Nikdo nás nečekal – Hošková-Weissová Helga (2020)

An exceptional life story of the author of the bestseller Diary 1938–1945. The autobiography of academic painter and Holocaust survivor Helga Hošková-Weissová is truly fascinating reading. She recalls her idyllic childhood in pre-war Prague, her parents, grandparents, and extended family. She tells the stories of those who never returned from Nazi camps and death marches, who, like her father, perished in unknown places. She only touches on the war itself, having recounted her entire story in the book Diary 1938–1945, which has been translated into many world languages and has become part of history textbooks. The second part of the book is crucial for our understanding of the post-war fates of survivors. Ms. Hošková-Weissová returns to the period of return. To post-war Prague, where no one was waiting for her and her mother. She writes about the people who helped them, but also about those who turned their backs on them. She describes the atmosphere in post-war Czechoslovakia, the astonishment of neighbors at their return, and the misunderstanding of their story, what they went through. She guides the reader through her post-war life, studying at two secondary schools and a university, reminiscing about her ideals and her efforts to integrate fully into a society that rejects her. After overcoming the greatest difficulties, however…