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

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

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