Under a Cruel Star: A Life in Prague 1941-1968 Chapter Summary & Analysis - 6 and 7 Summary

6 and 7 Summary and Analysis

For five months Kovály is hidden by the resistance, moving from one locale to another. She spends the time being bored, listening to the radio, and wishing it was safe to go outside and enjoy the springtime. On May 5, 1945, the Czechoslovakian resistance rises up and expels the Nazi occupation as the Russian army reaches the city. Germans are shot down in the streets as the barricades are erected. Kovály assists in the next several days by hauling ammunition while disguised as a Red Cross worker. Kovály acidly observes that in the final hours of the fight self-preserving Czechs appeared from out of the woodwork to establish themselves as resistance fighters.

One day the war comes to a personal conclusion for Kovály as she walks by a river and sees a dead SS soldier lying in a pool of blood—the war is over because she is alive...
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