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Jewish Lives
Children of the Holocaust
This volume is a landmark of Holocaust Literature and among the finest works of fiction produced by any writer since World War II. The center of Arnost Lustig's impressive oeuvre, the collection expresses his faith in the power of individuals - especially children - to shape their own destinies. These profoundly moving stories transcend the gruesome realities of the camps; their strength is that of the human spirit, the individual's ability to achieve moral triumph through action. Lustig's fiction shines among this century's outstanding literary achievements. This volume contains sixteen short stories previously published under the titles Diamond of the Night and Night and Hope and the novel Darkness Casts No Shadow. Conceived and written as a whole, they are published here together for the first time.
516 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 1995
26 people want to read
About the author
Arnošt Lustig
71 books76 followersArnošt Lustig (born 21 December 1926 in Prague) is a renowned Czech Jewish author of novels, short stories, plays, and screenplays whose works have often involved the Holocaust.
As a Jewish boy in Czechoslovakia during World War II, he was sent in 1942 to the Theresienstadt concentration camp, from where he was later transported to the Auschwitz concentration camp, followed by time in the Buchenwald concentration camp. In 1945, he escaped from a train carrying him to the Dachau concentration camp when the engine was mistakenly destroyed by an American fighter-bomber. He returned to Prague in time to take part in the May 1945 anti-Nazi uprising.
After the war, he studied journalism at Charles University in Prague and then worked for a number of years at Radio Prague. He worked as a journalist in Israel at the time of its War of Independence where he met his future wife, who at the time was a volunteer with the Haganah. He was one of the major critics of the Communist regime in June 1967 at the 4th Writers Conference, and gave up his membership in the Communist Party after the 1967 Middle East war, to protest his government's breaking of relations with Israel. However, following the Soviet-led invasion that ended the Prague Spring in 1968, he left the country, first to Israel, then Yugoslavia and later in 1970 to the United States. After the fall of eastern European communism in 1989, he divided his time between Prague and Washington DC, where he continued to teach at the American University. After his retirement from the American University in 2003, he became a full-time resident of Prague. He was given an apartment in the Prague Castle by then President Václav Havel and honored for his contributions to Czech culture on his 80th birthday in 2006. In 2008, Lustig became the eighth recipient of the Franz Kafka Prize. [1]
Lustig is married to the former Vera Weislitzová (1927), daughter of a furniture maker from Ostrava who was also imprisoned in the Terezín concentration camp. Unlike her parents, she was not deported to Auschwitz. She wrote of her family's fate during the Holocaust in the collection of poems entitled "Daughter of Olga and Leo." They have two children, Josef (1950) and Eva (1956).
His most renowned books are A Prayer For Katerina Horowitzowa (published and nominated for a National book award in 1974), Dita Saxová (1979), Night and Hope (1985), and Lovely Green Eyes (2004). Dita Saxová and Night and Hope have been filmed.
As a Jewish boy in Czechoslovakia during World War II, he was sent in 1942 to the Theresienstadt concentration camp, from where he was later transported to the Auschwitz concentration camp, followed by time in the Buchenwald concentration camp. In 1945, he escaped from a train carrying him to the Dachau concentration camp when the engine was mistakenly destroyed by an American fighter-bomber. He returned to Prague in time to take part in the May 1945 anti-Nazi uprising.
After the war, he studied journalism at Charles University in Prague and then worked for a number of years at Radio Prague. He worked as a journalist in Israel at the time of its War of Independence where he met his future wife, who at the time was a volunteer with the Haganah. He was one of the major critics of the Communist regime in June 1967 at the 4th Writers Conference, and gave up his membership in the Communist Party after the 1967 Middle East war, to protest his government's breaking of relations with Israel. However, following the Soviet-led invasion that ended the Prague Spring in 1968, he left the country, first to Israel, then Yugoslavia and later in 1970 to the United States. After the fall of eastern European communism in 1989, he divided his time between Prague and Washington DC, where he continued to teach at the American University. After his retirement from the American University in 2003, he became a full-time resident of Prague. He was given an apartment in the Prague Castle by then President Václav Havel and honored for his contributions to Czech culture on his 80th birthday in 2006. In 2008, Lustig became the eighth recipient of the Franz Kafka Prize. [1]
Lustig is married to the former Vera Weislitzová (1927), daughter of a furniture maker from Ostrava who was also imprisoned in the Terezín concentration camp. Unlike her parents, she was not deported to Auschwitz. She wrote of her family's fate during the Holocaust in the collection of poems entitled "Daughter of Olga and Leo." They have two children, Josef (1950) and Eva (1956).
His most renowned books are A Prayer For Katerina Horowitzowa (published and nominated for a National book award in 1974), Dita Saxová (1979), Night and Hope (1985), and Lovely Green Eyes (2004). Dita Saxová and Night and Hope have been filmed.
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June 19, 2024
This is a book that combines two short story collections and one novella. One of the short story collections, Night and Hope, I had already read and the novella, Darkness Casts No Shadows, I've read. The second short story collection is one I hadn't read yet. This one is titled Diamonds of the Night and like everything else Lustig has written is about the Holocaust. However, this may have been the most disturbing of his books in it's portrayal of the victims of the Holocaust. The stories capture the absolute horror that it's victims must have endured. A few of the stories are:
The Lemon - About a man who takes the pants of his father, who had just died, to try to trade for something to eat. The man who takes them then convinces him to take his fathers gold tooth to trade.
The Second Round - About a man who steals a loaf of bread from a train and is caught and has a gun pointed at his head by the security guard.
The Old Ones and Death - This is about the last thoughts of an old woman as she is dying and her husband's seemingly indifference to it.
The Lemon - About a man who takes the pants of his father, who had just died, to try to trade for something to eat. The man who takes them then convinces him to take his fathers gold tooth to trade.
The Second Round - About a man who steals a loaf of bread from a train and is caught and has a gun pointed at his head by the security guard.
The Old Ones and Death - This is about the last thoughts of an old woman as she is dying and her husband's seemingly indifference to it.
Displaying 1 of 1 review