1 and 2 Summary and Analysis

Heda Margolius Kovály, the author, relates her autobiographical memoire in an accessible and open format. She relates most events chronologically and opens with a statement that her life has been shaped by two evil tyrants—Adolf Hitler and Iosif Vissarionovich Stalin—and by her own heart, symbolized by moments of love and hope. As a young Jew, Kovály grew up in Prague. She does not offer her date of birth in the narrative but as she was old enough to accompany a physician on rounds during 1941 it may be surmised that she was born perhaps c. 1920.

In 1941, Prague was occupied by Nazi Germany and Jews and Roma living there were, in October, forcibly evacuated to the Lodz Ghetto—she refers to it as a concentration camp. Kovály recalls the galling transportation and the horrible living...