R.I.P. Heda Margolius Kovály

[jesse_the_k]

begin quote When filling out a form for the Ministry of Justice that asked [the deceased woman] to report any losses inflicted by her husband’s arrest and execution, Ms. Kovaly drew up a list that included “loss of honor,” “loss of health” and “loss of faith in the Party and in justice.” Only at the end of her 10-item list did she write “loss of property.”

“I carry the past inside me like an accordion, like a book of picture postcards that people bring home as souvenirs from foreign cities, small and neat,” she wrote in her memoir. “But all it takes is to lift one corner of the top card for an endless snake to escape, zigzag joined to zigzag, the sign of the viper, and instantly all the pictures line up before my eyes.” quote ends

Hida Kovaly was a Czech woman of letters, who translated the "great men" of the 20th century from English and German into her native tongue. She lived through her country's occupation and destruction by two totalitatian regimes, and died there free.

A unauthorized scanned reproduction of a CPJ rave review essay by a U.S. think-tanker meditates on the importance of understanding the delicious appeal and the ultimate weakness of totalitarianisms, which we may think we already understand. But could it hurt to learn more? Significant portions of that same article are in text in this blog post. There's a typically detailed and footnoted review from the wonders that is the H- lists (in this case founding mama H-NET)

While I want to steer a course away from an unthinking elder-worship, most people who have survived that long have learned many things worth learning. (While having had an exceptionally strong body & mind as well access to food and travel at crucial times.) There are literally uncountable millions of 90-yr-olds whose wisdom we'll never hear from the short and brutal 20th Century.