the hardest for me to review. Reading about the depths of human deprivations just astounds me. Just when I think I've heard and read everything about how horrific the human race can be, I discover more things to feel shame and bafflement over regarding the treatment of Jews at the hands of Nazi Germans.
I requested this book because I strongly believe we must never forget what happened during the era of Hitler and Stalin. I'm just never fully prepared for what I might discover. EVERYONE should read this book.
"Nazism and Communism, the two totalitarian regimes that pass through Central Europe in the twentieth century, affected Heda's life directly with maximum intensity." Wrote Helena Trestikova, the terror alone that this woman survived can be called nothing short of a miracle.
This book clearly describes, in Heda's own words, the life she endured beginning with her youth in prewar Czechoslovakia, then during the Munich crisis. The horrors of the occupation of Czechoslovakia by the Third Reich and followed by the transports of the Jewish people from Prague will wrap around your heart and squeeze tightly. Then, you'll learn the things that happened to her while surviving the Lodz ghetto, Auschwitz, Chistiansladt and other camps.
Remain riveted to your chair as she goes into detail about her participating in the death march that led thousands to their demise, and where she found the courage to escape, hide and find refuge, when so many others tried and failed. Heda was right in the middle of the uprising that preceded the end of the war. You'll sing for joy at the reunion with her husband and the beginning of their lives together.
If that wasn't enough, your heart will break over the section of the rise of communism and how their lives became confined and limited under its rule followed by Rudolph's (her husband)'s sudden arrest, the lies surrounding the trial and his eventual execution. Later when proof of his innocence is brought forward, Heda will face a country in denial and receive no apologies for what happened to her innocent husband.
This is just a glimpse into what to expect from this non fiction book. You will feel the complete spectrum of emotions available to you, in this factual, hard-hitting interview of one of the few holocaust survivors. The writing is excellent, well-paced and sincere. There are black and white photos included that sometimes say more than any words could possibly attempt to. I highly recommend this book to everyone. show less
In the tradition of Studs Terkel, Hitler, Stalin and I is an oral history of a renowned Czech author, show more whose optimism and faith in people survived grueling experiences under authoritarian regimes. Based on interviews with award-winning filmmaker Helena Třeštíková, Kovály recounts her family history in Czechoslovakia, the deprivations of Łódź Ghetto, how she miraculously left Auschwitz, fled from a death march, failed to find sanctuary amongst former friends in Prague as a concentration camp escapee, and participated in the liberation of Prague. Later under Communist rule, she suffered extreme social isolation as a pariah after her first husband Rudolf Margolius was unjustly accused in the infamous Slánský Trial and executed for treason. Remarkably, Kovály, exiled in the United States after the Warsaw Pact invasion in 1968, only had love for her country and continued to believe in its people. She returned to Prague in 1996.
PRESS AND PRAISE
"Heda Margolius Kovály was a well-known writer and translator who survived the Auschwitz extermination camp and whose first husband, Rudolf Margolius, a deputy minister of foreign trade, was found guilty in the notorious Slánský show trials in what is one of the darkest chapters in Czechoslovak history. Kovály’s oral history should be required reading for anyone learning about the Holocaust and crimes committed by Czechoslovakia’s communist regime. It also offers a glimpse into Czechoslovakia’s First Republic. […] Her descriptions are unforgettable."
– Jan Velinger, Radio Prague
"Třeštíková’s interview and chilling newsreel footage of atrocities bring Margolius-Kovály’s story to life. Her combination of determination and luck renders her almost matter-of-factly told tale extraordinary. […] In Margolius-Kovály (who penned the 1997 memoir Under a Cruel Star: Life in Prague 1941–1968), she’s found a composed, eloquent yet spunky subject whose quietly upbeat nature is inspirational and infectious."
– Eddie Cockrell, Variety
https://doppelhouse.com/hitler-stalin-and-i/
MY BOOK REVIEW:
I recently received this eBook for review from DoppelHouse Press in exchange for an honest review.
This type of a historical book is probably the hardest for me to review. Reading about the depths of human deprivations just astounds me. Just when I think I've heard and read everything about how horrific the human race can be, I discover more things to feel shame and bafflement over regarding the treatment of Jews at the hands of Nazi Germans.
I requested this book because I strongly believe we must never forget what happened during the era of Hitler and Stalin. I'm just never fully prepared for what I might discover. EVERYONE should read this book.
"Nazism and Communism, the two totalitarian regimes that pass through Central Europe in the twentieth century, affected Heda's life directly with maximum intensity." Wrote Helena Trestikova, the terror alone that this woman survived can be called nothing short of a miracle.
This book clearly describes, in Heda's own words, the life she endured beginning with her youth in prewar Czechoslovakia, then during the Munich crisis. The horrors of the occupation of Czechoslovakia by the Third Reich and followed by the transports of the Jewish people from Prague will wrap around your heart and squeeze tightly. Then, you'll learn the things that happened to her while surviving the Lodz ghetto, Auschwitz, Chistiansladt and other camps.
Remain riveted to your chair as she goes into detail about her participating in the death march that led thousands to their demise, and where she found the courage to escape, hide and find refuge, when so many others tried and failed. Heda was right in the middle of the uprising that preceded the end of the war. You'll sing for joy at the reunion with her husband and the beginning of their lives together.
If that wasn't enough, your heart will break over the section of the rise of communism and how their lives became confined and limited under its rule followed by Rudolph's (her husband)'s sudden arrest, the lies surrounding the trial and his eventual execution. Later when proof of his innocence is brought forward, Heda will face a country in denial and receive no apologies for what happened to her innocent husband.
This is just a glimpse into what to expect from this non fiction book. You will feel the complete spectrum of emotions available to you, in this factual, hard-hitting interview of one of the few holocaust survivors. The writing is excellent, well-paced and sincere. There are black and white photos included that sometimes say more than any words could possibly attempt to. I highly recommend this book to everyone. show less
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- Rating
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