Heda Margolius Kovaly's Under A Cruel Star

In the novel Under a Cruel Star, written by Heda Margolius Kovaly, a Jewish woman that lived in Prague, Czechoslovakia during Nazi and Soviet rule of her country, the author tells about her life of always living under terrible circumstances. Whether it was from being sent to the ghettos or Nazi concentration camps at a young age, or living under fear of terror during the Soviet Communist rule of Prague, she seems to always look for the glimmer of hope in all her experiences. “The little bird, the third force, kept me alive to tell the story” (5). In this quote, this “little bird” that she references is the slight flicker of freedom that she sees at the end of every bad thing she is faced with. This book reminds people that the history of human’s

throughout time has been violent toward those that do not agree with them, and that we should live our life like Kovaly did, always optimistic even during struggles.
As a young girl, Kovaly lived with her family who found their home in Prague, Czechoslovakia. There she lived amongst a large Jewish population who at the time was safe from Nazi rule. However, not long into her adolescent years, the Nazi’s invaded and took control. They then gathered up all the Jews and sent them to ghettos, in Kovaly’s experience, she found herself at Lodz Ghetto with her whole Jewish family. After being there a short time, her family and her were loaded up on a train and sent to Auschwitz, a feared death and labor camp that was one of the worst concentration camps in Europe. On this trip, hundreds of men, women, and children, the sick, the healthy and handicapped, were all loaded into the train cars, filled past capacity, and sent on the long terrifying journey to an unknown. “…those who had survived the transport in sealed cattle cars walked through the gates of the electrified fence, straight into the black smoke of Auschwitz” (14). Upon arrival, Kovaly is split up from her family, she and her mother are split from her father and then her mother is taken away. Her mother would soon die in the gas chambers. For herself, Kovaly was sent to work, doing various tasks for the Nazi officers. Later in her time at Auschwitz, word that the Soviets were approaching quickly forced the evacuation of the camp. Kovaly saw this opportunity as the perfect time to escape and successfully fled back to Prague. Upon arrival, she found it tough to assimilate back to everyday life for she was not welcomed by her old friends, for they could be arrested or even killed if they were caught harboring a Jew. “Don’t you know they shoot people for harboring illegals?” (31) This quote came from one of Kovaly’s best friends from home, Vlada. Unfortunately this was a reoccurrence as many of her friends turned her away after a quick greeting. Finally, she finds a place to stay after contacting her last friend, where she lived in hiding until it was safe to go out. It’s not until May of 1945 that Czechoslovakia defeats the Nazi’s as the Iron Curtain makes it way westward through Europe.
Although you might think that life in a concentration camp and always hiding from the Nazi’s would be bad enough, Heda Margolius Kovaly had more horrifying life experiences still to come.

With the exiting of Nazi rule in Prague, came the emergence of the Soviets and Communism.Just months after the fighting had ended with the Nazi’s the people of Prague stopped cheering. People that had once thought Czechoslovakian communism would be different from the Soviet’s communism were wrong as the Soviets began to take full control of all things, just like in their own country. People of Prague feel different about communism, some accepted it while others favored democracy. This proved to be dangerous for those that were not believers of Soviet ideology, for instance, non-believers of communism were arrested and some even killed. Kovaly was skeptical of communism although she was not happy with democracy anyways. “Our democracy had allowed the growth of fascist and Nazi parties which had in the end destroyed it. Worst of all, it had failed to defend the country against Hitler…our democratic government had surrendered to the Germans without a struggle. In the end it was the Soviets that had saved her and the rest of the Jewish Czechs by defeating the Nazi’s” (56-57). In the end, it was the communist Soviet Union that had drove the Germans out of Prague, and saved her and Czech Jews all over. So why not be in favor of communism? Instead of becoming involved in politics, Kovaly let her

husband, Rudolf, the Deputy Minister of Foreign Trade, take care of it while she was focused on starting a family. Throughout this time in Prague, Kovaly became paranoid and afraid that her family would be arrested for not fully supporting the Soviets and unfortunately, her worst nightmare come true. One morning, she was awoken by a knock on the door, it was Soviet officers that informed her about the arrest of her husband. He was taken and not put on trial until twelve months later, where he was accused of treason and sentenced to death. “Rudolf Margolius, death penalty” (143). Upon hearing this, Kovaly becomes angry at the Soviet rule. It is amazing how tragic her life has been and continued to be throughout two eras.
After reading Kovalty’s autobiography of her miserable, unlucky life one can only imagine her feelings and thoughts toward her life as she was going through such terrible hardships.

In class I have read about the Holocaust and accounts from people that endured it, but never have I read about anyone that lived during Nazi and Soviets reigns. From this book we can see that the history of human beings is very violent and that humans in the past, and even now turn to violence when other people do not believe in their ideas. For instance, the Nazi’s mission was to eliminate all Jews because they did not fall under the Aryan race. Because of this, they set up concentration camps and executed many Jews. Another instance of human violence is the Soviets. Like we see in Kovaly’s book, they would arrest, beat and kill those who opposed communism. The history of human violence is even relevant today too. Jihadists and extremists in the Middle East violently slaughter and murder those who are not in favor, or do not believe in their ideologies. Evidence of the history of human violence is all over and has shaped the history of the world. I think that that this book reminds people that we should live our lives by always looking for the positive in things, just like the author of the book did when she was in terrible hardships. Even when she was in the concentration camps, hiding from the Nazi’s, or trying to not get caught by Soviet officials, Kovaly was kept alive by the bird in her

ribcage, that small glimmer of hope and freedom that forced her to keep pushing on. If we follow Kovaly in that we don’t let things get us down in life, eventually we will reach what we desire, and in her case it was freedom from Nazi and Soviet control.