Arnošt Lustig, R.I.P.

For the original version of this obituary in Czech, click here. It's from Mladá fronta Dnes. For the translation (sorry if it's inaccurate, I was in a hurry to publish it), just keep reading. I'll almost certainly have more thoughts on this later.



After a long fight with a malignant illness, author Lustig has died.

At the age of 84 Arnošt Lustig died the morning of the 26th in Prague; he was a journalist and author of books about the Holocaust, which he survived as a young man. For five years he battled a difficult illness.

When doctors told him that he had blood cancer, he might live to be around 80. But Arnošt Lustig didn't give the fight.

"I know well that cancer's a bitch, [Jiří] Dienstbier died two Saturdays ago, dying more and more, nobody knows what the tumor will do.... But I hope that I'll get better, I've got great doctors, like Dr. Kozák, he's a genius. I've gotten over everything in life so far, now I'll get over cancer too," he said in Magazín MF DNES in January.

That and his words speak for themselves, how the time of illness is hard. "This illness is stupid -- I take four steps and I have to lie down. I'm weak as a fly without wings, who wants to run around."

Arnošt Lustig succumbed to cancer. "He survived the concentration camps, but he didn't survive a malignant illness, which he fought for 5 years...." commented Markéta Mališová, the director of the Franz Kafka Society. Lustig was the honorary chairman of the board of the Society, and the Society's publishing house published many of his books.

The news also struck former President and playwright Václav Havel. "With a heavy heart I received the news of Arnošt's death. However, he is now free of his suffering and pain. I think of him, and of his characteristic smile and bottomless optimism.

"His optimism was beautifully contagious, and his will and vitality was always an encouragement. The Jewish community must hold dear to his spirit," said the head of the Jewish Community of Prague František Bányai.

According to Mališová, the writer had big plans to wire some books, visit Milan Kundera in Paris, go to Washington for a juicy lamb chop, and lead a discussion at a univeristy in Quebec.

Never Believed He Was a Great Writer

Arnošt Lustig was born in Prague on December 21, 1926. As a teenager have was sent to the ghetto in Theresienstadt and the concentration camps Auschwitz and Buchenwald.

His experiences from those times formed the focus of his work. two collection of narratives, Night and Hope (1957) and Diamonds of the Night (1958) debuted thereafter. Zdeněk Brynych made the film "Transport z ráje" [Transport from Paradise] from the first; Jan Němec's "Tma nemá stín" [Darkness Casts no Shadow] was from a piece in Diamonds of the Night.

Lustig's literary stories demonstrated the internal strength of man; this strength allows man to face humiliation and hold on to human dignity even in situations of horrible threats. Among his most famous works, the books Dita Saxová and Modlitba pro Kateřinu Horowitzovou [A Prayer for Kateřina Horowitzová] deal with this theme.

After the war, he studied journalism and and worked for various dailies and broadcasters; among other things, he covered the Israel-Arab War. Later, he became a reporter and director for Czechoslovak Broadcasting, the editor of the weekly Mladý svět [Young World], and was a scriptwriter at Barrandov Studios in Prague. In 1968 Lustig emigrated. He briefly lived in Israel, then in Yugoslavia, and in 1970 moved to the USA. He regularly returned to Czech Republic in the last 20 years.

"He felt at home everywhere, but in Prague the most," explained Mališová, noting that he loved life and lived it to the fullest to the very end. He never believed that he was a good writer. He was unconvinced by his many prizes, such as the the Lifetime Achievement Prize from the American Academy of Art and Fiction, the Franz Kafka Prize, and many others. He said it for 50 years," reminisced Mališová.

Lustig was nominated 14 times for the International Man Booker Prize, the international equivalent of the famed British literary awrd. In 2008 he was also awarded the Franz Kafka International Literary Award.