Lovely Green Eyes

I had to read Lovely Green Eyes by Arnos Lustig in small increments. This is the story of a young girl caught up in the horrors of Auschwitz and then being forced to choose between the gas chamber or to disguise her Jewish origins and become a prostitute servicing 12 or more soldiers every day. At age fifteen she had already seen the deaths of her mother, father and brother, that she still had the will to survive is a testament to her inner strength and human spirit.

This is a book that I will not soon forget, the story felt so very real and personal. The author is himself a survivor of Auschwitz and Buchenwald and so knows of what he writes about. The writing style took a little time to adjust to, as it tended to be choppy and jumped show more around somewhat, but as the story was meant to be told to the reader as if by a narrator who is giving up his memories so it made the work seem all the more life-like.

“That was what it was like, and she know it could not be otherwise because that otherwise meant the gas chamber, the crematorium and ashes.”

The story is overwhelmingly sad and yet my admiration toward these girls who had to use their bodies in order to survive is unlimited. Lovely Green Eyes was difficult to read at times, but never salacious. This is a story of surviving Nazi war atrocities, but is relevant as the horror of sexual slavery is very prevalent in many countries even today. show less

This is a story of young lovely girls who were mainly 13 or 15 years old pretending they are 18. In order to stay alive in the Czech concentration prison camps, they pretend to be 18 in order to be prostitutes who spent time in small little cells where they met German high rank men who met the girls who provide any pleasure they demand.

This is the story of the girls who survived. The girl who tells the story was, like all others who were forced to live a life of servitude, or be ordered to the gas chambers.

The story ends with one of the survivors telling her tale to a Rabbi. As she point by point tells the Rabbi what it was like to give your soul to a man who has the power to kill you. As many stories of all impacted by the Holocaust, show more The world was left with the question of WHY? Why did the finger point one way where death occurs, and the other where a life of servitude and pain occurs. As the young girl, now a grown woman tells her story, all who hear it are left wounded. show less

This is not an easy book to read as it about a 15 year-old Jewish girl who chooses to become a prostitute in a German brothel rather than face death in the gas chambers like the rest of her family did. Throughout the book there are lists of names: 12 German men, presumably Hanka's quota for the day. At times there is graphic violence and the sex that Hanka has to endure day after day is stomach churning. Hanka's youth, confusion and guilt is all too real as she keeps asking herself if she made the right decision. Whilst I didn't enjoy the writing style of the book and found the story horribly depressing, it is one that will be hard to forget in a hurry.

I'm always drawn in by accounts or stories of what people went through at the hands of the Nazi mindset. I appreciated this book because it discussed two sides I'd not really read anything on before. On one hand there were the survivors, those who managed to drag themselves through right to the end of the war & face the no doubt near impossible task of trying to move on. And then there was the side of those who fought for the Nazi side, & believed strongly in everything that side fought for. The writing itself was a bit flowery at points, & this didn't always work. But what I did appreciate was that the author didn't use the subject of the girl's work (as a prostitute for the Nazi army) as an excuse to be graphic. I far prefer reading show more things about sex which don't really describe the sex at all, even more so in contexts such as this one as the act itself has little to do with it, its a by-product of the power games & coldness of the whole thing. Overall, good book...I suppose it made me think more than I gave it credit for. show less

this book was tough to read for lots of reasons. The subject matter of course made it tough. I found it very graphic.Horrible images of what the nazi's did and their mindset. Another reason it was tough to read may be because of the translation. It was quite disjointed. Character development was sketchy.
i am glad I read this book. I must say I was glad to have finished it.

Incredibly depressing but well written account of a wman who survived in a Nazi whore house during World War II.

A thought provoking novel. The German Nazi treatment of all prisoners including their sex slaves. War indeed brings out the evil in human being. I thought the translation was average.