This book ‘Hitler, Stalin and I’ was given to me by Mandy, one of my peers at the Council as a more personal leaving present just before I left. She knew I had a liking for people and stories of people and therefore thought I’d find this book interesting. Actually the subject of the book, Heda Margolius Kovaly was Mandy’s mother-in-law and this connection makes the story all the more compelling and real.
Heda Margolius was born in Prague Czechoslovakia in 1919. As with countless others she was caught up in WW2 and held in a ghetto and the infamous Auchwitz concentration camp. She narrowly escaped death herself by pure chance (you need to read the chapter entitled “Columns of five into the gas chambers” to appreciate this) and later escaped from the Nazi death march before returning to Prague. She took part in the Prague Uprising and gives an illuminating glimpse into her harrowing life there.
Her husband Rudolf Margolius had also experienced the terrors of the holocaust and also survived. He later went onto serve (not through his choice) as Deputy Minister for Foreign Trade in the Czech Government. In 1952 he was caught up in the Slansky Trials and executed for treason. He was later exonerated.
Heda Margolious raised her son Ivan (Mandy’s husband) who translated this book. She also worked as a graphic artist, an author and translator living in the USA before returning to live in Prague in 1996. She died in 2010.
The book tells the harrowing and heart wrenching story of her experience in the second world war years. The reader sees through the words on each page in a compelling way, to the point of wanting to quickly read through the book to find out what eventually happens.
In spite of her horrific experiences she retains her sense of humanity. This can be illustrated in picking up her account of just after the war “By then I realised how much society had been altered during the war, how people had changed and what sort of problems we could expect. In the medical centre they cared for anybody who had been wounded, be it the German soldiers or our people. One German soldier lay there, dying, requesting water, so I gave him a drink. A woman I knew from my school told me if I didn’t know that you were in the camps I’d report you. The doctor said ‘tend to the Czechs and break the German necks.'”
Heda Margolius’ strength, determination and humanity shines through the entire book. It isn’t a gory book, thankfully, although it is easy to imagine exactly what is happening. It is, however, a compelling read; once you’ve started this book it is difficult not to finish it quickly.
By the way, the above photo of the book was taken at Wast Water, Cumbria. Rachel and I both had books to read and we spent quite some time there immersed in reading; probably where I read most of the book.
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