Arnošt Lustig

Arnošt Lustig (; 21 December 1926 – 26 February 2011) was a Czech Jewish writer, playwright and screenwriter. His works have often involved the Holocaust.

Life and work Lustig was born in Prague. As a Jewish boy in Czechoslovakia during World War II, he was sent in 1942 to the Theresienstadt concentration camp, from where he was later transported to the Auschwitz concentration camp, followed by time in the Buchenwald concentration camp. In 1945, he escaped from a train carrying him to the Dachau concentration camp when the engine was destroyed by an American fighter-bomber. He returned to Prague in time to take part in the May 1945 uprising against the German occupation.

After the war, he studied journalism at Charles University in Prague and then worked for a number of years at Radio Prague. He worked as a journalist in Israel at the time of its War of Independence where he met his future wife, who at the time was a volunteer with the Haganah. and the third recipient of the Karel Čapek Prize in 1996.

Lustig was married to Věra Weislitzová (1927-2009), daughter of a furniture maker from Ostrava who was also imprisoned in the Terezín concentration camp. Unlike her parents, she was not deported to Auschwitz. She wrote of her family's fate during the Holocaust in the collection of poems entitled "Daughter of Olga and Leo." They have two children, Josef (1951) and Eva (1956).

Lustig died at age 84 in Prague on 26 February 2011 after suffering from Hodgkin lymphoma for five years.

His most renowned books are A Prayer For Katerina Horowitzowa (published and nominated for a National Book Award in 1974), Dita Saxová (1962, trans. 1979 as Dita Saxova), Night and Hope (1957, trans. 1985), and Lovely Green Eyes (2004).

Selected books Night and Hope (1957) – adapted into the film Transport from Paradise (1962) Diamonds of the Night (1958) – contains the short story "Darkness Casts No Shadow", which was adapted into the film Diamonds of the Night (1964) Street of Lost Brothers (1959) Dita Saxová (1962) Transport from Paradise (1962) A Prayer for Kateřina Horovitzová (1964) – adapted into the TV film A Prayer for Katerina Horovitzova (1965) The Bitter Smell of Almonds (1968) The Unloved: From the Diary of Perla S. (1979) Waiting for Leah (1992) The House of Returned Echoes (1994) Lovely Green Eyes: A Novel (2000)

Awards 1980: National Jewish Book Award for Dita Saxová 1986: National Jewish Book Award for The Unloved: From the Diary of Perla S.