Background
Lustig, Arnost was born on December 21, 1926 in Prague, Czechoslovakia. Arrived in United States, 1970. Son of Emil Lustig and Terezie Lowy.
Lustig, Arnost was born on December 21, 1926 in Prague, Czechoslovakia. Arrived in United States, 1970. Son of Emil Lustig and Terezie Lowy.
Master of Arts, College Political and Social Science, Prague, 1951, Ing., 1954. D Hebrew Letters (honorary), Spertus College Judaica, 1986. Arab-Iraeli correspondent Radio Prague, 1948-1949.
Correspondent, Czechoslovak Radio, 1950-1968. Screenwriter Barrandov Film Studies, Prague, 1960-1968. Writer Kibutz Hachotrim, Israel, 1968-1969.
Screenwriter Jadran Film Studio, Zagreb, 1969-1970. Member international writers program U. Iowa, Iowa City, 1970-1971, visiting lecturer English, 1971-1972. Visiting Professor of English, Drake U., Des Moines, 1972-1973.
Professor literature and film Am.U., Washington, since 1973. Head Czechoslovak film delegate San Sebastian Film Festival, 1968. Member jury Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, 1968, International Neustad Prize, 1981.
Lecturer in field.
As a Jewish boy in Czechoslovakia during World War II, he was sent in 1942 to the Theresienstadt concentration camp, from where he was later transported to the Auschwitz concentration camp, followed by time in the Buchenwald concentration camp. In 1945, he escaped from a train carrying him to the Dachau concentration camp when the engine was destroyed by an American fighter-bomber. He returned to Prague in time to take part in the May 1945 anti-Nazi uprising.
He was one of the major critics of the Communist regime in June 1967 at the 4th Writers Conference, and gave up his membership in the Communist Party after the 1967 Middle East war, to protest his government's breaking of relations with Israel. However, following the Soviet-led invasion that ended the Prague Spring in 1968, he left the country, first to Yugoslavia, then Israel and later in 1970 to the United States. He spent the academic year 1970-1971 as a scholar in the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa.
After his retirement from the American University in 2003, he became a full-time resident of Prague. He was given an apartment in the Prague Castle by then President Václav Havel and honored for his contributions to Czech culture on his 80th birthday in 2006. Lustig was married to the former Věra Weislitzová (1927), daughter of a furniture maker from Ostrava who was also imprisoned in the Terezín concentration camp.
She wrote of her family's fate during the Holocaust in the collection of poems entitled "Daughter of Olga and Leo." They have two children, Josef (1951) and Eva (1956). Lustig died at age 84 in Prague on 26 February 2011 after suffering from Hodgkin lymphoma for five years. Dita Saxová and Night and Hope have been filmed in Czechoslovakia.
In 2008, Lustig became the eighth recipient of the Franz Kafka Prize, and the third recipient of the Karel Čapek Prize in 1996. His most renowned books are A Prayer For Katerina Horowitzowa (published and nominated for a National Book Award in 1974), Dita Saxová (1962, trans 1979 as Dita Saxova), Night and Hope (1957, trans 1985), and Lovely Green Eyes (2004).
( For the first time, Arnošt Lustig's short story collect...)
( The stories in this collection take place in the Nazi c...)
( In these three novellas, Arnost Lustig explores the exi...)
( Dita Saxova is an eighteen-year-old concentration camp ...)
( Winner of the National Jewish Book Award for Fiction P...)
(Book by Lustig, Arnost)
(Book by Lustig, Arnost)
After the fall of eastern European communism in 1989, he divided his time between Prague and Washington, D.C., where he continued to teach at the American University.
Honorary president Franz Kaflad Society, Prague. Member of Poets, Playwrights, Editors, Essayists and Novelists association (international chapter, Karel Capek award 1996), Authors League America, Authors Guild, Film Club (Karel Capek Literary award 1996).
Married Vera Weislitz Lustig, July 24, 1949. Children: Josef, Eva.
