In this powerful and moving memoir, Kovaly describes her imprisonment by the Nazis during WWII and her persecution by the Communists in the 1950s - a classic account of life under totalitarianism.

The oral history of a renowned Czech writer, whose optimism and faith in people survived grueling experiences under authoritarian regimes. Heda Margolius Kovály (1919-2010) was a renowned Czech writer and translator born to Jewish parents. Her bestselling memoir, Under a Cruel Star: A Life in Prague, 1941-1968 has been translated into more than a dozen languages. Her crime novel Innocence; or, Murder on Steep Street --based on her own experiences living under Stalinist oppression--was named an NPR Best Book in 2015. In the tradition of Studs Terkel, Hitler, Stalin and I is based on interviews between Kovály and award-winning filmmaker Helena Trestíková. In it, Kovály recounts her family history in Czechoslovakia, starving in the deprivations of Lodz Ghetto, how she miraculously left Auschwitz, fled from a death march, failed to find sanctuary amongst former friends in Prague as a concentration camp escapee, and participated in the liberation of Prague. Later under Communist rule, she suffered extreme social isolation as a pariah after her first husband Rudolf Margolius was unjustly accused in the infamous Slánsky Trial and executed for treason. Remarkably, Kovály, exiled in the United States after the Warsaw Pact invasion in 1968, only had love for her country and continued to believe in its people. She returned to Prague in 1996. Heda had an enormous talent for expressing herself. She spoke with precision and was descriptive and witty in places. I admired her attitude and composure, even after she had such extremely difficult experiences. Nazism and Communism afflicted Heda's life directly with maximum intensity. Nevertheless, she remained an optimist. Helena Trestíková has made over fifty documentary films. Hitler, Stalin and I has garnered several awards in the Czech Republic and Japan.

Zdenka Fantlova's peaceful life was changed forever when she was sent to Terezin concentration camp. Here she was given a humble engraved tin ring by her first love Arno. When he gave her the ring he said, "That's for our engagement. And to keep you safe. If we are both alive when the war ends I will find you." Arno was sent East on a penal transport later that same day. Zdenka survived six concentration camps including Auschwitz, Gross Rosen, Mauthausen and Belsen - the worst of all - risking her life for the tin ring. In the last chaotic days of the war in Belsen she crawled to a Red Cross post. There she was saved by an unknown British soldier to whom the book is dedicated. A unique and incredible story of love, human endurance and will power.

The life story of a Holocaust survivor: his prewar childhood in Czechoslovakia, his experiences in 8 Nazi concentration camps, his liberation and emigration to the USA, and his career as a General Motors engineer, a Christian minister, and a consummate teacher. For Walter Ziffer, who today considers himself a Jewish secular humanist, life has always been a search for meaning. His compelling and insightful memoir distills the experiences of a remarkable man.

"To me, hard times are like hide-and-seek: where is the solution, where is the hope? We can never give up looking for these things because they are just waiting to be found." Gidon Lev, an 89-year-old Holocaust survivor, has lived an extraordinary life. At the age of six, he was imprisoned in the concentration camp of Theresienstadt. Liberated when he was ten, he lost at least 26 members of his family, including his father and grandfather. But Gidon's life is extraordinary not only because he is one of the few living survivors remaining but because of his lessons learned over nearly a century. His enduring message is of hope and opportunity - to make things better. By sharing his timeless simple belief and truths, Gidon reminds us that we have the power to incrementally improve what is in front of us and leave something better behind us. His life is a lesson of how to do it, even in the face of astonishing adversity, and Let's Make Things Better is the calling card of an indomitable spirit. 'By sharing his inspiring life story, Holocaust survivor Gidon Lev reminds us that the human spirit is larger than even the most severe and unjust trauma. Through one of history's darkest nights, he preserved his brightness and warmth ' - David Von Drehle, author of the New York Times bestseller The Book of Charlie

At the age of twelve, Weinberg lost everything: hope, home, and even his own identity. In 1938 his father travelled to England, hoping to arrange for his family to emigrate there. His efforts came too late, and his wife and children fell into the hands of the Fascist occupiers. Over the following years, Felix survived five concentration camps, including Terezín, Auschwitz and Birkenau, as well as the Death March from Blechhammer in 1945. An extraordinary meditation on the nature of memory.

Czech writer Ivan Klima masterfully recounts, first, what it was like for him as a Jewish child confronting with his family the inhumanities of the Theresienstadt concentration camp situated at the edge of their hometown, Prague. Then, more fully, he painstakingly recalls what it was like for him and his countrymen after the Nazi thugs were driven out by the Soviet Army and replaced for four decades by the Communist thugs. Includes an appendix of essays on topics ranging from social history and political thinking to love and liberty.