Heda Margolius Kovály
Encyclopedia
Heda Margolius Kovály was a Czech writer
.
, Czechoslovakia
, where she lived until 1941 when her family was rounded up along with the rest of the city's Jewish population and taken to the Lodz Ghetto in central Poland
.
, she was separated from her parents when the Jews were taken out of the ghetto and transported to the Auschwitz concentration camp
in 1944. After arriving at Auschwitz, she was chosen to survive – though her parents were immediately gassed
– and to work as a laborer in the Christianstadt labour camp.
When the Eastern Front
of the war between Germany and the Soviet Union
approached the camp, its prisoners were evacuated. With a few other women in the first months of 1945, it was decided while on this journey to Bergen-Belsen
, to escape back to Prague. After arriving in the city, Margolius discovered that most of the people who remained in the city during the war were too frightened by the threat of German punishment to aid an escapee from the camps.
When Soviet forces finally freed Prague from Nazi
control the Communist Party
began to rise. The experiences of her husband at Auschwitz and Dachau concentration camps had led him to become a communist. Having been asked, he took a job with the Communist government of Klement Gottwald
as Deputy Minister of Foreign Trade, despite his own and his wife's reservations about the position.
In 1952, her husband was found guilty of conspiracy during the notorious Slánský trial. Rudolf was one of the eleven Jews on the list of fourteen accused. Having been prevented from seeing her husband for eleven months after his arrest, and after he and the other arrested Jews gave false confessions extracted by torture, Heda later learned that he had been hanged and his body cremated and given to security officials for disposal. In a final indignity, a few miles out of Prague, the officials’ limousine began to skid on the icy road and his ashes were thrown under the wheels to create traction. Related to 'a people's enemy' her life was made harder – "Heda was thrown out of her job and her apartment, and then additionally persecuted for being unemployed and homeless."
Their son, Ivan Margolius
, was raised in impoverished conditions. For as long as the Communist Party remained in power, she was kept from good jobs and socially shunned. She did not tell Ivan the truth about what happened to his father until he was fifteen years old.
.
troops invaded Prague after the Prague Spring
and occupation seemed inevitable, Margolius Kovály fled Czechoslovakia to the United States.
She worked as a librarian in the international-law
library at Harvard University
, in Boston
, Massachusetts
.
Her memoir was originally written in Czech and published in Canada under the title Na vlastní kůži by 68 Publishers in Toronto in 1973. An English translation appeared in the same year as the first part of the book The Victors and the Vanquished published by Horizon Press in New York. A British edition of the book excluded the second treatise and was published by Weidenfeld and Nicolson under the title I Do Not Want To Remember in 1973.
In 1986, she re-published her memoir
Under A Cruel Star – A Life in Prague 1941–1968
(published in the United Kingdom as Prague Farewell). The memoir is dedicated to her son and it has been widely translated and is available in French and English as an e-book
.
In 1985 she published a novel called Nevina (Innocence) in Czech by Index, Köln.
Between 1958 and 1989 she translated from German or English into the Czech language over 24 works of well-known authors such as Arnold Zweig
, Raymond Chandler
, Philip Roth
, Saul Bellow
, Arnold Bennett
, Muriel Spark
, William Golding
, John Steinbeck
, H. G. Wells
and many others.
3, sector no. 21, row no. 13, plot no. 33, directly behind Franz Kafka
’s grave.
Czech literature
Czech literature is the literature written by Czechs or other inhabitants of the Czech state, mostly in the Czech language, although other languages like Old Church Slavonic, Latin or German have been also used, especially in the past. Modern authors from the Czech territory who wrote in other...
.
Early life
She was born Heda Bloch to Jewish parents in PraguePrague
Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...
, Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
, where she lived until 1941 when her family was rounded up along with the rest of the city's Jewish population and taken to the Lodz Ghetto in central Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
.
Concentration-camp and Margolius-marriage years
Married to her childhood sweetheart, Rudolf MargoliusRudolf Margolius
Rudolf Margolius was Deputy Minister of Foreign Trade, Czechoslovakia , and a co-defendant in the Slánský trial in November 1952....
, she was separated from her parents when the Jews were taken out of the ghetto and transported to the Auschwitz concentration camp
Auschwitz concentration camp
Concentration camp Auschwitz was a network of Nazi concentration and extermination camps built and operated by the Third Reich in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany during World War II...
in 1944. After arriving at Auschwitz, she was chosen to survive – though her parents were immediately gassed
Gas chamber
A gas chamber is an apparatus for killing humans or animals with gas, consisting of a sealed chamber into which a poisonous or asphyxiant gas is introduced. The most commonly used poisonous agent is hydrogen cyanide; carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide have also been used...
– and to work as a laborer in the Christianstadt labour camp.
When the Eastern Front
Eastern Front (World War II)
The Eastern Front of World War II was a theatre of World War II between the European Axis powers and co-belligerent Finland against the Soviet Union, Poland, and some other Allies which encompassed Northern, Southern and Eastern Europe from 22 June 1941 to 9 May 1945...
of the war between Germany and the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
approached the camp, its prisoners were evacuated. With a few other women in the first months of 1945, it was decided while on this journey to Bergen-Belsen
Bergen-Belsen
Bergen-Belsen may refer to:* Stalag XI-C Bergen-Belsen , a German World War II prisoner-of-war camp* Bergen-Belsen concentration camp , on the site of the prisoner-of-war camp...
, to escape back to Prague. After arriving in the city, Margolius discovered that most of the people who remained in the city during the war were too frightened by the threat of German punishment to aid an escapee from the camps.
When Soviet forces finally freed Prague from Nazi
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
control the Communist Party
Communist Party of Czechoslovakia
The Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, in Czech and in Slovak: Komunistická strana Československa was a Communist and Marxist-Leninist political party in Czechoslovakia that existed between 1921 and 1992....
began to rise. The experiences of her husband at Auschwitz and Dachau concentration camps had led him to become a communist. Having been asked, he took a job with the Communist government of Klement Gottwald
Klement Gottwald
Klement Gottwald was a Czechoslovakian Communist politician, longtime leader of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia , prime minister and president of Czechoslovakia.-Early life:...
as Deputy Minister of Foreign Trade, despite his own and his wife's reservations about the position.
In 1952, her husband was found guilty of conspiracy during the notorious Slánský trial. Rudolf was one of the eleven Jews on the list of fourteen accused. Having been prevented from seeing her husband for eleven months after his arrest, and after he and the other arrested Jews gave false confessions extracted by torture, Heda later learned that he had been hanged and his body cremated and given to security officials for disposal. In a final indignity, a few miles out of Prague, the officials’ limousine began to skid on the icy road and his ashes were thrown under the wheels to create traction. Related to 'a people's enemy' her life was made harder – "Heda was thrown out of her job and her apartment, and then additionally persecuted for being unemployed and homeless."
Their son, Ivan Margolius
Ivan Margolius
Ivan Margolius, , author, architect and propagator of Czech culture and technology.Margolius was born in Prague, son of JUDr Rudolf Margolius, Deputy Minister of Foreign Trade, and Heda Margolius Kovály, Czech writer and translator, both parents being Holocaust survivors...
, was raised in impoverished conditions. For as long as the Communist Party remained in power, she was kept from good jobs and socially shunned. She did not tell Ivan the truth about what happened to his father until he was fifteen years old.
Kovály-marriage years
She re-married in 1955 to Pavel Kovály. Unfortunately, his name was brought down because of his association with her as the widow of the alleged traitor, her first husband, Rudolf MargoliusRudolf Margolius
Rudolf Margolius was Deputy Minister of Foreign Trade, Czechoslovakia , and a co-defendant in the Slánský trial in November 1952....
.
Emigration from Czechoslovakia to the United States
Finally in 1968, when once again Soviet UnionSoviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
troops invaded Prague after the Prague Spring
Prague Spring
The Prague Spring was a period of political liberalization in Czechoslovakia during the era of its domination by the Soviet Union after World War II...
and occupation seemed inevitable, Margolius Kovály fled Czechoslovakia to the United States.
She worked as a librarian in the international-law
International law
Public international law concerns the structure and conduct of sovereign states; analogous entities, such as the Holy See; and intergovernmental organizations. To a lesser degree, international law also may affect multinational corporations and individuals, an impact increasingly evolving beyond...
library at Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
, in Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
, Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
.
Writing
Her memoir was originally written in Czech and published in Canada under the title Na vlastní kůži by 68 Publishers in Toronto in 1973. An English translation appeared in the same year as the first part of the book The Victors and the Vanquished published by Horizon Press in New York. A British edition of the book excluded the second treatise and was published by Weidenfeld and Nicolson under the title I Do Not Want To Remember in 1973.
In 1986, she re-published her memoir
Memoir
A memoir , is a literary genre, forming a subclass of autobiography – although the terms 'memoir' and 'autobiography' are almost interchangeable. Memoir is autobiographical writing, but not all autobiographical writing follows the criteria for memoir set out below...
Under A Cruel Star – A Life in Prague 1941–1968
Under a Cruel Star (book)
Under a Cruel Star: A Life in Prague 1941-1968 was published first under this title by Plunkett Lake Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1986. The memoir was written by Heda Margolius Kovály and translated with Francis and Helen Epstein. It is now available in a Holmes & Meier, New York 1997 edition...
(published in the United Kingdom as Prague Farewell). The memoir is dedicated to her son and it has been widely translated and is available in French and English as an e-book
E-book
An electronic book is a book-length publication in digital form, consisting of text, images, or both, and produced on, published through, and readable on computers or other electronic devices. Sometimes the equivalent of a conventional printed book, e-books can also be born digital...
.
In 1985 she published a novel called Nevina (Innocence) in Czech by Index, Köln.
Between 1958 and 1989 she translated from German or English into the Czech language over 24 works of well-known authors such as Arnold Zweig
Arnold Zweig
Arnold Zweig was a German writer and anti-war activist.He is best known for his World War I tetralogy.-Life and work:Zweig was born in Glogau, Silesia son of a Jewish saddler...
, Raymond Chandler
Raymond Chandler
Raymond Thornton Chandler was an American novelist and screenwriter.In 1932, at age forty-five, Raymond Chandler decided to become a detective fiction writer after losing his job as an oil company executive during the Depression. His first short story, "Blackmailers Don't Shoot", was published in...
, Philip Roth
Philip Roth
Philip Milton Roth is an American novelist. He gained fame with the 1959 novella Goodbye, Columbus, an irreverent and humorous portrait of Jewish-American life that earned him a National Book Award...
, Saul Bellow
Saul Bellow
Saul Bellow was a Canadian-born Jewish American writer. For his literary contributions, Bellow was awarded the Pulitzer Prize, the Nobel Prize for Literature, and the National Medal of Arts...
, Arnold Bennett
Arnold Bennett
- Early life :Bennett was born in a modest house in Hanley in the Potteries district of Staffordshire. Hanley is one of a conurbation of six towns which joined together at the beginning of the twentieth century as Stoke-on-Trent. Enoch Bennett, his father, qualified as a solicitor in 1876, and the...
, Muriel Spark
Muriel Spark
Dame Muriel Spark, DBE was an award-winning Scottish novelist. In 2008 The Times newspaper named Spark in its list of "the 50 greatest British writers since 1945".-Early life:...
, William Golding
William Golding
Sir William Gerald Golding was a British novelist, poet, playwright and Nobel Prize for Literature laureate, best known for his novel Lord of the Flies...
, John Steinbeck
John Steinbeck
John Ernst Steinbeck, Jr. was an American writer. He is widely known for the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Grapes of Wrath and East of Eden and the novella Of Mice and Men...
, H. G. Wells
H. G. Wells
Herbert George Wells was an English author, now best known for his work in the science fiction genre. He was also a prolific writer in many other genres, including contemporary novels, history, politics and social commentary, even writing text books and rules for war games...
and many others.
Death
Margolius Kovály died in Prague, age 91, after a long illness. A memorial plaque dedicated to Heda Margolius Kovály together with her first husband JUDr Rudolf Margolius is located on the family tomb at New Jewish Cemetery, Izraelská 1, PraguePrague
Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...
3, sector no. 21, row no. 13, plot no. 33, directly behind Franz Kafka
Franz Kafka
Franz Kafka was a culturally influential German-language author of short stories and novels. Contemporary critics and academics, including Vladimir Nabokov, regard Kafka as one of the best writers of the 20th century...
’s grave.
See also
- Cultural Amnesia (book)Cultural Amnesia (book)Cultural Amnesia is a book of biographical essays by Clive James, first published in 2007. The U.K. title, published by MacMillan, is Cultural Amnesia: Notes in the Margin of My Time, while the U.S. title, published by W.W...
- Helen EpsteinHelen EpsteinHelen Epstein is a writer of memoir, journalism and biography who lives in Massachusetts, United States. She was born November 27, 1947 in Prague, Czechoslovakia, raised in New York City, and graduated from Hunter College High School in 1965.-Life:...
- Ivan MargoliusIvan MargoliusIvan Margolius, , author, architect and propagator of Czech culture and technology.Margolius was born in Prague, son of JUDr Rudolf Margolius, Deputy Minister of Foreign Trade, and Heda Margolius Kovály, Czech writer and translator, both parents being Holocaust survivors...
- Rudolf MargoliusRudolf MargoliusRudolf Margolius was Deputy Minister of Foreign Trade, Czechoslovakia , and a co-defendant in the Slánský trial in November 1952....
- Slánský trial
- Erazim KohákErazim KohákErazim Kohák is a Czech philosopher and writer. His early education was in Prague. After communists took over Czechoslovakia in 1948, his family escaped to the United States....
- Under a Cruel Star (book)Under a Cruel Star (book)Under a Cruel Star: A Life in Prague 1941-1968 was published first under this title by Plunkett Lake Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1986. The memoir was written by Heda Margolius Kovály and translated with Francis and Helen Epstein. It is now available in a Holmes & Meier, New York 1997 edition...
Further reading
- Margolius Kovály, Heda (1986). Under A Cruel Star – A Life in Prague 1941–1968. Plunkett Lake Press (Cambridge, Mass) ISBN 0-9614696-1-7.
- Levy, AlanAlan LevyAlan Levy was an American author.Alan Levy was born in New York City in 1932 and educated at Brown and Columbia universities. In 1952 at Brown, he co-wrote an original Brownbrokers musical titled Anything Can Be Fixed with Gill Bach and Porter Woods...
. "Ivan Margolius: Son of Conscience". The Prague PostThe Prague PostThe Prague Post is an English language weekly newspaper covering the Czech Republic and Central and Eastern Europe.It is the only English-language newspaper in the Czech Republic...
. 27 November 2002. - Margolius, IvanIvan MargoliusIvan Margolius, , author, architect and propagator of Czech culture and technology.Margolius was born in Prague, son of JUDr Rudolf Margolius, Deputy Minister of Foreign Trade, and Heda Margolius Kovály, Czech writer and translator, both parents being Holocaust survivors...
(2006): Reflections of Prague: Journeys through the 20th Century, WileyJohn Wiley & SonsJohn Wiley & Sons, Inc., also referred to as Wiley, is a global publishing company that specializes in academic publishing and markets its products to professionals and consumers, students and instructors in higher education, and researchers and practitioners in scientific, technical, medical, and...
(London). ISBN 0-470-02219-1. In Czech: Praha za zrcadlem: Putování 20. stoletím. Argo (Prague). 2007. ISBN 978-80-7203-947-0.
External links
- margolius.co.uk, "Ivan Margolius – Heda Margolius Kovály" official website
- "Jan Margolius: In Memory of Heda Margolius Kovály", musical tribute