One way of looking at this novel would be to allow Heda's point of view to take on a kind of martyrdom. Why shouldn't it? She was a survivor of the Holocaust, from Prague, to the ghetto, to Auschwitz, the most infamous and cruel Nazi Death Camp. After those literally unfathomable sufferings, she marries and tries to re-establish herself, but her husband is taken away from her. She is a good witness for the horrors of 20th century Europe, because her opinion is influenced by many of the most important parts of those historic moments, so Under a Cruel Star is an opportunity for the reader to reinterpret their historical understanding of WWII through a subjective lens.
As a point of view, Heda is easy to sympathize with, and when her husband dies in the Slansky trials, it is clear that injustice has struck again. Not only was Heda the most direct kind of victim to the Holocaust, she is also made to suffer the fate of a traitor, just because her husband's political views were liberal. Having a liberal, progressive opinion during times of war can be overwhelmingly negative, because like this book illustrates, people panic in times of stress, and fear brings out the conservative nature of people. Heda's only sin was picking a husband who still had dreams for Utopia. He wasn't a Nazi, but he died a dishonorable death as if her were.
This means that Heda's point of view contains two different kinds of injustice—the social injustice and instability that led to the wars in the first place, and the horrors of the Holocaust and the Nazi attempt to conquer Europe. For Kovaly and her family, the Holocaust is horror come true, like a nightmare that she had to endure, and in the aftermath, was she allowed to heal and recover? No, because her state was still unstable. She only really finds her peace when she starts to see Prague flourishing later in her life, because she finds hope in the restoration of her community.
