Černá paměť stromu – Čivrný Lumír (2015)

Rudy, a Jewish doctor from Prague, escapes from a transport and flees across the Ukrainian-Polish border into Hungary, where he is once again captured by the Gestapo, until the end of the war and the liberation of the camp by the American army saves him from certain death in the concentration camp to which he is taken. The inspiration for this dramatic fate was the true story of one of the author's friends. However, The Black Memory of the Tree does not want to be merely a historical record or just a thrilling narrative. Its focus is on Rudy's continuous inner dialogue with himself and with his loved ones, from whom he has been separated by the events of war. Although Rudy's story is firmly set in the period associated with the word Holocaust, The Black Memory of the Tree is not (just) "about the Holocaust." It is a timeless novel about the meaning of human existence, about freedom, about its price, about hope, but also about courage, about love, about responsibility... Lumír Čivrný, whose 100th anniversary of birth we will commemorate this August, portrayed Rudy's fate and personality with a rich poetic language that draws the reader into the narrative and the author's reflections.