“a medieval madhouse”
At the start the narrator informs the reader that the Jewish population of Prague began facing mandatory deportation in 1941. First stop on the schedule was the Exposition Hall with instructions to show up only with food to last a few days and clothing essentials. The result was a situation and circumstance worthy of comparison to an insane asylum.
Communism
After surviving the horrors of Nazi occupation and war, the narrator enjoys only the briefest respite of relief before the Soviet invasion seems to reset everything right back to where it was. She describes the insidiousness of Soviet-style communism occupation which relied upon not just physical force, but psychological coercion:
“Communism was the eternal ideal of humanity, we could not doubt the ideal, only ourselves.”
The Old Woman
The narrator shares a story about her and an old woman disguising themselves as Red Cross nurses to help with a weapons heist being conducted right under the nose of the Nazis by members of the resistance. The story climaxes with coming face to face with the business end of a military rifle held by a surprised young German soldier. It is the old woman’s coolness under fire that prompts the narrator’s metaphorically rich appreciation:
“I shall always remember that woman with love. If courage is the capacity to conquer one’s fear, she was the most courageous person I have ever met.”
Darkness
Darkness probably became the signature metaphor of 20th century literature sometime during World War II. It had already seeped deeply into the strain of writing by then, but the horrors witnessed by soldiers and survivors was a thing of darkness rarely experienced by anyone on the planet for centuries:
“What I remember most vividly from this period following the coup is a feeling of bewilderment, of groping in the dark that was doubly oppressive because the darkness was not only outside but inside me as well.”
The Consequences
The consequences of war linger long after the last soldier is removed from the bloody battlefield. The author sees this first-hand for the first time when first aid stations result in widespread agreement with a doctor who argues “Take care of the Czechs and let the Germans go to hell.”
“That was my first frightening glimpse of the devastation, the deep corrosion that the war had inflicted upon us. It had divided people like the slash of a knife, and that wound would take a long time to heal.”
