Helga Hošková-Weissová Book order (chronological)

Autobiografie akademické malířky a přeživší holocaustu, Helgy Hoškové-Weissové, nabízí fascinující pohled na její život. Vzpomíná na idylické dětství v předválečné Praze a na rodinu, přičemž vypráví příběhy těch, kteří se již nikdy nevrátili z nacistických táborů. K válce se vrací jen okrajově, neboť většina jejího příběhu je zachycena v knize Deník 1938–1945, která se stala součástí učebnic historie. Klíčová je druhá část, kde se vrací do poválečné Prahy, kde na ni a její maminku nikdo nečekal. Popisuje lidi, kteří jim pomohli, i ty, kteří se k nim obrátili zády. Atmosféra v poválečném Československu je poznamenána údivem sousedů z jejich návratu a nepochopením jejich příběhu. Hošková-Weissová provází čtenáře svým životem, studiem a snahou začlenit se do společnosti, která ji však odmítá. Po překonání těžkostí dostuduje, vdá se a porodí děti, přičemž se ponoří do malování jako prostředku vyrovnání se s traumatem holocaustu. Po roce 1989 spoluzakládá Terezínskou iniciativu a přednáší po světě. Její příběh je svědectvím o době, která se nesmí opakovat, a pro její děti a vnuky nyní vypráví svůj příběh.

Reconstructed from her original notebook diary that was hidden in a brick wall, documents the life of a young Jewish schoolgirl in Prague who survived the concentration camps of both Terezin and Auschwitz. 20,000 first printing.

Helga's Diary is a young girl's remarkable first-hand account of life in a concentration camp during World War II. Like The Diary of Anne Frank this is a publication of international importance and a book that will endure for decades. In 1938, when her diary begins, Helga is eight years old. Alongside her father and mother and the roughly 40,000 Jews who lived in Prague at the time, she endures the first wave of the Nazi invasion and racist brutality: her father is denied work, schools are closed to her, she and her parents are eventually confined to their flat. Gradually, as the Nazis' full intentions unfold, deportations begin and her friends and family start to disappear. In 1941, Helga and her parents are sent to the concentration camp of Terezin, where they live for three years, and then, in 1944, Helga's father is sent to Auschwitz. Helga and her mother choose to follow him there, not realising what lies in wait for them. Helga's uncle bricks her diary into a wall to preserve it. At Auschwitz, Helga's father is murdered, but miraculously Helga and her mother survive the camp, the many transports and journeys of the last days of the war, and manage ultimately to return to Prague. As Helga writes down her experiences since Terezin, completing the diary, she is fifteen and a half. She is one of a tiny number ofJews who remain in the city. Written in pencil in school exercise books and translated here for the first time, Helga's diary is a strikingly immediate and exceptionally important first-hand account of the Holocaust. Helga Weiss was born in Prague in 1929. Her father Otto was employed in the state bank in Prague and her mother Irena was a dressmaker. Of the 15,000 children brought to Terezín and later deported to Auschwitz, only 100 survived the Holocaust. Helga was one of them. On her return to Prague she studied art and has become well known for her paintings. The drawings and paintings that Helga made during her time in Terezín, which accompany this diary, were published in 1998 in the book Draw What You See (Zeichne, was Du siehst). Her father's novel And God saw that it was bad , written during his time in Terezín and which she illustrated, was published in 2010. In 1954 Helga married the musician Jiri Hosek. She has two children, three grandchildren and lives to this day in the flat where she was born.

A Terezínbe, majd Auschwitzba deportált tizenötezer csehországi zsidó gyerek közül mindössze száz élte túl a holokausztot. Helga Weiss a száz túlélő egyike. Naplója megrázó és egészen egyedi dokumentum, amely Anne Frank naplójához hasonlóan örök érvényű olvasmány. Helga Weiss 1939-ben kislányként szenvedi el a náci megszállás első hullámát Prágában: apját elbocsátják a munkahelyéről, ő pedig nem járhat hagyományos iskolába. A növekvő náci brutalitás szemtanújaként kezd naplót írni. Ez a napló sok tekintetben emlékeztet Anne Frank feljegyzéseire: Helga egyidős Annával, s hozzá hasonlóan az éppen kamaszodó kislány szemével nézi maga körül az egyre borzasztóbbá váló világot. Próbál élni és túlélni, nem sejtve, hogy az egyre nehezebb körülmények nem a szabaduláshoz, hanem a legborzasztóbbhoz, a gettóhoz, majd a koncentrációs táborhoz vezetnek. 1941-ben szüleivel együtt a terezíni gettóba kerül, ahol bámulatos éleslátással örökíti meg családja mindennapjait: a nyomorúságos életkörülményeket, az éhezést és a kivégzéseket – csakúgy, mint a legrosszabb helyzetekben is létező örömöt és reményt. 1944-ben Helgát Auschwitzba deportálták. Mielőtt elhagyta volna a terezíni tábort, feljegyzéseit és rajzait a tábor nyilvántartó részlegénél dolgozó nagybátyja gondjaira bízta, aki egy téglafalba rejtette a papírokat. A dokumentumok a háború végeztével csodával határos módon előkerültek.

In 1939, Helga Weiss was an eleven-year-old Jewish schoolgirl in Prague, enduring the first wave of the Nazi invasion. As Helga witnessed Nazi brutality toward her friends and neighbors and eventually her own family she began documenting her experiences in a diary. In 1941, Helga and her parents were sent to the concentration camp of Terezin, where she continued to write with astonishing insight about her daily life. Before she was sent to Auschwitz in 1944, Helga's uncle, who worked in the Terezin records department, hid her diary and drawings in a brick wall. Miraculously, he was able to reclaim it for her after the war. Of the 15,000 children brought to Terezin and deported to Auschwitz, Helga was one of only 100 survivors. Written in school exercise books and translated here for the first time, Helga's Diary is a strikingly immediate and exceptional firsthand account of the Holocaust.

This book is subtitled "A Humorous – If Possible – Novella from the Ghetto.” It was published in 1969 by a famous satirist from Prague, a co-creator of the "small form theater” and a contributor to the humorous Porcupine magazine. The author’s coming of age in the Terezín Ghetto presents a unique image amongst the volumes of the Holocaust literature, combining death and terror with absurdity and humor as well as stark openness. The traditional image of the world of adults viewed through the eyes of a child is constructed in a humorous manner, however, through laughter it also presents experience that is beyond description. The text, translated into English by Alex Zucker and with and epilogue by Jáchym Topol, is followed by personal memories of the author’s sister, film documentarian Zuzana Justmanová.

»Draw what you see«, was my father´s response, when I managed to smuggle to the men´s barracks the drawings of children building a snowman. This was in December of 1941, shortly after we arrived in Theresienstadt. That snowman was actually my last genuine drawing as a child. Through this sentence of my father´s, and through my own inner motivation, I felt called from now on to capture in my drawings the everyday life of the ghetto. The impressions that from this point in time would affect me, ended my childhood.

Souborné vydání Spolku pro ochranu zvířat z prostředí terezínského ghetta a Příliš mnoho příbuzných.