Dom v Prahe

by Anna Nessy Perlberg

V roku 1939, keď nacisti okupovali Prahu, rozhodla sa Annina rodina zachrániť si vlastné životy a opustila svoj elegantný dom pri Pražskom hrade, pričom sa musela vzdať aj svojho prepychového života. Nastúpili na vlak a absolvovali hrôzostrašnú cestu do nacistických Drážďan, ktorá všetko zmenila.

V tomto memoári sa Anna spätne rozpamätáva na svoju matku, opernú speváčku, ale aj otca, prominentného právnika vtedajšieho českého prezidenta Tomáša G. Masaryka. Opisuje krásne letné dni strávené na dedine, priateľov, spoločenský život, ale aj desivú cestu vlakom za slobodou a ťažké začiatky v cudzej krajine. Po nežnej revolúcii v roku 1989 sa Anna snaží získať späť svoj domov v Prahe a nadviazať na stratené spomienky, o ktoré sa delí s čitateľmi prostredníctvom veľkého množstva fotografií zo svojho rodinného albumu.

Nechajte sa vtiahnuť strhujúcim skutočným príbehom o vojne, láske, strate a nových začiatkoch z pera imigrantského dievčaťa, ktoré našlo svoju cestu domov.

Genres: Biography, World War II, Memoir, History, European History

224 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2016

Reviews

[Ivana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Spomienky dievčatka, ktoré sa narodilo za prvej republiky dvom úspešným rodičom - matke, opernej speváčke a katolíčke a otcovi, úspešnému právnikovi a Židovi. Spomienky na Prahu i český vidiek, na život v hlavnom meste, na stretávanie sa s elitou mesta i obyčajné prechádzky. Spomienky na rodinnú rutinu, zvyky, ľudí okolo.

Po Mníchove bolo obom Anniným rodičom jasné, že Československo už pre nich nie je bezpečné. Emigrovali a začínali odznovu v zasľúbených Spojených štátoch budovať svoj americký sen. Aj Anna sa prispôsobila a zariadila si život po svojom... ale na Prahu a ten dom v ktorom strávila prvých 11 rokov života, na ten nikdy nezabudla.

Kniha sa číta ľahko, štýl je pomerne jednoduchý, zahŕňa celý Annin život, ten v Čechách i v USA, až po reštitúcie. Veľa odkazuje na rodinu Masarykovcov, s ktorými jej rodina udržiavala desaťročia priateľské vzťahy.
Príjemná jednohubka na večer.

[Nancy Sayre · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. Full disclosure: I am the editor and publisher. But truly, editing it was a joy, and I have loved getting to know the author, Anna Nessy Perlberg. She is a marvelous 88-year-old woman of great dignity and depth, and I have learned a number of life lessons from her.

My favorite part is the story of Anna's family when they first emigrate to New York City, and she is forced to learn English by immersion. What a brave soul!

If you enjoy reading memoirs, you'll enjoy this thoughtfully-written book. If you also have an interest in stories of Holocaust survivors, so much the better. The author loves getting fan mail and replies to every one, so feel free to write to her at anna.nessy.perlberg@goldenalleypress.com .

[Carolyn Leshyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

The House in Prague is a well-written book that draws you into Anna Nessy Perlberg's privileged, young life and home in Prague. As the Nazis threatened the area, the family quickly and early-on exited Prague and landed in New York City. The new live was unfamilar territory and Anna had difficulty blending into American life. As a married adult she moved to Chicago and had a wonderful life. Later in life she visited Prague and found her original home.

[Eddi · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a true account of a young girl who was half-Jewish and half-catholic, and her life experiences in Czechoslovakia and the U.S. Her family fled just days before the gestapo arrived at her home to arrest her father. She shares what her wonderful early life was like, with her famous musical mother, and her lawyer father, then tells about her difficult life as a non-English-speaking school girl in the U.S. Many of her family and friends did not survive the holocaust, but she tells he brave stories of some who do. Eventually as an adult, she returns to her home in Prague, the first time not being allowed inside (during the communist era), and finally getting to walk inside and be filled wi th memories of her roots there.

I chose to read this, as it has some obviously similarities to the stories of my husband's family, who fled from Latvia at about the same time, and then immigrated to the U.S. I am thankful for his family who made it here, but grieve for the multitudes who did not.

[Dr.J.G. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading any memoirs of the holocaust, or for that matter a book based on those times and those events, is hard enough. This one is by someone who was a little girl of ten by the time the horrors began, and the book begins with memories of the home of the family in Prague by the little girl, albeit written and published much later. The memories are of a beautiful life in a beautiful home, a large house on the hill in Prague, filled with music and more, with wealth of the educated, accomplished and the connoisseur, rather than wealth of the aristocracy which may or may not exercise their choice of ability to accrue all those qualities. The family moreover is of a mixed marriage, with a Catholic mother and a Jewish father, with much love and complete harmony.

This somehow makes for more horror for the reader who knows and dreads the subsequent events that will affect this family, their beautiful home and beautiful life filled with music, concerts, friends and family. Fortunately this family survived, by selling much of their prized possessions or using some to bribe whoever needed to be, to emigrate on the eve of the horrors descending on the world, centred on the continent. They managed to survive, do well, educate the children well, and live, in US.

But this only makes for a contrast when viewed in context of the family and friends and more that were lost due to not being able to, or in some cases, not choosing to, migrate as they did. A very moving moment is when the author, then still a young girl coping with high school in the new land, is asked by her father to accompany him to a synagogue for the first time - she is brought up Catholic - and mentions how the Rabbi asked if anyone lost a family member in the holocaust. She raises her hand, and looks around to see the whole congregation doing the same. They rise, sing prayers for the dead, all weeping.

It's a tale of life, survival and prospering of a few on the background of the six million or more that did not, and as such all the more poignant - for, obviously, if these people did so well, so could a large part of those that did not survive, and this loss of human potential and of quality was all because the lumpen that the perpetrated the events intended to wipe out human civilisation and all its achievements, in name of racial supremacy.

That another ideology in name of equality of all did much the same to a large proportion of the world population behind respective curtains of the totalitarian nations, only makes it worse. One is, of course, happy these good people did survive and did well.

[Dr.J.G. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading any memoirs of the holocaust, or for that matter a book based on those times and those events, is hard enough. This one is by someone who was a little girl of ten by the time the horrors began, and the book begins with memories of the home of the family in Prague by the little girl, albeit written and published much later. The memories are of a beautiful life in a beautiful home, a large house on the hill in Prague, filled with music and more, with wealth of the educated, accomplished and the connoisseur, rather than wealth of the aristocracy which may or may not exercise their choice of ability to accrue all those qualities. The family moreover is of a mixed marriage, with a Catholic mother and a Jewish father, with much love and complete harmony.

This somehow makes for more horror for the reader who knows and dreads the subsequent events that will affect this family, their beautiful home and beautiful life filled with music, concerts, friends and family. Fortunately this family survived, by selling much of their prized possessions or using some to bribe whoever needed to be, to emigrate on the eve of the horrors descending on the world, centred on the continent. They managed to survive, do well, educate the children well, and live, in US.

But this only makes for a contrast when viewed in context of the family and friends and more that were lost due to not being able to, or in some cases, not choosing to, migrate as they did. A very moving moment is when the author, then still a young girl coping with high school in the new land, is asked by her father to accompany him to a synagogue for the first time - she is brought up Catholic - and mentions how the Rabbi asked if anyone lost a family member in the holocaust. She raises her hand, and looks around to see the whole congregation doing the same. They rise, sing prayers for the dead, all weeping.

It's a tale of life, survival and prospering of a few on the background of the six million or more that did not, and as such all the more poignant - for, obviously, if these people did so well, so could a large part of those that did not survive, and this loss of human potential and of quality was all because the lumpen that the perpetrated the events intended to wipe out human civilisation and all its achievements, in name of racial supremacy.

That another ideology in name of equality of all did much the same to a large proportion of the world population behind respective curtains of the totalitarian nations, only makes it worse. One is, of course, happy these good people did survive and did well.

[Beverly Solis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very interesting ok

Very interesting Book about a family who left Czechoslovakia before World War II started. The father was Jewish the mother of Christian and they left fearing the father was on a list to be transported to a German work camp. It is a story about those were forced to leave their home country fearing the Nazis.

[Gina Arnold · Rating 5 out of 5]

Humbling

I have read many books about the Holocaust and this time period in history. They have all been very humbling.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating true story of one woman's journey during World War II

She paints a poignant picture of what it is like to be an immigrant from a war torn country. Very timely.

[Wendy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was surprised that this book moved me as much as it did. It covers an enormous amount of time in so few pages, and does so in a way that is concise and moving yet is also frustrating precisely because it covers so much in so little.

Normally this sort of thing drives me nuts. I want to get to know the protagonist. I want to experience what she experiences. I guess I would say the biggest flaw with this book is that it does an ample amount of telling, not showing.

There is so much material this lovely author has to work with, from her privileged upbringing and associations with people like Albert Schweitzer, to her experiences as an immigrant trying to come to terms with a new culture, that I feel sort of cheated. I want to know so much more!

Yet, at the same time, the book is quite moving and I am not sure how or why this works, but it mostly does.