Kouzelník z Osvětimi – dos Santos José Rodrigues (2021)

The novel, based on a true story, begins in the spring of 1939 when German soldiers marched into Prague and the former Czechoslovakia transformed into the so-called Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. Its main hero, Herbert Levin, known in the world as the "Magician of Auschwitz," was born in Germany and worked as the youngest member of the Berlin stock exchange until the rise of Nazism. When the Nazis banned Jews from working at the stock exchange, Levin embarked on a career in magic. After emigrating to Czechoslovakia, he opened a magic shop in Prague and, after some time, began performing magic shows with his wife under the stage name "The Great Nivelli." His magic career was promising and his fame grew, even among the Nazis, who were obsessed with anything even remotely related to magic and the occult. However, even "The Great Nivelli" could not escape the fate of other Jews, and in 1941 he was deported along with his wife and son to Terezín. The following year, they were sent to Auschwitz... It is precisely about what he experienced in the camps and the role his magical skills played that the gripping novel "The Magician of Auschwitz" tells. Alongside the fate of the Jewish magician, the author develops the story of Portuguese soldier Francisco Latina, who fights in the ranks...